It may be head coach Brian Kelly’s first year at the helm, but positive change is already tangible. While the 2008 and 2009 Irish squads finished 1-8 in November, this year’s unit went 3-0. It isn’t time to anoint Kelly the next Lou Holtz or Ara Parseghian, but Notre Dame played its best football down […]

Editor’s note: The previous week’s results can be found here: week 14, 13, 12, 11, 10, 9, 8, 7 and 6. The dust has settled on the 2011 season, and the Auburn Tigers came out on top. It was quite the turnaround for head coach Gene Chizik. Auburn finished the 2009 season in relatively pedestrian […]

Notre Dame faces Miami in the Sun Bowl New Year’s Eve. The game marks the first meeting between the two teams since 1990 and is a preview of three future contests—a neutral site game at Chicago’s Soldier Field in 2012 and a home/away series in 2016 and 2017. In many ways the two teams are […]

Editor’s note: Special thanks to ESP and AVR co-creator Vincenzo Siciliano for his effort in the work outlined below. He did the analysis, I just made a few observations and wrote up this summary. Disclaimer #1: The following is not intended for betting purposes. Disclaimer #2: The following analysis does not include the Army—Navy game […]

Editor’s note: Be sure to check back for the final installment of the ESP when the final AV Ranking (AVR) will be used to predict the bowl game outcomes. The previous week’s results can be found here: 13, 12, 11, 10, 9, 8, 7 and 6. The season ended with three undefeated teams but only […]

There was some shuffling atop the polls and the AVR this week as three teams—Boise State, LSU, and Oklahoma State —in last week’s ESP top 10 lost. The Broncos fell one spot in the AVR but fell more sharply in both the AP and Coaches Polls dropping five spots in the former and seven in […]

Three of the top four AVR teams were idle this week, and Boise State blanked Fresno State. Auburn and the Broncos remain one and two while TCU and Oregon flip-flopped. Of all the teams in the top 10, the Ducks have the least impressive resume with the 109th ranked strength of schedule. The Irish moved […]

There are still four unbeaten teams. Auburn bested Georgia in a slugfest, Boise State handled Idaho, Oregon survived against California, and TCU edged out San Diego State. With the exception of the Broncos, the other four teams looked largely human. The trend of top ranked AVR teams with weak schedules continues. Of the top 10 AVR […]

Now that teams are in the middle of their conference schedules, the cream is rising to the top. Arkansas bested South Carolina. Texas A&M handed the Sooners their second loss. LSU edged out Alabama. And TCU dismantled the Utes on their home field. There were near misses as well. Iowa nearly lost to Indiana and […]

And then there were five. Iowa dismantled Michigan State and Nebraska handled Missouri to reduce the number of unbeaten teams from seven to five. Auburn, Boise State, Oregon, TCU, and Utah are the only remaining unbeaten teams and all occupy the top five spots of the ESP. The same is true for the AVR with […]