Best Conference? Breakdown of Each Game This Weekend

On Friday, Conference USA was established as the best of the “other five” conferences. Saturday the pecking order of the big five will be determined by if Wisconsin can upset LSU and/or Clemson can upset Georgia to challenge the long-reign of the SEC, while the Big 12 would like to follow-up on Oklahoma’s thrashing of Alabama in the Sugar Bowl with an Oklahoma State upset of defending champ Florida State. 

Below are the rankings of the 10 FBS conferences through the weekday games based on the system explained here, with a table at the end showing all game times and winning margins to date in conference clashes.

1. Big Ten +22 (1-0) – Michigan State’s impressive 45-7 win does not count, an upset by Wisconsin (of LSU) or Penn State (of Central Florida) would help.
2. Conference USA +21 (2-0) – UTSA beat Houston and Western Kentucky upset Bowling Green – both by 20 points or more for a phenomenal 2-0 start.
3. Pac-12 +9 (1-2) – Arizona’s impressive blowout of UNLV made up for a second narrow loss to put the Pac-12 in positive territory.
4. Sun Belt +7 (1-0) – No games Friday, Troy should win against UAB while Georgia Southern would be a longshot to upset NC State.
5. Big 12 No Rating (0-0) – The first weekend is all about the chance for Oklahoma State to upset Florida State – all four other games look like forgone conclusions.
6. American -1 (1-2) – Both Houston (vs. UTSA) and UConn (vs. BYU) were crushed Friday to undo Thursday’s excitement from Temple’s update.
7. SEC -6 (1-1) – Wins by Georgia (vs. Clemson) and LSU (vs. Wisconsin) are slight favorites a win by both would establish the SEC as dominant again, while a loss by both would be an indicator things are much more balanced in the first season of the 4-team playoff.
8. ACC -7 (0-1) – If Florida State holds of Top 10 opponent Oklahoma State, the key would be a slight upset by Clemson over Georgia to show the conference is more than one team.
9. Mountain West -19 (1-2) – Colorado State pulled a nice upset over in-state rival Colorado, but the conference still dropped with UNLV getting demolished by Arizona.
10. Mid-American -47 (0-1) – Things look bleak as their one favorite – Bowling Green – was demolished and none of their three teams in action Saturday have even a 20% chance of winning.

The number to the left of each team either notes the scoring margin (e.g. Connecticut’s -25 means a 25-point loss to BYU) or the start time of their game. If a number appears in the far right, it indicates the conference rating for that team’s performance based on the system explained here.

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