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.
My formula is based off of two components: overall team quailty and team rankings similarities. Unsurprisingly, games 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.
| Rank | Away | Home | Score | Time | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 4 Georgia | VS | 2 Auburn | 4.34 | 4:00pm |
| 2 | 7 Miami | VS | 1 Clemson | 6.71 | 8:00pm |
| 3 | 10 Stanford | VS | 12 USC | 9.29 | (Fri) 8:00pm |
| 4 | 12 TCU | VS | 3 Oklahoma | 9.84 | 12:30pm |
| 5 | 15 Ohio State | VS | 6 Wisconsin | 11.37 | 8:00pm |
| 6 | 19 Memphis | AT | 14 UCF | 13.73 | 12:00pm |
| 7 | 27 Fresno St | AT | 29 Boise State | 17.49 | 7:45pm |
| 8 | 32 Troy | AT | 62 Arkansas St | 28.42 | 7:30pm |
| 9 | 54 N Texas | AT | 49 FAU | 28.7 | 12:00pm |
| 10 | 78 Akron | VS | 36 Toledo | 37.17 | 12:00pm |
| 11 | 98 UL Monroe | AT | 43 Florida State | 45.81 | 12:00pm |
| 12 | 106 S Alabama | AT | 93 N Mexico St | 46.46 | 4:30pm |
| 13 | 105 UL Lafayette | AT | 67 App State | 47.17 | 2:30pm |
| 14 | 106 Umass | AT | 71 FIU | 47.35 | 12:00pm |
| 15 | 121 GA Southern | AT | 124 Co Carolina | 50.47 | 1:00pm |
| 16 | 118 Idaho | AT | 83 Georgia St | 50.97 | 2:00pm |
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 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 | 10 Stanford | VS | 12 USC | 9.29 | (Fri) 8:00pm |
| 6 | 19 Memphis | AT | 14 UCF | 13.73 | 12:00pm |
| 9 | 54 N Texas | AT | 49 FAU | 28.7 | 12:00pm |
| 10 | 78 Akron | VS | 36 Toledo | 37.17 | 12:00pm |
| 11 | 98 UL Monroe | AT | 43 Florida State | 45.81 | 12:00pm |
| 14 | 106 Umass | AT | 71 FIU | 47.35 | 12:00pm |
| 4 | 12 TCU | VS | 3 Oklahoma | 9.84 | 12:30pm |
| 15 | 121 GA Southern | AT | 124 Co Carolina | 50.47 | 1:00pm |
| 16 | 118 Idaho | AT | 83 Georgia St | 50.97 | 2:00pm |
| 13 | 105 UL Lafayette | AT | 67 App State | 47.17 | 2:30pm |
| 1 | 4 Georgia | VS | 2 Auburn | 4.34 | 4:00pm |
| 12 | 106 S Alabama | AT | 93 N Mexico St | 46.46 | 4:30pm |
| 8 | 32 Troy | AT | 62 Arkansas St | 28.42 | 7:30pm |
| 7 | 27 Fresno St | AT | 29 Boise State | 17.49 | 7:45pm |
| 2 | 7 Miami | VS | 1 Clemson | 6.71 | 8:00pm |
| 5 | 15 Ohio State | VS | 6 Wisconsin | 11.37 | 8:00pm |