Rice rolled up 608 yards of total offense Saturday, including 499 yards rushing, and lost the game. The Owls rushed the ball 53 times for 499 yards, giving them a solid 9.4 yards per carry.

Owls QB Gael Ochoa rushed 12 times for 259 yards and 4 TDs. Ochoa also had a 71 yd TD pass.

Special teams was the culprit for Rice, they gave up a blocked punt for a safety and a punt return for a touchdown. Those 9 points mattered in a 2 point loss.

Rice also holds the NCAA I-A record for most rushing yards ever in a loss, rushing for 570 yards in a 70-63 loss to San Jose State in 2004. Rice gave up a punt return touchdown in that loss, too.

If I had a nickel for every time Rice rushed for over 490 yards in a game and still lost because of a punt return for a touchdown, I'd have two nickels, which isn't a lot, but it's still funny it happened twice.

The main reason I'm posting this is because deep down I'm a college football fan first and foremost. If we're being honest with ourselves, it hasnt felt right without Matt Rhule in Waco. Its gone all topsy turvy; Indiana won a natty, Kentucky is winning games, Bama isnt dominating... Maybe its for the greater good if he goes back.

In all seriousness, the guy was very successful there, hes WAY cheaper than Lincoln Riley (pipe dream unless USC fires him) and a safer bet than guys like Kinne imo. Baylor theres only one man who can get you back to 11 wins and his name is Matt Rhule! And for being such gracious sports I'll even drive him down myself.

I'm u/rhuleaid and I support this message. (This post was sponsored by the Matt Rhule for Baylor commission)

The main reason I'm posting this is partially because of how annoyed I get that the USC football sub only ever gets active when we're terrible. It's never people ever saying anything positive when we're good and I just see a bunch of people whining when things go bad. And it's almost always people who have never posted there before. This applies to other parts of the USC fandom where I see people think we can instantly become Indiana (which I grew up a fan of, I have seen actual terrible football for most of my life) which is a strike of lightning and not a standard occurrence. What needs to happen is for people to be patient after our past four long-term coaches decided to nuke our program into the radiated Chernobyl it is today

No doubt this might get deleted as a shitpost by the mods but I am being 100% sincere in what I say here. I am posting this because of just how many stupid comments I see from other USC fans about, "Let's fire Riley and hire Cignetti because no one can resist USC" as if we haven't done that exact song and dance 1000 times in the past few coaching hires. We will just be in the same ditch and keep hiring horrible coaches over and over again until we turn into pre-Stein Kentucky

Prior to Lincoln Riley in the post-Carroll era, our coaches were the following:

• Lane Kiffin: He was clearly over his head at USC and was so much of an unpleasant person that he was fired on the tarmac and coined the phrase

• Ed Orgeron: I actually wanted USC to hire Coach O after Kiffin got fired but the literal unironic statement was that "he was not sexy enough for the USC job" and hence we let him go. He might have been a disaster but he could have set the culture since players were crying when they heard he wasn't being retained

• Clay Helton 1: A prelude to the horror movie that was Helton's longer tenure but he was interim at this time and did about what you'd expect after Orgeron resigned because he was rightfully upset he didn't get the head coaching job

• Steve Sarkisian: He was a heavy alcoholic for much of his time here and got fired for being hammered at a booster's meeting. Not much else to say about this, I'm just happy he got his demons in the past now and his main issues are purely football related

• Clay Helton II: Where do I start with this? Aside from inheriting Sarkisian's recruits, he basically drove a black hole right into the middle of USC's football program. He somehow lucked into Darnold and Sarkisian's other recruits carrying his inept coaching to a Rose Bowl (which might I add that we only got into because Washington was invited to the CFP and there was an open spot). We won because Trace McSorely decided to throw an interception to USC for a game winning field goal. Aside from all that, he had incredibly bizarre practices (including one where he forced all his players to say, "EVERYONE WANTS TO BE US" while doing sprints), kissed up to admin (gifting a game ball to Pat Haden instead of his players), and I don't know what else this Mr. Potato Head lookalike did but I will credit him with being at least a good person and setting a culture of acting like normal people

• Donte Williams: The man literally did not want to be head coach and was basically forced to take the interim job. He actually stuck around for the first bit of Riley's career here but is hopefully doing much better at Georgia but is clearly someone who knows he's not a head coach

• Lincoln Riley: For all his humps, Riley instantly revived USC's program in large part due to Caleb Williams. Alex Grinch was definitely a major sore spot with how horrible the defense was but he actually made USC games exciting again. Add a Heisman and explosive offense and this is the first time that USC's playing actually seemed somewhat functional. Defense is still a major issue and the Wisconsin game is arguably one of his worst losses in his career but at the very least, this is the first time in over 12 years that I can identify a single major point that is a flaw (albeit a massive one). Riley is the first normal coach we've had whose issues have been purely football related and for whatever it's worth, I think he can be credited with actually being forced to build a program that Helton and everyone before him had a hand in destroying. It's not easy and some fans have some delusions we're still in the Carroll era before the NCAA and Miami-led Paul Dee decided to screw us over because he was bitter that we're actually seeing some semblance of a program. There's a reason we gave Riley a long contract and all financial realities of the university aside, I still have faith in Riley to develop USC into a truly good program sometime. Some of you people are just way too impatient because I have seen garbage for a long time and this is the best we've had in a long time

TLDR: Stop being impatient about wanting instant gratification about stuff. We've just had the best recruiting class in a long time since we got screwed by not being able to use NIL and most of our best players are freshmen. They need time to develop and it will pay off eventually. This season sucks and we're probably not making the playoffs but at least I can see tangible improvements like the defense compared to previous years and Riley not overly leaning on QBs

Usually they are about 4-5 and some years even more consensus good teams that everybody agrees are legit. This year that is clearly not the case. The closest we have is Georgia which lost to an unranked Auburn team and a Miami team that is winning in a bad conference and could have lost to florida state had the ACC ref crew not stepped in. The SEC is a hot mess where I could make arguments for Kentucky, Alabama, Gerogia, Florida, Texas, and Ole miss being the best team and it would not even be a stretch. The usual contenders in the big ten are all having down years and with Ohio state losing Sayin their season might be over. Indiana has no offense and Notre dame should theoretically be in prime position to take advantage of everyone else sucking but in typical Notre dame fashion They crumble to anyone with a pulse and lost to BYU.

Im kind of interested in what team people think is the best currently (This does not mean have the best record/resume but is the best) Or what team can turn it on and beat anybody (Florida is an example).

It's the most spooktacular time of the year, and underperforming USC head coach Lincoln Riley has plenty of danger to worry about. After going 7-6 in 2024 and 9-5 in 2025, Lincoln Riley is now 5-2 in 2026 and fresh off a loss to Luke Fickell's Wisconsin T.E.A.M. This Halloween, USC is facing Ohio State, and to state the obvious, Ohio State will be highly favored to win. If Lincoln Riley is 5-3 before the clock strikes midnight on All Hallows Eve, does Lincoln Riley need to be afraid of tarmacs?

(Okay. It's a home game. So that's a plot hole in this setup. But their next game is November 14th at Indiana, at which point Riley could easily be 5-4, and be needing to walk across a tarmac to get to his flight home.)

FCS Imperialism continues!

This year's FCS has been fascinating to watch develop. In a comment below I will share the progression from starting positions until today.

🗺️ FCS IMPERIALISM MAP AFTER WEEK 8 🗺️

Notes from Week 8:

• #3 Montana State (7-1) recaptured the lands it lost in the crazy upset to Idaho several weeks ago; that land ended up with #22 Weber State, who held it in escrow until the Bobcats reclaimed it this past weekend.

• The PFL's early season luck means lots of land in the west keeps going in between the non-scholarship teams: This time Valparaiso (4-4), the Lutheran school that sounds like it's Catholic, is now in possession of the conference's consolidated holdings after punking Presbyterian. The other PFL exchange saw Dayton (6-1) take land held by San Diego.

• #8 South Dakota (7-2) beat rival #6 North Dakota (which used to be for the Sitting Bull Trophy), so the Yotes now have land nestled around #4 Youngstown State's territories.

• #2 Stephen F. Austin (8-0) ended #23 Southeastern's little moment in the sun and gained a big swath of Texas. Texas Tech may have lost but SFA and Tarleton State are the two remaining undefeated Texas schools with logos placed on outlines of the state in which they reside, purple power!.

• Charleston Southern (4-4) back on the map after knocking off Tennessee State.

• Ivy League Consolidations: #15 Harvard (6-0) grew at Princeton's expense; in the Ivy undercards, Brown (3-3) took out fellow mid Cornell.

• Two changes in the D2 teams on the FCS map:

  • D2 #1 Ferris State (7–0) beat #12 Michigan Tech, 27-20, to take the territory that initially began with the brand-new football program at Chicago State (who lost it in their program debut against D2 Roosevelt).
  • D2 Wheeling (4-4) defeated Frostburg State to take the land that was Davidson's (originally lost to Concord in Week 0).
  • D2 #6 Western Colorado (8-0) keeps rolling, crushing Black Hills State, 42-10, and keeping the land Drake initially lost to South Dakota Mines in Week 0.
  • D2 #22 East Stroudsburg (7-1) continues to surge, holding onto Morehead State's land (originally lost it to Ohio Dominican in Week 0), with another dominating victory, this time 31-7 over Shepherd .

• That wasn't every change, there are more if you want to dive into the week-by-week comparisons in the comments.

RULES:

Think of Risk with a strong understanding of chain-of-possession:

• FCS teams start by dividing the USA by closest counties/parishes. These are set by geographic centers of each county, not the closest edge.

• When a team beats another team, it takes the territory the loser held at the time of the game. All of the land(s) possessed by the losing team go to the winner.

• Lands are collected by the winner and held until that team loses, thus all those collected lands go to the winner.

• Teams that lose land can get back on the map by beating a team that holds land at the time of their game. Sometimes teams can reconquer their home territory this way.

• A team that already lost its home territory and has no new territories cannot give land to a winner.

• IMPORANT DIFFERENCE FROM FBS MAP: The FBS teams cannot win their way onto the FCS map (otherwise the early weeks would just wreck the map), but lower division teams (D2, NAIA, D3) can conquer their way onto the map by beating FCS teams with land. These lands operate under the above rules and thus may just end up stuck in lower divisions for the rest of the season (and in many cases end up in their respective playoffs). In the past, mostly thanks to the Pioneer Football League, we have seen FCS lands end up in D3 (including just last year when Adrian upset Valparaiso.

I expanded today's AP Poll to 30, including top 5 teams outside of top 25.

Saturday, Nov. 7

• No. 1 Miami at No. 5 Notre Dame
• No. 3 Georgia at No. 12 Ole Miss
• No. 8 BYU at No. 6 Utah
• No. 10 Alabama at No. 15 LSU
• No. 9 Kentucky at No. 16 Tennessee
• No. 11 Texas at No. 23 Missouri
• No. 26 Iowa at T-20 Northwestern
• No. 28 Cincinnati at No. 18 Houston

Saturday, Nov. 14

• T-20 Northwestern at No. 2 Ohio State
• No. 23 Missouri at No. 3 Georgia
• No. 17 Florida at No. 9 Kentucky
• No. 11 Texas at No. 15 LSU
• No. 6 Utah at No. 22 Arizona
• No. 13 Texas Tech at No. 24 Oklahoma State
• No. 14 Wake Forest at No. 19 SMU
• No. 29 Oregon State at T-20 Boise State

Gone are the days of the buzzsaw super teams or even the times when it looked like only 4-5 teams could really compete for a championship. This year has really shown that the difference between the top and middle of the power conferences had been shrinking every year. There are only 3 undefeated teams left, a record low, and they have all looked mortal.

I legitimately think that there are several teams in the 13-24 range that could contend for a national champion in the new format. The parity has made it so way more teams have a legitimate chance at winning it all. The SEC, B12 and and B10 all have multiple teams that could be competitive contenders in a 24 team playoff ( The Acc has a contender too).

The downside is that with the gap among the teams within the P4 conferences narrowing, the gap between the G6 and P4 has gotten much larger which is sad to see. There are plenty of G6 teams that could compete just as good of not better than many p4 teams if they just had access to the money(Memphis, USF, JMU, Boise, Wazzu, Oregon State) and it's easy to see why G6 teams are all in fight for survival mode right now. There may only be one more shot to make the P4 in the future.

All in all I am loving this new era of parity and the death of superteams ( not least because my team benefits lol). I'm very excited for the 24 team playoffs in the coming years.

EXPLANATION

There are seven levels of Jimbo's Inferno:

1. LIMBO - Safe for now, but not everyone is content. Keeping their job outside of a major collapse.
2. RISING - Questions are starting to be asked. Improvement needs to be made, but coach is still safe unless things go way south.
3. CRITICAL - The tenure is at a crossroads. Continued underperformance could put coach's job in danger.
4. HOT - The possibility of a firing has become real. Coach must hit key benchmarks or risk being fired.
5. SCORCHING - The situation has become dire. Something needs to change for coach to keep his job.
6. HELL - Unless a significant turnaround is made, this position will be open at the end of the season.
7. THE VOID - The point of no return. At this point, there is nothing coach can do to save his job. Expect a firing imminently.

There are also a few tags that coaches can have:

• RETIREMENT WATCH [R] - for coaches that are in the tier they are because they could plausibly retire after the season.
• DOLLAR SIGN [$] - for coaches that have such an astronomically-high buyout that could prevent a firing

Jimbo's Inferno takes into account team performance, coach behavior and public image, as well as any public statements made by administrators or credible reports that come out.

AUTHOR'S NOTE

This list has been pretty bad as of recently, at least in my opinion.

Most of the placements of coaches have been impacted more by emotions and overreactions than actual logic and objective facts, and the descriptions of the levels are being completely ignored when evaluating coaches. Like, genuinely why is Shane Beamer in The Void. Why is Steve Sarkisian in Scorching.

In light of this, I decided to re-evaluate every single coach's position in the list, keeping to the actual descriptions of the tiers, and I'm going to do my best going forward to not let emotions cloud good analysis. Everyone has wanted their coach fired at some point so it's always going to be hard to objectively evaluate where coaches stand.

But enough of that. WE HAVE MOVEMENT THAT MUST BE ADDRESSED:

MEAT'S BACK ON THE MENU BOYS

Beyond the inferno lies the realm where fired coaches go: the realm of Jimbo. It can be a difficult adjustment after an extended stay in football hell, but those who enter quickly discover how peaceful and serene it is. Inside the realm of Jimbo lies a large house, with an infinite supply of the most comfortable couches, the most high-quality televisions, the best gameday food and beverages, and the biggest piles of buyout cash a man could ask for.

As these men ascend into this realm of being, they are greeted by a smiling Willie Taggart, who exclaims that he has been waiting for company for months and that there are drinks in the cooler. Maybe being a fired college football coach isn't so bad after all.

• Mike Locksley, Maryland - Once September Maryland was broken by Virginia Tech this was inevitable. How this guy got another head coaching job after his New Mexico tenure and how this guy got the most Rooney Rule-pilled NFL head coach interview of all time will forever make zero sense. Locksley is a terrible head coach, but don't worry because he's also a horrible person too.
• Dave Doeren, NC State - Reject mediocrity. Doeren was a cockroach at NC State. Never good enough to be a serious program, but never bad enough to lose his job. Well, this year I guess he was bad enough to lose his job. Now please hire Philip Rivers. It would be so funny.
• Dave Aranda, Baylor - Flashback to 2021. Aranda looked like the truth. Baylor was the Big 12 Champion. The future looked bright in Waco. Now, in 2026, a famously Baptist institution is firing their head coach on the Lord's Day. Perhaps fitting, considering Aranda will now be able to get all the rest he wants, on a couch next to a pile of cash.

THE LES MILES AWARD

An award (?) given weekly to the coach that puts up the most inexplicable, unimaginable, downright stupid coaching job. It may or may not have cost his team a win, and it may or may not go to someone who isn't anywhere close to the Inferno.

Past winners:

• Week 0: Dave Doeren, NC State
• Week 1: Greg Schiano, Rutgers
• Week 2: Ryan Day, Ohio State
• Week 3: Dave Doeren, NC State
• Week 4: Shane Beamer, South Carolina
• Week 5: Co-winners - Tyson Summers, Colorado State DC & unidentified Colorado staffer
• Week 6: Steve Sarkisian, Texas
• Week 7: Tosh Lupoi, California

This one was easy.

Michigan OC Jason Beck is the winner of this week's Les Miles Award because HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

However, I would also like to address something that happened at the professional level that is so downright disgusting and inexcusable that it deserves it's own special award:

THE WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU AWARD

Ladies and gentlemen, the first "WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU" Award goes to...

The entire Philadelphia Eagles coaching and medical staff, with an extra special "you suck" to Nick Sirianni.

People should be going to prison for this. How on planet Earth was it okay for Jalen Hurts to fly transatlantic to London and back with superficial blood clots (with the clots having probably made it to his lungs by the time of the return trip) and PLAY IN A REAL NFL FOOTBALL GAME with superficial blood clots, but he couldn't sleep the night before the game because they thought he was going to die if he did?

Jalen Hurts should demand a trade, Nick Sirianni should never coach in the NFL again, and the entire medical staff responsible for clearing him should never practice ever again. This is a disgrace.

-=- Tathan's Section is being removed for this week at least because it's mostly just quarterbacks and not worth the time it takes finding a non-QB to put on it -=-

JIMBO'S INFERNO

No graphic this week because I'm working on a new, better, less cluttered one.

Off the list: Luke Fickell, Wisconsin; Lance Leipold; Kansas, Dowell Loggains, Appalachian State

LIMBO

• Mike Elko, Texas A&M [$] - Just find a new quarterback in the portal in the offseason and everything will be okay.
• Kyle Whittingham, Michigan - I think everyone knows it's not his fault. We actually know exactly whose fault it is. And until this week's Les Miles Award is fired, Whittingham will stay on this list.
• Clark Lea, Vanderbilt [$] - Still have yet to prove that you can win without Diego Pavia. Jared Curtis, you have a lot on your shoulders.
• Bill O'Brien, Boston College - Dare I say Boston College doesn't look that bad?
• Bronco Mendenhall, Utah State - Good defense. Not good offense. Maybe consider having a better offense.
• Gerad Parker, Troy - Well, when you lose to Louisiana-Monroe...

RISING

• Ryan Silverfield, Arkansas - All these coaches getting fired, so Arkansas Board of Trustees, you know who should get fired next?
• Bill Belichick, North Carolina - Somehow, someway, Bill Belichick is orchestrating a turnaround in Chapel Hi- aw man they lost in overtime.
• Brent Key, Georgia Tech - Speaking of coaches that haven't yet proven they can win without a star quarterback that has gone on to the NFL... Brent Key, you plan on doing anything in the post-Haynes King era?
• Scott Satterfield, Cincinnati - The sweetest victory. A victory so sweet they might not fire him after this season anymore.
• Charles Kelly, Jacksonville State - Off this week.

CRITICAL

• Steve Sarkisian, Texas [$] - Credit where credit is due, the noise could have gotten deafening but you went out there and silenced it. You still almost blew the lead though. And you still need to hire an actual offensive coordinator. And you still need to fire Pole Assassin's husband.
• Sonny Dykes, TCU - The Revivalry killed Dave Aranda. Don't you know God commands us not to murder?
• Shane Beamer, South Carolina - The decision to place Beamer in The Void after the Alabama loss was not the correct one and that's not even with hindsight. He should have been in Scorching or Hell. My fault. Also my bad for doubting Cocktober.
• Timmy Chang, Hawaii - I don't think Chang is in that much danger of losing his job, but he still needs to provide an explanation as to why they're suddenly so bad this year.
• Dell McGee, Georgia State - Once a dead man walking is now just a threatened man walking.
• Jeff Choate, Nevada - "Lets goooooooooo! ROSE BOWL HERE WE COME!" - u/1nf1niteCS

HOT

• Dabo Swinney, Clemson [$] - I think at this point everyone knows it's over and the only thing keeping Dabo from being fired are the 2 rings he has.
• Jedd Fisch, Washington - You're going to need a little more than just a new QB in the portal, and at this point you might not make it to portal season...
• Clay Helton, Georgia Southern - It's still hilarious that the guy USC thought was a slam dunk hire after firing Helton is below him in the inferno

SCORCHING

• Lincoln Riley, USC [$] - "more like LinkedIn Riley because he's about to be open to work" - Rodger Sherman
• Mike Norvell, Florida State [$] - Managed to survive the Virginia/Louisville/Miami stretch that everyone thought would be the end of him. Now let's see how much longer he gets. 3 more wins probably saves his job.
• Tosh Lupoi, California - you are an idiot 😀
• Fran Brown, Syracuse - WINNERS GET WASHED
• Bryant Vincent, UL Monroe - YOU WON A FOOTBALL GAME. WHAT.
• Jay Sawvel, Wyoming - Sawvel hates the military confirmed.
• Tim Albin, Charlotte - You know, if you got fired this year, I bet you could probably get your job at Ohio back.
• Derek Mason, Middle Tennessee - Absolute peak Tuesday night football.

HELL

• Greg Schiano, Rutgers [$] - Was it ever this bad even in the Chris Ash era?
• Deion Sanders, Colorado [$/R] - You just got Mestemakered. Would not be surprised if Deion "medically retires" at the end of the season.
• Scotty Walden, UTEP - Their last game of the season is against Northern Illinois, so they'll get at least one more win. The real question is if Scotty Walden will even be around by then.

THE VOID

• Phil Longo, Sam Houston State - A few years ago, when my younger brother was in kindergarten, I was the assistant coach for his youth Upward flag football team. Our main responsibility as coaches on the football side of things was to make sure they ran the right way. If you've never watched K-1st football, it's the most fun you'll ever have watching sports and you gotta do it at least once. My point is this: I genuinely believe that I was a more accomplished coach in my two years of coaching (not even head coaching, but assistant coaching) kindergarteners than Phil Longo ever has been while coaching grown men. Phil Longo is a terrorist.

JIMBO

• Mike Locksley, Maryland (10/21)
• Dave Doeren, NC State (10/24)
• Dave Aranda, Baylor (10/25)

CONCLUSION

Good to be done with this early. Hopefully no more coaches get fired tonight and I can get a nap in

Bye now

Yesterday marked the third consecutive season in which the defending national champion played at Michigan Stadium. Those teams have a combined record of 8-2 at Michigan Stadium as the defending champion in the last 3 years.

2024 defending champion: Michigan (6-2)

2025 defending champion: Ohio State (1-0)

2026 defending champion: Indiana (1-0)

If we extrapolate this out and look at Michigan Stadium's schedule games next season, we can narrow the possible national champions down to just seven teams.

Those teams are, in alphabetical order, Buffalo, Eastern Michigan, Illinois, Michigan, Ohio State, Oregon, & Rutgers.

The only question is, will it be Buffalo, Eastern Michigan, or Rutgers?

The Big Ten has more unranked two-loss teams (4) than the three other power conferences combined (3). The Big 12 has more teams in AP Poll (6) than the Big Ten (5) for first time in post-Texas/Oklahoma era.

There is no need to blow a late-October AP Poll out of proportion, but it is interesting to see where Big Ten sits in pecking order midway through this season. In terms of depth, the Big Ten is viewed as neck and neck with the Big 12 and way behind the SEC, which has five more top-20 teams than the Big Ten with eight. Now, the public did take something away from the Big Ten's three sitraight national titles as the conference has more top-8 teams than any other conference with three.

Unranked two-loss power conference teams

Big Ten (4)

• USC (6-2)
• Minnesota (5-2)
• Nebraska (5-2)
• Iowa (5-2)

ACC (2)

• Virginia Tech (6-2)
• Duke (5-2)

Big 12 (1)

• Cincinnati (5-2)

Ranked teams by conference

SEC (9)

• No. 3 Georgia (6-1)
• No. 9 Kentucky (7-1)
• No. 10 Alabama (6-2)
• No. 11 Texas (5-2)
• No. 12 Ole Miss (5-2)
• No. 15 LSU (6-2)
• No. 16 Tennessee (6-2)
• No. 17 Florida (5-2)
• No. 23 Missouri (5-2)

Big 12 (6)

• No. 6 Utah (7-0)
• No. 8 BYU (6-1)
• No. 13 Texas Tech (6-1)
• No. 18 Houston (6-2)
• No. 22 Arizona (6-1)
• No. 24 Oklahoma State (5-2)

Big Ten (5)

• No. 2 Ohio State (6-1)
• No. 4 Indiana (7-1)
• No. 7 UCLA (7-0)
• No. 21 Northwestern (6-1)
• No. 25 Wisconsin (5-2)

ACC (3)

• No. 1 Miami (7-0)
• No. 14 Wake Forest (6-1)
• No. 19 SMU (6-1)

Pac-12 (1)

• No. 20 Boise State (6-1)

Independent (1)

• No. 5 Notre Dame (6-1)

CFB Imperialism continues!

🗺️ FBS IMPERIALISM MAP AFTER WEEK 8 🗺️

Selected notes from Week 8:

• UCF: Beating the undefeated #2 team usually means you're going to take a fair amount of land, and the Knights got lands across the Rocky Mountains and beyond that belonged to BYU.

• Wyoming?! Jay Sawvel's Cowboys have quietly reached 5-3 (4-1 MW) and recently took out Air Force, who had last week beat UNLV who had previously taken NDSU's holdings.

• LSU gleefully yoinked all that territory that belonged to Georgia by way of Auburn.

• Utah connects more territory to their original with the late night win over Houston.

• Texas is back on the map with the win over Ole Miss.

• Surprisingly little land taken byCincinnati from Texas Tech, by South Carolina from Tennessee, and by App State from James Madison. Also a small transaction to Syracuse from UNC. We'll get to West Virginia in a moment...

• 🇮🇪Ireland ensures the sun never sets on the Canes, which stretches from Hawaii to the Emerald Isle. #1 Miami fans are trying to get Pitbull to come and do an acoustic set at the famed Gus O'Connor's Pub in Doolin alongside the masters of wooden flute and tin whistle.

• 🇬🇧United Kingdom, put in play by Union Jack Classic, are now home of the English Country Roads as West by God Virginia (or should we say God Save West Virginia?) has taken over from TCU. 'Eers have found themselves most at home among the Welsh of the South Wales Valleys, where the coal industry, geographic isolation, and gallows humor abound. Their still trying to get the hang of Welsh names like Merthyr Tydfil and Ebbw Vale.

• Only one flip in FCS holdings:

  • (1) In an interesting twist #3 Montana State just reconquered lands it took from FBS: The Bobcats defeated Nevada (who had already beaten Western Kentucky), only to lose it in a shocking upset at Idaho. Idaho lost it to Weber State, and now it's bank in Bobcat paws.
  • (2) Lindenwood (3-4) hangs onto the land that started with Charlotte (first lost to The Citadel), as they only had to play Chicago State.
  • (3) #7 NAU continues to hold Utah State's land, originally taken by Idaho State
  • (4) #1 Tarleton State has never lost and holds Bowling Green.

RULES:

Think of Risk with a strong understanding of chain-of-possession:

• FBS teams start by dividing the USA by closest counties/parishes. These are set by geographic centers of each county, not the closest edge.

• When a team beats another team, it takes the territory the loser held at the time of the game. All of the land(s) possessed by the losing team go to the winner.

• Lands are collected by the winner and held until that team loses, thus all those collected lands go to the winner.

• Teams that lose land can get back on the map by beating a team that holds land at the time of their game. Sometimes teams can reconquer their home territory this way.

• A team that already lost its home territory and has no new territories cannot give land to a winner.

• FCS teams can conquer their way onto the map by beating FBS teams with land. These lands operate under the above rules and thus may just end up stuck in FCS for the rest of the season (and in many cases end up in the FCS Playoffs). It is theoretically possible for an FCS team to win the payday game at an FBS school and then lose their own home payday game to a D2 squad...thus placing FBS land in D2...but we haven't had it happen yet.

• Neutral sites (e.g. Ireland, UK) are put in play when a game takes place there.

Oct 25

• Preseason
• Week 2
• Week 3
• Week 4
• Week 5
• Week 6
• Week 7
• Week 8
• MBB Version
• WBB Version

This is a series I've now been doing for 12 years. The post attempts to visualize all AP Poll ballots in a single image. Additionally it sorts each AP voter by similarity to the group. Notably, this is not a measure of how "good" a voter is, just how consistent they are with the group. Especially preseason, having a diversity of opinions and ranking styles is advantageous to having a true consensus poll. Polls tend to coalesce towards each other as the season goes on.

The most consistent voters this week were Lee K. Howard and Mike Jacques. Julian Mininsohn is in first on the season. Michael Katz, Haley Sawyer, Lia Assimakopoulos, and Joe Arruda were behind them in the top 5.

Stephen Means was the biggest outlier this week. Stephen Means is the biggest outlier on the season, followed by Dylan Sinn, Koki Riley, Jon Wilner, and Kirk Bohls.

Most of these facts/stats are from Kentucky football statistician Corey Price.

• 14th time ever that Kentucky will finish above .500 in the SEC, and only the 6th time since the 1950s.

• For the first time since 1977, Kentucky will finish October undefeated (4-0).

• This is only the 5th time since WWII that Kentucky has started a season 7-1 or better (other seasons being 2018, 1977, 1950, and 1949).

• This is only the 4th time ever that Kentucky started conference play 5-1 or better.

• Third time ever that Kentucky has a 5-game win streak in the SEC.

• First time since 1977 that Kentucky won their first 3 SEC road games, and first time since 2009 that they've won 3 SEC road games in a row.

• When Kentucky beat LSU earlier in the season, Lane Kiffin became the 2nd coach ever to lose more than once to Kentucky while they were an AP Top 10 team, and Kentucky was unranked.

• Only the fourth time ever that Kentucky has beaten two teams that were ranked within the AP Top 10 at the time of playing.

• Kentucky's overtime win @South Carolina was their first road overtime win ever.

• For the first time since 1977, Kentucky is ranked in the AP Top 10 to end October.