Week 3 Ratings: BYU, ND, VA Tech, USC Jump

BYU kicked off Week 3 by surviving a Thursday night scare against Houston, and could repeat their feat from 30 years ago of competing for a national title without beating a ranked team. After destroying Texas in Week 2, BYU was one of six Top 25 teams to jump at least nine spots in the Pythagorean Ratings. USC (#6), Notre Dame (#8), Virginia Tech (#18), Clemson (#20), and Pitt (#24) joined BYU with the big jumps as the ACC, SEC, and Independents had great Week 2 results.

In 1984, BYU claimed one of the most suspect titles in football history when they beat a 6-6 Michigan team in the Holiday Bowl 24-17 to claim the title. They faced no teams that were ranked in the Top 25 at the end of the season, opening the year against a Pitt team that was in the preseason rankings but went only 3-7-1.

Louisiana Tech also won Thursday night to establish themselves as the hottest team in football, improving from out of the Top 100 in Week 1 to almost the top 50 with an upset blowout of ULL, and following up that by beating the second hottest Week 2 team in North Texas. The Louisiana Tech and BYU wins are not reflected in the ratings below:

Michigan struggles, as as they dropped 21 spots to No. 61 after being drubbed by Notre Dame (see photo).

If ever there was a year that cried for a playoff it was 1984. The Holiday Bowl had the automatic bid from the WAC champion, but because their payout was so low the best team they could lure was a Michigan team having a terrible season.

BYU’s one big challenge this year appeared to be Texas, which they defeated in Week 2, to leave a very weak schedule that could result in BYU once again going undefeated and finishing in the Top 4 to compete for another title–though this time it would entail defeating two of the top four teams in the country in the new playoff format.

The following lists the new ratings heading into Week 3, followed by how many spots each team improved or dropped this week, their conference, what their average score would be if they played each of the other 127 FBS schools, and what winning percentage would likely result from that average score. Based on these ratings, Florida State would face Oklahoma in one semifinal, while Alabama would play Oregon in the other. However, Florida State will face new semi-ACC member Notre Dame, and the SEC, Pac-12, and Big 12 all offer numerous chances to lose while BYU has a decent chance to run the table to make the Selection Committee consider them as one of the four semi-final teams.

Rank	Improve	School	Conf	Off	Def	Win%
1	0	Florida St	ACC	51	17	96%
2	2	Alabama	SEC	37	15	93%
3	3	Oregon	P12	49	21	92%
4	1	Oklahoma	B12	42	19	91%
5	2	Auburn	SEC	46	21	91%
6	11	USC	P12	38	18	90%
7	6	Missouri	SEC	40	19	90%
8	12	Notre Dame	Ind	40	19	90%
9	0	LSU	SEC	39	19	89%
10	0	Texas A&M	SEC	54	27	88%
11	1	Georgia	SEC	42	20	88%
12	7	Mississippi	SEC	38	19	88%
13	3	Louisville	ACC	39	20	87%
14	-12	Stanford	P12	31	16	87%
15	-12	Michigan St	B10	27	14	87%
16	11	BYU	Ind	44	23	87%
17	-6	Baylor	B12	46	25	85%
18	20	Virginia Tech	ACC	35	20	83%
19	-11	Oklahoma St	B12	33	19	83%
20	9	Clemson	ACC	43	25	83%
21	1	South Carolina	SEC	33	20	81%
22	-1	Arizona St	P12	39	24	81%
23	-5	Wisconsin	B10	30	19	79%
24	15	Pittsburgh	ACC	38	24	79%
25	-10	UCLA	P12	33	21	79%
26	4	Tennessee	SEC	35	23	77%
27	-13	Ohio St	B10	36	24	77%
28	-2	Arizona	P12	34	23	76%
29	16	Georgia Tech	ACC	38	27	74%
30	-6	Washington	P12	29	21	72%
31	25	Navy	Ind	36	26	72%
32	15	UT San Antonio	CUSA	34	25	71%
33	-2	Mississippi St	SEC	28	21	71%
34	9	Utah	P12	35	26	71%
35	-12	Kansas St	B12	25	19	70%
36	-1	West Virginia	B12	39	30	69%
37	5	Duke	ACC	35	27	68%
38	-2	TCU	B12	28	22	66%
39	-11	Nebraska	B10	31	25	66%
40	-7	Oregon St	P12	31	25	65%
41	12	Florida	SEC	21	17	65%
42	30	North Texas	CUSA	32	26	65%
43	19	Miami FL	ACC	35	29	63%
44	0	North Carolina	ACC	32	27	63%
45	1	East Carolina	AAC	36	30	63%
46	-14	Penn St	B10	29	24	63%
47	1	UCF	AAC	31	26	62%
48	2	Boston College	ACC	32	28	61%
49	0	W Kentucky	CUSA	36	31	61%
50	17	Marshall	CUSA	40	35	60%
51	61	Louisiana Tech	CUSA	37	32	60%
52	0	Arkansas	SEC	29	26	59%
53	-29	Texas	B12	23	21	59%
54	19	Kentucky	SEC	32	29	58%
55	15	Virginia	ACC	32	29	58%
56	-21	Minnesota	B10	24	22	57%
57	-24	Iowa	B10	23	21	57%
58	12	Syracuse	ACC	25	24	56%
59	-8	Indiana	B10	37	34	56%
60	9	N Illinois	MAC	34	32	55%
61	8	Boise St	MWC	29	28	53%
62	-22	Michigan	B10	28	27	53%
63	-21	Texas Tech	B12	29	29	52%
64	-1	Cincinnati	AAC	28	28	50%
65	-5	California	P12	33	34	50%
66	-5	Arkansas St	SBC	28	29	49%
67	-13	Maryland	B10	26	27	49%
68	17	UAB	CUSA	39	40	49%
69	9	Ball St	MAC	32	33	49%
70	19	Middle Tenn St	CUSA	30	33	45%
71	-13	Iowa St	B12	27	30	45%
72	11	San Diego St	MWC	29	32	44%
73	2	San Jose St	MWC	30	35	42%
74	-19	Temple	AAC	28	32	42%
75	-18	Washington St	P12	25	29	41%
76	5	Illinois	B10	29	34	41%
77	0	Rice	CUSA	29	33	41%
78	-12	Fresno St	MWC	30	35	40%
79	20	UTEP	CUSA	31	37	40%
80	18	NC State	ACC	28	33	40%
81	-22	Rutgers	B10	25	30	39%
82	6	South Alabama	SBC	27	33	39%
83	10	Nevada	MWC	30	36	38%
84	13	C Michigan	MAC	27	33	38%
85	-5	Tulsa	AAC	27	33	37%
86	-21	Vanderbilt	SEC	19	24	37%
87	-14	Toledo	MAC	26	33	36%
88	-12	Colorado St	MWC	26	33	36%
89	-3	Houston	AAC	22	28	35%
90	15	Old Dominion	CUSA	32	42	33%
91	12	Memphis	AAC	24	32	33%
92	8	Hawaii	MWC	28	38	31%
93	22	Army	Ind	28	39	31%
94	0	Bowling Green	MAC	19	27	30%
95	-16	ULM	SBC	21	30	28%
96	-24	Northwestern	B10	18	26	28%
97	-8	Ohio	MAC	23	34	27%
98	-3	FL Atlantic	CUSA	21	31	27%
99	-12	Colorado	P12	21	32	26%
100	-10	Utah St	MWC	14	22	25%
101	-17	SMU	AAC	20	31	24%
102	6	Wake Forest	ACC	15	24	22%
103	-21	ULL	SBC	20	33	22%
104	-8	Tulane	AAC	17	29	20%
105	8	Akron	MAC	20	34	20%
106	5	Troy	SBC	23	39	20%
107	7	South Florida	AAC	19	33	19%
108	18	Florida Intl	CUSA	20	35	19%
109	7	Air Force	MWC	23	41	18%
110	-4	Wyoming	MWC	21	39	17%
111	-9	Buffalo	MAC	19	35	17%
112	-3	New Mexico St	SBC	23	42	17%
113	-12	UNLV	MWC	18	34	16%
114	-10	Connecticut	AAC	17	33	16%
115	3	Ga Southern	SBC	17	36	13%
116	1	Texas St	SBC	17	36	13%
117	5	Idaho	SBC	21	45	13%
118	-8	Kent	MAC	14	30	13%
119	-27	Kansas	B12	13	29	12%
120	-1	New Mexico	MWC	18	43	10%
121	7	Massachusetts	MAC	15	37	10%
122	-2	Southern Miss	CUSA	18	43	9%
123	-16	Purdue	B10	15	36	9%
124	-1	Georgia St	SBC	18	43	9%
125	-4	Appalachian St	SBC	16	41	8%
126	-2	W Michigan	MAC	16	43	8%
127	-2	E Michigan	MAC	17	46	8%
128	-1	Miami OH	MAC	11	39	5%