C-USA

West

76. U.T.S.A. (5-2)
77. Southern Miss (5-3)
81. North Texas (5-3)
90. Louisiana Tech (4-4)
92. U.A.B. (5-3)
123. RICE (1-7)
128. U.T.E.P. (0-8)

East

52. Marshall (6-2)
55. Florida Atlantic (5-3)
73. Florida International (5-2)
91. Western Kentucky (5-3)
97. Middle Tennessee (3-5)
119. Old Dominion (2-6)
124. Charlotte (1-7)

OTHERS:

19. Stanford (6-2)
47. Houston (5-3)
60. Army (6-2)
64. Pittsburgh (4-5)

My Current Top 25:

1. Georgia (8-0)
2. Notre Dame (7-1)
3. Ohio State (7-1)
4. Alabama (8-0)
5. Penn State (7-1)
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6. Wisconsin (8-0)
7. U.C.F. (7-0)
8. Clemson (7-1)
9. T.C.U. (7-1)
10. Miami (Fla.) (7-0)
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11. Washington (7-1)
12. Virginia Tech (7-1)
13. Oklahoma State (7-1)
14. Oklahoma (7-1)
15. Mississippi State (6-2)
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16. U.S.C. (7-2)
17. Iowa State (6-2)
18. Auburn (6-2)
19. Stanford (6-2)
20. N.C. State (6-2)
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21. Michigan State (6-2)
22. Arizona (6-2)
23. Washington State (7-2)
24. Memphis (7-1)
25. Iowa (5-3)
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Rice's remaining schedule:

@ #92 UAB - Despite UAB's vaunted 5-3 record, I think Rice has a chance to hang tough with them. UAB had close losses to North Texas and Charlotte as well as close wins over LaTech and MTSU. UAB should obviously be favored, but if everything goes right for Rice, perhaps a narrow upset could be in the cards. Most likely scenario is that Rice continues to shoot itself in the foot with turnovers and unforced penalties and loses by a couple TDs.

v. #77 Southern Miss - Despite Southern Miss's vaunted 5-3 record... if USM hadn't just lost at home to UAB by 18 points, I wouldn't give Rice a snowball's chance in this game. But if USM can lose at home by 18 to a poor team like UAB, they could potentially lose to an even worse Rice team on the road. But again, I see no reason to expect Rice to win the turnover battle, which is what is needed to keep Rice close.

@ #119 ODU - This game looks to be a serious pillow fight. Advantage ODU since Rice has to travel? Both Rice hand ODU have shown some slight improvement the past few weeks that have still resulted in losses. ODU lost by 4 at home to WKU, then lost by 7 at North Texas. Somehow, ODU kept those two games close despite committing 7 turnovers. Both teams rank in the bottom 8 nationally for turnovers committed. This has the potential to be one of the ugliest games in college football history, with the teams just handing and passing the ball to each other for 4 quarters.

v. #81 North Texas - Despite North Texas's vaunted 5-3 record ... same story as UAB and Southern Miss. You can squint and see a path to victory for Rice. But you can also squint and David Bailiff looks like someone else and gain false hope that he was replaced without you hearing about it.

The moral of the story is that the top 5 teams in CUSA West are all bad, but have managed to beat each other in a fashion that doesn't distinguish any single one of them. That said, they are all certainly better than Rice. CUSA is a football dumpster and Rice is at the bottom of the dumpster, with all the rotten oozy filth from the rest of the conference slowly trickling down over us, running into our mouths, nose, eyes, and ears. We are slowly being crushed by the refuse above us and drowned by the slime around us, and it is a race to see which kills us first. Thanks to Coach Bailiff for the predicament and to AD Karlgaard for extending Bailiff.

Looking at ESPN's Team Efficiencies,** Rice is ranked 127 of 130 in offense, 124 of 130 in defense, and 83 of 130 in special teams. 128 of 130 overall, ahead of UTEP and Georgia Southern.

Rice's special teams are saved by Jack Fox, as he is personally ranked 7th nationally in kickoff % that result in a touchback, 16th in average kickoff length, and 28th in average punt length. Without Jack Fox, I feel quite confident that Rice would be dead last in a lot more rankings, ratings, and categories.

Fun fact ... between Rice's crap offense and Fox's leg, opponents have only attempted 4 kickoff returns against Rice this season. That is #1 nationally! Clap hard every time Rice prevents an opponent from returning a kickoff so we can keep that lead!

** Team efficiencies are based on the point contributions of each unit to the team's scoring margin, on a per-play basis. The values are adjusted for strength of schedule and down-weighted for "garbage time" (based on win probability). The scale goes from 0 to 100; higher numbers are better and the average is roughly 50 for all categories.