2010 Week 12 College Football Ratings and Rankings; Oregon #1, Stanford #2, Boise St #3, TCU #4, Auburn #5

With the top-3 teams in the BCS not playing this week, it was all about jockeying for position behind them.  Most teams held serve, but there are a few changes in the ratings and rankings.

The top-6 teams stay the same in the rankings, but Boise State draws closer to Stanford for #2 and they both extend their margin over TCU.  Auburn and Alabama remain in a virtual tie, the winner next week having a chance to move up, but there is a pretty big margin to get to #2.

The changes begin at #7 with Ohio State moving up a spot swapping places with Arkansas.  And strangely (but see below), Nebraska moves up a spot despite their win dropping Oklahoma State to #10.  Wisconsin and Oklahoma are making late season bids for respect, although my computer says Ohio State is better than Wisconsin, and OU/OSU this week should be a very good game.

How, you ask did Nebraska move up even with the loss?  There are two factors.  First, my computer predicted them to lose, picking Texas A&M by 1 since the game was at College Station.  They lost by 3, pretty darn close to the prediction, so they are not penalized for having a result very close to what was supposed to happen.  But more importantly, a bunch of prior opponents had good weeks.  Washington had a big win and moved up, Missouri won by more than expected, Oklahoma State won big, Texas won big, and Idaho won big as well.  The combination of playing pretty much as expected and prior opponents improving results in a slightly improved rating and moving up a spot.  Weird, but that is the way an unbiased system works.

Despite picking the Texas A&M upset, the computer had a poor week going 23-27-1.  But after 5 consecutive winning weeks, it was bound to happen.  See the prediction performance for more details.

Here is the top-30.  See the web-site for the full list.

Rank	Team	Rating	Record	Schedule	Change
Rank	Team	Rating	Record	Schedule	Change
1	Oregon	91.224	10-0	68.559	+0, +0.596
2	Stanford	86.209	10-1	72.371	+0, +2.086
3	Boise St	85.909	10-0	64.274	+0, +2.347
4	TCU	84.681	11-0	63.878	+0, +1.157
5	Auburn	82.811	11-0	67.609	+0, +0.618
6	Alabama	82.618	9-2	67.356	+0, +0.700
7	Ohio State	81.820	10-1	65.429	+1, +1.741
8	Arkansas	81.396	9-2	68.542	-1, +1.279
9	Nebraska	80.599	9-2	67.920	+1, +1.070
10	Oklahoma St	80.578	10-1	66.612	-1, +0.909
11	Wisconsin	79.863	10-1	64.180	+3, +2.152
12	Oklahoma	79.709	9-2	69.554	+7, +2.804
13	Missouri	79.543	9-2	69.526	+2, +1.988
14	South Carolina	79.472	8-3	69.324	-2, +0.942
15	Texas A&M	79.132	8-3	70.226	+1, +1.593
16	Virginia Tech	79.030	9-2	65.925	+2, +1.974
17	LSU	77.810	10-1	67.511	-4, -0.383
18	Arizona	77.508	7-3	69.787	+2, +0.880
19	Iowa	77.497	7-4	66.779	-2, +0.413
20	Southern Cal	76.878	7-4	74.184	-9, -1.689
21	Nevada	76.696	10-1	60.738	+0, +0.310
22	Arizona St	76.587	4-6	72.864	+1, +1.050
23	Michigan St	75.803	10-1	64.452	-1, +0.045
24	Oregon St	75.788	5-5	74.465	+7, +3.165
25	Florida St	75.474	8-3	66.747	+1, +1.553
26	California	75.118	5-6	73.992	-1, -0.086
27	Florida	74.941	7-4	68.920	+0, +1.110
28	Miami FL	74.181	7-4	68.508	-4, -1.054
29	North Carolina St	74.174	8-3	65.537	-1, +0.826
30	Georgia	73.866	5-6	67.992	+0, +0.939