On a weekend of college football games, it is often quite overwhelming sifting through all of the matchups. If only there was a way of knowing which games were the most appealing in some objective way. If you ever have faced this conundrum, you’ve come to the right place! Using my power rankings of a given week, I have created a formula that calculates a “game score” for every matchup for the upcoming weekend, and ranks all of the games accordingly. Only games featuring two FBS teams and at least one power 5 team, or games featuring a top 25 team, are ranked. It’s a bit time-consuming entering these games in, so for now no rankings for group of 5 games.
My formula is based off of two components: overall team quailty and team rankings similarities. Unsurprisingly, teams featuring better teams will be scored better than games with weaker schools. However, the “closeness” of the teams is taken into account as well. Where the game is played is also taken into account (I would rather watch #5 at #20 than #20 at #5, for example).
Things that are NOT included are factors like the general reputation of the schools involved, the style of play that the teams use, and the past history of a given matchup. Certainly rivalry games are more fun regardless of the quality of the teams, but that is not considered here.
## Week 6 Week 6 does not have a great slate of games, to say the least. The best game is actually this Thursday, with Louisville at NC State. This game is the only one between two top-25 teams from my ranking system, and would have been only the 4th best game if it was played last week. Two other games worth tuning in to (and of course they are both at the same time, 3:30) are Miami at Florida State and West Virginia at TCU. Not a great collection of matchups, but sometimes these are the weeks that give us the most drama. We’ll see.
The rankings listed for each team come from my Week 5 power rankings, found here: http://rpubs.com/ditrapani4/314787
| Rank | Away | Home | Score | Time | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 19 Louisville | AT | 24 NC State | 14.36 | (Thurs) 8:00pm |
| 2 | 12 Miami | AT | 29 Florida State | 17.18 | 3:30pm |
| 3 | 26 West Virginia | AT | 4 TCU | 17.72 | 3:30pm |
| 4 | 28 Stanford | AT | 23 Utah | 17.74 | 10:15pm |
| 5 | 8 Washington St | AT | 31 Oregon | 18.47 | 4:00pm |
| 6 | 3 Alabama | AT | 34 Texas AM | 20.33 | 7:15pm |
| 7 | 34 Maryland | AT | 15 Ohio State | 20.99 | 4:00pm |
| 8 | 34 Wake Forest | AT | 1 Clemson | 21.86 | 12:00pm |
| 9 | 2 Georgia | AT | 38 Vanderbilt | 22.19 | 12:00pm |
| 10 | 30 Duke | AT | 49 Virginia | 24.28 | 12:20pm |
| 11 | 42 Kansas State | AT | 54 Texas | 25.44 | 7:00pm |
| 12 | 43 Michigan State | AT | 7 Michigan | 25.64 | 7:30pm |
| 13 | 46 California | AT | 10 Washington | 26.78 | 10:45pm |
| 14 | 52 Arkansas | AT | 59 South Carolina | 27.13 | 4:00pm |
| 15 | 53 Minnesota | AT | 39 Purdue | 28.14 | 3:30pm |
| 16 | 55 Ole Miss | AT | 15 Auburn | 30.34 | 12:00pm |
| 17 | 6 Penn State | AT | 59 Northwestern | 30.41 | 12:00pm |
| 18 | 20 Wisconsin | AT | 69 Nebraska | 32.88 | 8:00pm |
| 19 | 64 Pittsburgh | AT | 86 Syracuse | 35.47 | 12:30pm |
| 20 | 76 Arizona | AT | 56 Colorado | 36.41 | 8:00pm |
| 21 | 76 Illinois | AT | 46 Iowa | 36.94 | 12:00pm |
| 22 | 72 LSU | AT | 14 Florida | 37.32 | 3:30pm |
| 23 | 15 Virginia Tech | AT | 82 Boston College | 38.1 | 7:15pm |
| 24 | 75 Iowa State | AT | 5 Oklahoma | 39.1 | 12:00pm |
| 25 | 18 UCF | AT | 91 Cincinnati | 40.99 | 8:00pm |
| 26 | 13 San Diego St | AT | 96 UNLV | 43.19 | 10:45 pm |
| 27 | 22 Notre Dame | AT | 99 North Carolina | 43.37 | 3:30pm |
| 28 | 100 Missouri | AT | 34 Kentucky | 46.6 | 7:30pm |
| 29 | 25 Texas Tech | AT | 112 Kansas | 47.46 | 12:00 pm |
| 30 | 105 Oregon State | AT | 11 USC | 49.89 | 4:00pm |
Before a long day of sitting on the couch watching game after game, it is nice to be able to get an idea of what the best games are for a given time slot. Here, I sort the rankings from above by the time in which the game is played, so readers can examine which games are best at a given time.
| Rank | Away | Home | Score | Time | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 19 Louisville | AT | 24 NC State | 14.36 | (Thurs) 8:00pm |
| 8 | 34 Wake Forest | AT | 1 Clemson | 21.86 | 12:00pm |
| 9 | 2 Georgia | AT | 38 Vanderbilt | 22.19 | 12:00pm |
| 16 | 55 Ole Miss | AT | 15 Auburn | 30.34 | 12:00pm |
| 17 | 6 Penn State | AT | 59 Northwestern | 30.41 | 12:00pm |
| 21 | 76 Illinois | AT | 46 Iowa | 36.94 | 12:00pm |
| 24 | 75 Iowa State | AT | 5 Oklahoma | 39.1 | 12:00pm |
| 29 | 25 Texas Tech | AT | 112 Kansas | 47.46 | 12:00 pm |
| 10 | 30 Duke | AT | 49 Virginia | 24.28 | 12:20pm |
| 19 | 64 Pittsburgh | AT | 86 Syracuse | 35.47 | 12:30pm |
| 2 | 12 Miami | AT | 29 Florida State | 17.18 | 3:30pm |
| 3 | 26 West Virginia | AT | 4 TCU | 17.72 | 3:30pm |
| 15 | 53 Minnesota | AT | 39 Purdue | 28.14 | 3:30pm |
| 22 | 72 LSU | AT | 14 Florida | 37.32 | 3:30pm |
| 27 | 22 Notre Dame | AT | 99 North Carolina | 43.37 | 3:30pm |
| 5 | 8 Washington St | AT | 31 Oregon | 18.47 | 4:00pm |
| 7 | 34 Maryland | AT | 15 Ohio State | 20.99 | 4:00pm |
| 14 | 52 Arkansas | AT | 59 South Carolina | 27.13 | 4:00pm |
| 30 | 105 Oregon State | AT | 11 USC | 49.89 | 4:00pm |
| 11 | 42 Kansas State | AT | 54 Texas | 25.44 | 7:00pm |
| 6 | 3 Alabama | AT | 34 Texas AM | 20.33 | 7:15pm |
| 23 | 15 Virginia Tech | AT | 82 Boston College | 38.1 | 7:15pm |
| 12 | 43 Michigan State | AT | 7 Michigan | 25.64 | 7:30pm |
| 28 | 100 Missouri | AT | 34 Kentucky | 46.6 | 7:30pm |
| 18 | 20 Wisconsin | AT | 69 Nebraska | 32.88 | 8:00pm |
| 20 | 76 Arizona | AT | 56 Colorado | 36.41 | 8:00pm |
| 25 | 18 UCF | AT | 91 Cincinnati | 40.99 | 8:00pm |
| 4 | 28 Stanford | AT | 23 Utah | 17.74 | 10:15pm |
| 13 | 46 California | AT | 10 Washington | 26.78 | 10:45pm |
| 26 | 13 San Diego St | AT | 96 UNLV | 43.19 | 10:45 pm |