Results tagged “Pac-10” from The Sports Desk

USC stays on top and little else changes either in my Pac-10 Conference football rankings. They're based foremost on how many wins each team has above or below the number an average major-college team would have if it faced the same schedule. A "half" game plus or minus is the result of winning or losing a game that looked like a tossup going in. Essentially I divide college teams into three groups: top-25 teams; teams with sub-.500 records, and everyone in between. A school should win home games against sub-.500 teams and middling teams, and lose road games against top-25 teams and middling teams; home games top-25s and road games against sub-.500s are toss-ups. It's not the most scientific method in the world, but a fair way to estimate how satisfied or dissatisfied fans should be with their team's results so far. Ties (and there are a lot this week) are broken by looking at raw won-lost records and performance against the spread and over-and-under line.

1. USC (+1; 2-1 in conference games, 4-1 overall)
2. Cal (+0.5; 2-0, 4-1)
3. Oregon (+0.5; 23-1, 5-2)
4. Arizona (+0.5; 2-1, 4-2)
5. Stanford (+0.5; 3-1, 4-3)
6. Oregon State (+0; 2-1, 3-3)
7. UCLA (-1; 1-2, 2-4)
8. Arizona State (-1.5; 1-2, 2-4)
9. Washington (-2; 0-3, 0-5)
10. Washington State (-3.5; 0-4, 1-6)

USC is back on top of my Pac-10 Conference football rankings after beating last week's leader Oregon on Saturday. They're based foremost on how many wins each team has above or below the number an average major-college team would have if it faced the same schedule. A "half" game plus or minus is the result of winning or losing a game that looked like a tossup going in. Essentially I divide college teams into three groups: top-25 teams; teams with sub-.500 records, and everyone in between. A school should win home games against sub-.500 teams and middling teams, and lose road games against top-25 teams and middling teams; home games top-25s and road games against sub-.500s are toss-ups. It's not the most scientific method in the world, but a fair way to estimate how satisfied or dissatisfied fans should be with their team's results so far. Ties (and there are a lot this week) are broken by looking at raw won-lost records and performance against the spread and over-and-under line.

1. USC (+1; 1-1 in conference games, 3-1 overall)
2. Cal (+0.5; 2-0, 4-1)
3. Arizona (+0.5; 2-0, 4-1)
4. Oregon (+0.5; 2-1, 4-2)
5. Stanford (+0.5; 2-1, 3-3)
6. Oregon State (+0; 1-1, 2-3)
7. UCLA (-1; 1-1, 2-3)
8. Arizona State (-1.5; 1-1, 2-3)
9. Washington (-2; 0-3, 1-5)
10. Washington State (-3; 0-3, 0-5)

Here are my Pac-10 Conference football rankings, updated. To see last week's, before USC's fall, click here. They're based foremost on how many wins each team has above or below the number an average major-college team would have if it faced the same schedule. A "half" game plus or minus is the result of winning or losing a game that looked like a tossup going in. Essentially I divide college teams into three groups: top-25 teams; teams with sub-.500 records, and everyone in between. A school should win home games against sub-.500 teams and middling teams, and lose road games against top-25 teams and middling teams; home games top-25s and road games against sub-.500s are toss-ups. It's not the most scientific method in the world, but a fair way to estimate how satisfied or dissatisfied fans should be with their team's results so far. Ties (and there are a lot this week) are broken by looking at raw won-lost records and performance against the spread and over-and-under line.

1. Oregon (+0.5 win compared to average, 4-1 record)
2. Cal (+0.5, 3-1)
3. Arizona (+0.5, 3-1)
4. USC (+0.5, 2-1)
5. Stanford (+0.5, 3-2)
6. Oregon State (+0, 2-2)
7. UCLA (-1.0, 1-3)
8. Arizona State (-1.5, 2-2)
9. Washington (-2.0, 0-4)
10. Washington State (-2.5, 1-4)

Here's an update of my Pac-10 Conference football rankings. Again, they're based foremost on how many wins each team has above or below the number an average major-college team would have if it faced the same schedule. A "half" game plus or minus is the result of winning or losing a game that looked like a tossup going in. Essentially I divide college teams into three groups: 1. top-25 teams; teams with sub-.500 records; everyone in between. A school should win home games against sub-.500 teams and middling teams, and lose road games against top-25 teams and middling teams; home games top-25s and road games against sub-.500s are toss-ups.

1. USC (2-0 record, +1 win compared to average)
2. Arizona (3-1, +0.5)
3. Cal (2-1, +0.5)
4. Oregon (3-1, +0)
5. Stanford (2-2, +0)
6. Oregon State (1-2, -0.5)
7. UCLA (1-2, -0.5)
8. Washington (0-3, -1)
9. Arizona State (2-2, -1.5)
10. Washington State (1-3, -2)

Contrary to popular opinion, the biggest threat to the USC football team's No. 1 ranking might not be Scott Wolf, our writer who voted the Trojans No. 3 in this week's AP poll. The biggest threat might be the perceived weakness of the Pac-10, which provides most of the Trojans' remaining regular-season opponents.

People love rankings, so here's a ranking. It's the Pac-10 Conference football teams from top to bottom. It's based foremost on how many wins the teams have above or below the number an average major-college team facing the same schedule would have.

1. USC (2-0 record, +1 win compared to average)
2. Oregon (3-0, +1)
3. Cal (2-1, +0.5)
4. UCLA (1-1, +0.5)
5. Stanford (1-2, +0)
6. Arizona (2-1, -0.5)
7. Oregon State (1-2, -0.5)
8. Arizona State (2-1, -1)
9. Washington (0-3, -1)
10. Washington State (0-3, -2)

I'll try to keep it updated. It shouldn't be hard.