Texas Tech Makes Move, Florida Shows Up As No. 1 in OCGR

After the "interception that almost was," Texas dropped from the top spot.  Florida, thanks to their devastating win over Georgia, claimed the top spot in this week's OCGR.  Texas Tech's victory jumped them six spots, but not as high as other voting and computer polls have the Red Raiders.

(Ratings as of Nov. 2)

Rank	Team	Record	OCGR	PvWk
1	Florida	7-1	77.90	2
2	Texas	8-1	75.56	1
3	Penn State	9-0	69.75	3
4	Oklahoma	8-1	64.95	6
5	Alabama	9-0	62.65	7
6	USC	7-1	62.55	4
7	Utah	9-0	61.23	8
8	Texas Tech	9-0	60.84	14
9	Georgia	7-2	69.42	5
10	TCU	9-1	58.30	7
11	Oklahoma State	8-1	58.08	9
12	Boise State	8-0	57.05	13
13	Missouri	7-2	56.27	10
14	Ohio State	7-2	54.19	12
15	BYU	8-1	47.71	18
16	Ball State	8-0	45.55	16
17	LSU	6-2	45.07	19

(Dropped from ratings: No. 15 Minnesota, No. 17 Florida State, and No. 20 Tulsa)

With a month left in the season, the top candidates have some work left to do if they are lucky enough to control their own destiny (the scenarios for the top two are in reference to the OCGR, not the BCS).

Florida, win out and they...remain in the top spot.  Their past and future schedules are strong enough to keep them high.

Texas, win out and they...remain in the top two, though it could be close with Oklahoma and Texas Tech if either wins out as well.  Their remaining opponents can bring their great strength of schedule down a notch, but not enough to make it an issue.  Their BCS rank could give them an invite to the Big 12 Championship Game if need be.

Penn State, win out and they...wait and pray.  They need a loss by at least one other team to have a shot at the top two.  It may be unfair since they are undefeated, but their schedule lacks in toughness.  Michigan State may help at the end of the season.

Oklahoma, win out and they...root for Texas Tech to win their other games to give them another game to possibly jump Texas.  A Florida loss could give us the "Atlantic Ocean Shootout" or whatever PC term they want to give it.

USC, win out and they...root against Oregon State to win the Pac-10.  USC is stuck in Penn State land where there does not seem to be a lot of room to grow, except in winning percentage.  USC would need the Big 12 to shoot each other in the foot multiple times while having Penn State forget to show up to one of their last three games.

Utah, win out and they...go to a BCS Bowl...though I do not foresee a run at the top two.  However, they still have TCU and BYU to give that schedule a must-needed boost.  They may jump USC since the MWC Champ may mean more than being the Pac-10 champ.

Texas Tech, win out and they...have a slim shot at the top two.  The meat of their schedule is fast approaching.  However, scheduling two FCS teams could hurt them in the long run.

Alabama, win out and they...???  Showing up eighth is very surprising.  However, LSU and a date for the SEC will improve their strength of schedule.  Not blowing out teams they should have may be the key weakness.

As for the others, they need quite a bit of help.  Oklahoma State and TCU can make big moves if they continue to win.  The others will hope for BCS Bowls in their futures.

As for the conference strength, there was not much of a change.  SEC increased their slight lead due to a couple of wins over non-BCS teams.  As stated before, the next Big 12 out-of-conference opponent will be a bowl game.

(Conference strength through games played on Nov. 1)

Rank	Conference	OOC Record	Rating
1	SEC	31-7	0.6528
2	Big 12	38-10	0.6487
3	ACC	33-10	0.6277
4	Big Ten	31-11	0.6017
5	Big East	26-12	0.6011
6	MWC	26-11	0.5879
7	Pac-10	13-16	0.5145
8	Independents	16-18	0.4952
9	WAC	17-18	0.4910
10	MAC	22-29	0.4756
11	Conference USA	17-30	0.4385
12	Sun Belt	10-24	0.4113

To view last week's OCGR, click here.

To view the OCGR home page for more insight behind the OCGR, click here.