Iowa’s loss to Northwestern dropped them out of the top five in the ESP while the other top teams largely remained the same. Florida or Alabama have to lose at least one game, but—with few exceptions—the remaining top five teams have favorable schedules for the remainder of the year. For comparison purposes the BCS results can be seen here.

Movement in the top 10 of …

There was a bit of shuffling at the top of the rankings this week. Florida remains atop the ESP but Texas jumped an idle Alabama squad with their win over Oklahoma State. There were some other teams in top 10 that shuffled around as well. Check out the latest BCS rankings for comparison purposes.

As most teams have played eight games, the AV Ranking nearly …

Bye weeks are good for many things.

For head coach Charlie Weis this week was an opportunity to rest key personnel with injuries, self-scout the first five games, and get the reserves meaningful practice repetitions.

For fans it is a chance to reflect on (and potentially readjust) their season expectations and, this year, to get a break from the heart palpitations that accompany nail-biting wins.…

Based on pre-season expectations, most Irish fans are starting to grumble about the state of the football program at Notre Dame. Some people are waiting to see if the two previous close wins will catch up to the Irish, similar to the Michigan game. Around the nation, Irish fans are starting to ask themselves “Are the Irish as good as we thought at the beginning …

It always starts the same way. Media pundits gushing over video-game offensive and defensive statistics, touting playmakers and storylines, and predicting the winner or the next “game of the year, decade or century.” It fires up the fans.

This year will be no different: it may not be Oklahoma’s unthinkable, record setting offense or USC’s unbelievably dominant defense, but a pair of teams will emerge …

With Independence Day upon us, some college football fans have difficulty in swallowing an independent Notre Dame. The cartel that is the BCS—a conglomeration of the biggest bowls and the biggest conferences—succeeds in siphoning more money into their teams’ coffers. Meanwhile, some delusional non-Irish fans think that somehow, someway Notre Dame has a BCS “rule” that bestows preferential treatment. Nothing is further from the truth.…

After two of the most prolific offensive seasons in Fighting Irish history, the Charlie Weis-led Notre Dame offense produced two inconsistent and wholly underwhelming campaigns in 2007 and 2008.

The efficient, passing-centric offense led by quarterback Brady Quinn has been replaced by a one-dimensional vertical passing attack that struggles against relatively average defensive units.

As noted and discussed here, most of the blame for this …

Disclaimer: The following is not intended for betting purposes.

The AV Ranking was two for three in conference championship picks from last week. It was much less accurate, however, predicting the odds of beating the spreads.

While the AV Ranking was able to successfully predict Oklahoma beating the 17 point spread in the Big 12 championship, it failed to predict Florida beating the spread …

Disclaimer: the following is not intended for betting purposes.

As promised here and here, this week the AV ranking will be used to predict the Big 12, ACC, and SEC conference championship games. Forgetting for the moment that the AV Ranking would have put Texas in the Big 12 championship over Oklahoma, these conference championship games feature the following opponents:

Big 12: Missouri vs. …