Odds and Ends 10/21/2020

Welcome Back!

Here at Odds and Ends, I plan to look at some stats, trends, storylines, etc. as they play out.  I will also give my opinion on some issues, but you can take that for what it's worth.  In the past, I have usually listed all the teams that reach bowl eligibility, and those that have been eliminated, but since the NCAA has done away with any requirements, that feature will not appear this year.  

LIR

Let's start with the Last Interception Race (LIR).  In this space, I will be chronicling who has the most attempts without an interception.  This is a lot harder to keep up with with teams playing so sporadically!  After week 7, here are the top 5:

1. Tyrell Pigrome, WKU- 105

2. Sam Hartman, WF- 100

3. Skylar Thompson, Kan St- 64

4. Lowell Narcisse, UTSA- 56

5. Joey Yellen, Pitt- 49

Trevor Lawrence, last week's #1 (at 116), and Stetson Bennett (#3) both threw INTs last week to drop out of the rankings.  Pigrome and Thompson didn't play.

I think this will be a fun race to watch!  I wonder how far we will get into the season until everyone has an interception?  This will also be an odd race to watch, as not everyone is starting the season at the same time, and not everyone is playing the same number of games.

Undefeated Teams 

Here is a list of all the undefeated teams:

Air Force 1-0

Alabama 4-0

BYU 5-0

Cincinnati 3-0

Clemson 5-0

Coastal Carolina 4-0

FAU 1-0

Liberty 5-0

Marshall 4-0

Notre Dame 4-0

Oklahoma State 3-0

SMU 5-0

Winless Teams

Here is a list of all the winless teams.  Hopefully, by the end of the season, there won't be any teams on this list!

FIU 0-2

Kansas 0-4

ULM 0-5

UMass 0-1

Vanderbilt 0-3

There are 12 undefeated teams (down from 16) and 4 winless teams (down from 5), showing, once again, that's it's much harder to go winless than to go undefeated! 

 Next week, there will be teams added to both lists because half of the Big Ten and MWC will be undefeated, and half will be winless, as each will have played 1 game (with the exception of Air Force, who will either be 2-0 or 1-1).

4 teams are 5-0, 4 are 4-0, 2 are 3-0, and 2 are 1-0.  

1 team is 0-5, 1 is 0-4, 1 is 0-3, 1 is 0-2, and 1 team is 0-1.

These teams have a win, but none against an FBS team:

Texas Tech

USF

By conference, the breakdown is as follows (# of undefeated teams listed 1st, # of winless 2nd):

SEC 1-1

ACC 2-0

B12 1-1

IND 2-1

AAC 2-0

MWC 1-0 (Air Force is the only team playing so far)

CUSA 2-1

SBC 1-1

Conference Standings

I will revisit this at the end of the year, as there are so few OOC games.

Which Division is Best?

So far, this is how the divisions in the conferences that are using them have fared against each other:

SEC West leads the East 7-6

CUSA West leads the East 3-2

SBC East leads the West 4-3

So far, western teams are 13-12 against eastern division teams.  

Update on Paul's Playoff Picks:

My initial 4 were Clemson, Alabama, Ohio State, and Oklahoma.  When the Big Ten dropped play, I replaced OSU with Georgia.  Now that they are back, I would reinsert OSU over UGA, but Oklahoma has not played up to expectations.  In this unusual year, I'm going to say I have 5 picks, and 4 will get in.  So... Clemson won easily, Alabama stomped Georgia, Ohio State has yet to play, and Oklahoma didn't play.

Conference Trends

As promised, I am going to go over how each team in the conference has done over the last 3, 5, and 10 year periods.  I will cover one conference each week, starting with the G5 conferences. These will cover only conference games, not overall records, and do not include conference championship game results, and include only current teams in that conference.  So far, I have done the Sun Belt, the MAC, CUSA, the MWC, the AAC, and Independents.

Pac 12

Last 10 Years

T1. Oregon 66-24 .733

T1. Stanford 66-24 .733

3. USC 61-29 .678

4. Washington 54-36 .600

5. Arizona State 48-42 .533

6. Utah 42-39 .519 (9 years)

7. UCLA 43-47 .478

8. Washington State 39-51 .433

9. Arizona 36-54 .400

10. California 29-61 .322

11. Oregon State 27-63 .300

12. Colorado 20-61 .247 (9 years)

Last 5 Years

1. USC 32-13 .711

2. Utah 28-17 .700

T3. Stanford 30-15 .667

T3. Washington 30-15 .667

5. Washington State 29-16 .644

6. Oregon 26-19 .578

7. Arizona State 21-24 .467

8. UCLA 18-27 .400

9. California 17-28 .378

10. Colorado 16-29 .356

11. Arizona 15-30 .333

12. Oregon State 8-37 .178

Last 3 Years

1. USC 19-8 .704

2. Washington 18-9 .667

T3. Utah 17-10 .630

T3. Oregon 17-10 .630

T5. Stanford 16-11 .593

T5. Washington State 16-11 .593

7. Arizona State 15-12 .556

T8. UCLA 11-16 .407

T8. Arizona 11-16 .407

10. California 10-17 .370

11. Colorado 7-20 .259

12. Oregon State 5-22 .185

The Pac 12 has been fairly volatile, but the top tier has consistently included USC, Oregon, and Washington, with Stanford and Utah sprinkled in.  Arizona, Cal, Oregon St and Colorado have consistently been in the bottom 4.

Games I'm excited about this weekend:

Arkansas State @ Appalachian State- Can the Red Wolves hang with the Mountaineers? 

Illinois @ Wisconsin- Can the Badgers avenge last year's loss?  Can the Illini make it 2 wins in a row over UW?

Louisiana @ UAB- Can the Ragin' Cajuns recover from their 1st loss and pull another upset for the Sun Belt Conference?  Can the Blazers win their 4th in a row?

NC State @ North Carolina- How will the Tar Heels respond to their 1st loss? Are the Wolfpack good enough to make it 4 out of the last 5 over UNC?

Georgia Southern @ Coastal Carolina- Can the Chanticleers continue their magical season? Will the Eagles spoil CCU's dreams of an unbeaten season?

Auburn @ Ole Miss- Are either of these teams any good? If the Tiger defense can't stop Georgia's (or South Carolina's) pedestrian offense, how are they supposed to stop the Rebel offense?

Oklahoma @ TCU- Will the Sooners run the table from here on out and play their way back into the CFB playoff? Will the Horned Frogs rebound from their loss to Kansas St 2 weeks ago?

Alabama @ Tennessee- Can the Volunteers hang with Alabama?  Will the Crimson Tide suffer a letdown after last week's stirring victory?

Notre Dame @ Pittsburgh- Have the Fighting Irish fixed their offensive problems?  Have the Panthers fixed their defensive problems?

South Carolina @ LSU- Will the Gamecocks be able to pull off a 3-game winning streak?  Just how bad is the LSU defense?

Michigan @ Minnesota- Are the Golden Gophers as good as they were last year, or will they slide back into mediocrity?  Are the Wolverines ready to challenge for the Big Ten title?

Cincinnati @ SMU- Which team will emerge from this game with their undefeated record intact?  Can the Bearcats' defense stop the Mustangs' offense, or will this be a replay of the UGA-Bama game?

That's all for now.  Tomorrow, I will have my picks for Week 2.  Feel free to leave a comment and to follow me on Twitter: @pbanderson. 

Until next time, may you and your loved ones be blessed!