2019 - NEMindex through week 7

Utah obliterated Oregon State, but it only helped them move up 2 spots.  This was mostly because Oregon St is so low on the chart that a win over them, regardless of the margin, doesn't lend much aid.  That game also had the effect of moving Utah's collective schedule quality down a decent amount.  Utah has now played the 2nd easiest schedule among all FBS schools.  Not a great stat.  If only our opponents would go win some games to raise themselves up to help us out!  This is the main thing holding Utah's ranking back at 33rd even with such a good record.

All of that will change this week when we play 18th ranked Arizona St.  Assuming all of our opponents stay at roughly the same ranks, that game alone will move our schedule difficulty out of the bottom 10.

Ohio State managed to hold the top spot during their bye week.  They have played a much harder schedule than any of the other undefeated teams.  That's likely not going to change much given the number of top matchups they still have coming.  Their game against Wisconsin in week 9 will be huge. Auburn continues to hold a spot above their SEC colleagues, thanks in large part to the fact that their 5 wins are of much higher collective quality than are the wins of the undefeated SEC teams who have played quite easy schedules.  Alabama and LSU have both played schedules with average opponent ranks of ~71st while Auburn's average opponent is ranked way up at 41st.

Perhaps the most influential game of this past week was S. Carolina beating UGA.  This resulted in UGA dropping 7 spots to 21st, but made S. Carolina the biggest upward mover on the week at +36 to 52nd. The biggest drop by a single team on the week was Maryland at -36, thanks to their loss to the previously 1-4 Purdue.

Also interesting is the continued flip flop in the lists of hardest average schedules and highest average ranks across conferences.  The Big 12 has played the easiest cumulative schedule for a P5 conference, but has the highest average rank across all the teams in the conference.  In contrast, the PAC 12 has the hardest cumulative schedule but lands with the 5th highest average rank, ahead of only the ACC among P5 conferences. I don't know what it means, but it's an odd phenomenon I don't remember seeing in previous seasons.  The other P5 conferences need to be scheduling better non-confernce games in the opening weeks if they want to catch up to the PAC 12 in schedule quality.

If you have any comments or feedback or see mistakes or just want to tell me how wrong I am, please let me know on Twitter (@NateEMiller). #GoUtes.

Rank	Team	W	L	Conf	RTPS	Change
1	Ohio State	6	0	B10	1.000	0
2	Wisconsin	6	0	B10	0.894	+1
3	Auburn	5	1	SEC	0.840	-1
4	Alabama	6	0	SEC	0.827	0
5	LSU	6	0	SEC	0.800	+1
6	Clemson	6	0	ACC	0.768	-1
7	Penn State	6	0	B10	0.766	0
8	Oregon	5	1	PAC	0.762	+2
9	Boise State	6	0	MWC	0.761	+6
10	SMU	6	0	AAC	0.742	-2
11	App. St.	5	0	SUN	0.738	0
12	Oklahoma	6	0	B12	0.718	+6
13	Notre Dame	5	1	IND	0.706	-4
14	Baylor	6	0	B12	0.691	+5
15	Cincinnati	5	1	AAC	0.688	+2
16	Minnesota	6	0	B10	0.683	+10
17	Florida	6	1	SEC	0.667	-1
18	Arizona St.	5	1	PAC	0.658	+3
19	Navy	4	1	AAC	0.654	+11
20	Memphis	5	1	AAC	0.653	-7
21	Georgia	5	1	SEC	0.649	-7
22	Wash.	5	2	PAC	0.646	+7
23	Missouri	5	1	SEC	0.646	+4
24	Michigan	5	1	B10	0.636	-2
25	Texas	4	2	B12	0.629	-13
26	Iowa State	4	2	B12	0.628	+15
27	Tulane	5	1	AAC	0.611	+5
28	UCF	4	2	AAC	0.607	+8
29	Louisville	4	2	ACC	0.601	+29
30	Hawaii	4	2	MWC	0.599	-7
31	Iowa	4	2	B10	0.593	-11
32	Mich. St.	4	3	B10	0.588	+2
33	Utah	5	1	PAC	0.581	+2
34	Wake Forest	5	1	ACC	0.579	-9
35	California	4	2	PAC	0.579	+4
36	Duke	4	2	ACC	0.573	+7
37	Florida St.	3	3	ACC	0.569	0
38	Air Force	4	2	MWC	0.567	+10
39	Pittsburgh	4	2	ACC	0.566	+1
40	Temple	5	1	AAC	0.563	+15
41	Utah State	3	2	MWC	0.558	+9
42	Florida Atl.	4	2	USA	0.552	+17
43	LA Tech	5	1	USA	0.551	+8
44	UL Lafayette	4	2	SUN	0.550	-13
45	Oklahoma St.	4	2	B12	0.548	-3
46	W. Kentucky	4	2	USA	0.544	+19
47	Kansas St.	3	2	B12	0.542	+6
48	San Diego St.	5	1	MWC	0.541	+13
49	Arizona	4	2	PAC	0.539	-16
50	Virginia	4	2	ACC	0.529	-22
51	TCU	3	2	B12	0.523	+13
52	S. Carolina	3	3	SEC	0.521	+37
53	Colorado	3	3	PAC	0.516	-9
54	UAB	5	1	USA	0.516	+12
55	Indiana	4	2	B10	0.513	+5
56	Wyoming	4	2	MWC	0.510	-18
57	Miss. St.	3	3	SEC	0.510	-33
58	N. Carolina	3	3	ACC	0.507	+5
59	USC	3	3	PAC	0.506	-13
60	W. Michigan	4	3	MID	0.506	+11
61	S. Miss.	4	2	USA	0.500	+8
62	Nebraska	4	3	B10	0.496	-5
63	Nevada	4	2	MWC	0.493	+12
64	Texas A&M	3	3	SEC	0.492	-15
65	NC State	4	2	ACC	0.491	+7
66	Georgia St.	4	2	SUN	0.485	+20
67	Miami (FL)	3	3	ACC	0.482	+26
68	Syracuse	3	3	ACC	0.480	-21
69	Texas Tech	3	3	B12	0.479	-13
70	Stanford	3	3	PAC	0.475	+3
71	Kent State	3	3	MID	0.474	+8
72	W. Virginia	3	3	B12	0.471	-18
73	Virginia Tech	4	2	ACC	0.466	+7
74	Toledo	4	2	MID	0.463	-22
75	Arkansas St.	3	3	SUN	0.453	+3
76	Liberty	4	2	IND	0.445	-8
77	Kentucky	3	3	SEC	0.444	-7
78	C. Mich.	4	3	MID	0.444	+3
79	S. Florida	3	3	AAC	0.434	+16
80	Florida Int.	3	3	USA	0.429	+23
81	Maryland	3	3	B10	0.427	-36
82	Ball State	3	3	MID	0.427	+26
83	Army	3	3	IND	0.426	-16
84	UL Monroe	3	3	SUN	0.421	+15
85	Tulsa	2	4	AAC	0.420	-23
86	Ole Miss	3	4	SEC	0.418	-10
87	Purdue	2	4	B10	0.412	+22
88	Georgia So.	2	3	SUN	0.406	0
89	E. Carolina	3	3	AAC	0.401	+7
90	Marshall	3	3	USA	0.400	+8
91	Coastal Caro.	3	3	SUN	0.398	-14
92	Miami (OH)	2	4	MID	0.388	-18
93	BC	3	3	ACC	0.383	+4
94	Fresno St.	2	3	MWC	0.383	-9
95	Houston	2	4	AAC	0.381	-5
96	BYU	2	4	IND	0.380	-9
97	San Jose St.	3	3	MWC	0.377	-14
98	Wash. St.	3	3	PAC	0.365	-14
99	Tennessee	2	4	SEC	0.364	+16
100	E. Mich.	3	3	MID	0.363	-18
101	Mid. Tenn.	2	4	USA	0.358	-9
102	Buffalo	2	4	MID	0.352	+4
103	Oregon St.	2	4	PAC	0.345	-3
104	Charlotte	2	4	USA	0.342	-10
105	Kansas	2	4	B12	0.342	0
106	Texas State	2	4	SUN	0.341	-15
107	Troy	2	3	SUN	0.336	+3
108	Bowling Grn	2	4	MID	0.336	+15
109	Illinois	2	4	B10	0.333	-8
110	Northwestern	1	4	B10	0.326	+2
111	North Texas	2	4	USA	0.316	-9
112	UCLA	1	5	PAC	0.304	+1
113	Ohio	2	4	MID	0.289	-9
114	Arkansas	2	4	SEC	0.289	-3
115	UTSA	2	4	USA	0.264	-1
116	N. Illinois	2	4	MID	0.261	+8
117	Georgia Tech	1	5	ACC	0.261	0
118	Colorado St.	2	5	MWC	0.259	+4
119	UNLV	2	4	MWC	0.257	+6
120	Rice	0	6	USA	0.250	-4
121	New Mexico	2	4	MWC	0.244	-14
122	S. Alabama	1	5	SUN	0.239	-3
123	Old Dominion	1	5	USA	0.213	-3
124	Rutgers	1	5	B10	0.199	-6
125	Connecticut	1	5	AAC	0.192	+3
126	UTEP	1	4	USA	0.169	0
127	Vanderbilt	1	5	SEC	0.168	-6
128	NM St.	0	7	IND	0.133	-1
129	UMASS	1	6	MID	0.017	0
130	Akron	0	6	MID	0.003	0

Hardest Schedule Played per Team:

Florida St.	40.5
Auburn	40.7
Rice	42.2
Tulsa	43.2
Mich. St.	47.3
N. Carolina	47.8
Colorado	48.8
Texas	49.5
Ohio State	49.7
S. Carolina	52.3
:	:
:	:
Minnesota	95.2
Arkansas	95.5
Virginia Tech	96.8
San Diego St.	97.7
Toledo	98.3
LA Tech	98.8
Liberty	99.0
UMASS	100.4
Utah	100.5
UAB	110.7

Average Rank per Conference:

B12	46.6
AAC	52.7
B10	52.9
SEC	53.5
PAC	55.0
ACC	55.1
MWC	69.5
IND	79.2
SUN	79.4
USA	86.9
MID	96.5

Hardest Cumulative Schedules Played per Conference:

PAC	66.5
SEC	68.4
ACC	68.8
B10	69.1
B12	70.7
AAC	74.9
IND	75.2
SUN	78.8
USA	79.6
MWC	80.2
MID	82.7