Weekend Recap and Newest Computer Rankings

September 25, 2022 by Staff

Ohio State and Alabama beat the spread in their expected blowout wins, but Georgia and Michigan did not. Those results led to a minor reshuffling of the top four in the latest Congrove Computer Rankings, released minutes after the Wyoming-BYU game became the last of the weekend to go final.

The Buckeyes romped to a 52-21 win at home over Wisconsin in the conference opener for both schools, while the Tide trashed Vanderbilt 55-3 in front of the satisfied home folks. Michigan recovered a fumble on the opening kickoff and took a quick 7-0 lead, but the rest of the game was not as easy as the Wolverines prevailed 34-27 over Maryland in the Big Ten opener for both schools at "The Big House". Meanwhile, the 'Dawgs shook off a slow start against Kent State for a 39-22 win between the hedges.

After all the games were said and done, Ohio State and Alabama remain 1st and 2nd in the computer rankings, but Michigan and Georgia trade places at Nos. 3 and 4 with Big Blue moving above the Bulldogs.

Idle Oklahoma State stays at No. 5 while Clemson rises a spot to 6th after surviving a trip to Wake Forest with a 51-45 win in double-overtime. The Tigers switch places with NC State, even though the 'Pack strolled to a 41-10 home victory over  UConn.

Tennessee inched up a spot to No. 8 with is 38-33 home win over Florida, but Minnesota raced up the charts from 16th to 9th with a 34-7 destruction of Michigan State in East Lansing.

Ole Miss rises one spot to take the No. 10 slot, even though the Rebels got far more than they wanted from a visiting Tulsa squad in a 35-27 win.

Penn State jumped from 15 to 11 on the heels of a 33-14 win at home over Central Michigan, while Baylor moved up 5 spots to No. 12 with a 31-24 win at Iowa State.

Kentucky is up from 14 to 13 after battling to a 31-23 win over pesky Northern Illinois, while Utah took a 5-spot hike up to the 14 hole after a 34-13 road drubbing of  Arizona State in the debut of interim head coach Shaun Aguano. The Sun Devils fired Herm Edwards after last weekend's loss to an Eastern Michigan team that turned around this week and got thumped 50-31 at home by a previously winless Buffalo squad.

Florida State rockets from 23 to 15, tanks to a 44-14 home win over Boston College that improves the 'Noles to 2-0 in the ACC.

Oklahoma took a big drop from 8th to 19th after losing 41-34 at home to Kansas State, Maryland tumbled from 13 to 23rd with the loss at Michigan, Wake dove from 12th to 25th after bowing to Clemson, and Oregon State crashed from 10th to 26th as a result of the 17-14 loss at home to USC which catapulted the Trojans upward from 38th to 32nd.

Also See: Complete Top 131, Complete Picks & Scores

The FBS college football week got underway on Thursday night West Virginia's 33-10 win at Virginia Tech and continued Friday with UTEP's 27-10 upset home win over Boise State.

We entered the week with 33 of the 131 FBS schools still undefeated, and exited with just 21 programs unscathed. The first-time losers were Oklahoma, Oregon State, Wake Forest, Maryland, Arkansas, North Carolina, Iowa State, Rutgers, Washington State, Indiana. Duke and Tulane.

Only three schools remain winless (Colorado, Colorado State and Georgia State) after New Mexico State, Buffalo, and Navy each pocketed their first win over the weekend.

One of the biggest upsets of the weekend was Middle Tennessee riding into Miami and storming the 'Canes 45-31. It's the first-ever win in 25 tries for the Blue Raiders over an AP-ranked team. Miami was No. 25 entering the weekend and a consensus 25.5-point favorite at the sportsbooks.

James Madison, which beat Middle Tennessee 44-7 in its season-opener, is now 3-0 in its first season in the FBS after its 32-28 comeback win at Appalachian State on Saturday. The Dukes blanked App State 22-0 in the second half of the Sun Belt conference game. As we said in the pre-game write-up, this matchup figures to become an annual conference heavyweight battle.

Louisiana, which saw its 15-game winning streak end last week in a surprising loss at Rice, was knocked off on Saturday by rival ULM 21-17 in Monroe.

Missouri missed a game-winning field goal at the end of regulation, then fumbled the ball into the end zone at the end of the first overtime and lost 17-14 to Auburn.

Notre Dame improved to 19-2 all-time vs. North Carolina with a 45-32 win at Chapel Hill for its 5th straight defeat of the Tar Heels.

Northwestern suffered another upset loss, bowling 17-14 at home to Miami (Ohio). Just last week, the Wildcats lost 31-24 at home to Southern Illinois.

The battle of the unusual unbeatens between Kansas and Duke went the way of the Jayhawks with a 35-27 win in Lawrence.

Sonny Dykes got his 3rd straight win in the Battle for the Iron Skillet. Dykes' new TCU team beat his old SMU team 42-34 in Dallas.

FCS vs. FBS

There will be 118 FBS vs. FCS matchups this season with App State, Army and Marshall each playing two such games, and 115 other FBS schools playing one apiece.

There were just six FBS-FCS games this week, and now only 14 remain for the rest of the season. The only upset was one which the computer predicted and even the oddsmaker favored to occur, and that was Sacramento State's win at Colorado State. However, no one expected it to be the 41-10 beatdown that occurred.

The 5-1 record improved the FBS to 96-8 vs. the FCS on the season and 1,670-148 (.919) since we began tracking this in 2003.

Here are the FCS wins in 2022:
September 2: William & Mary 41, Charlotte 24
September 3: Delaware14, Navy 7
September 10: Weber State 35, Utah State 7
September 10: Incarnate Word 55, Nevada 41
September 10: Holy Cross 37, Buffalo 31
September 10: Eastern Kentucky 59, Bowling Green 57 (7 OT's)
September 17: Southern Illinois 31, Northwestern 24
September 24: Sacramento State 41, Colorado State 10

Streaks

CLEMSON - Won 10 straight over-all (FBS longest); Won 36 straight home games (FBS longest).
Last: Won 51-45 in 2OT at Wake Forest on Saturday, September 24.
Next: Hosts NC State on Saturday, October 1.

CINCINNATI: Won 16 straight conference games (FBS longest).
Last: Won 45-24 vs. Indiana on Saturday, September 24.
Next: Visits Tulsa on Saturday, October 1.

GEORGIA - Won 8 straight true road games (FBS longest).
Last: Won 48-7 at South Carolina on Saturday, September 17.
Next: Hosts Kent State on Saturday, September 24.

COLORADO STATE - Lost 10 straight over-all (FBS longest).
Last: Lost 41-10 vs. FCS member Sacramento State on Saturday, September 24.
Next: Visits Nevada on Friday, October 7.

FIU - Lost 18 straight games to FBS schools (FBS longest)
Last: Lost 73-0 at Western Kentucky on Saturday, September 24.
Next: Visits New Mexico State on Saturday, October 1.

VANDERBILT - Lost 22 straight conference games (FBS longest).
Last: Lost 55-3 at Alabama on Saturday, February 24.
Next: Hosts Mississippi on Saturday, October 8.

NEW MEXICO STATE - Lost 21 straight road games (FBS longest).
Last: Won 45-26 vs. Hawaii on Saturday, February 24.
Next: Hosts Florida International on Saturday, October 1.