Here is a recap of the games I watched and the rest of the scores from last night’s games.

The game to kick off the college football season was Murray State at Louisville. The Cardinals started out strong with a 21-0 lead in the first half led by their quarterback Will Stein (226 yds 2 TDs) which is a good passer on the move. But then the game got sloppy with seven turnovers committed by both teams. Louisville allowed for it to be competitive, but they still came away with the win. Final score: Louisville 21 Murray State 9.

Villanova at Temple was broadcasted on ESPN3.com and I decided to catch it to see if there is any drop off in Temple after the departure of head coach Al Golden. Temple had no problem in their first game of the season and exuded their dominance over Villanova. Bernard Pierce appears to be a very talented running back that has speed on the edge. He finished with 147 yards on 20 carries. Final score: Temple 42 Villanova 7.

Mississippi State was the first SEC team to play this season and they traveled to the Liberty Bowl to play Memphis. As expected, the Bulldogs rolled over the Tigers in tallying their most points scored in a game since 2000. Vick Ballard had a dazzling performance racking up 166 rushing yards with three touchdowns on just 10 carries. Mississippi State’s specials teams return game does need to improve before SEC play. Final score: Mississippi State 59 Memphis 14.

UNLV may be the Running Rebels, but the Badgers were doing most of the running. Wisconsin rolled over UNLV with a strong ground attack with 241 rush yards and a good showing by quarterback Russell Wilson. Wilson had 255 passing yards, 62 rush yards, and three total touchdowns in his first game as a Badger. The Running Rebels still had 146 rush yards against a Badger defense that seemed too lackadaisical at times. Final Score: Wisconsin 51 UNLV 17.

Kentucky vs. Western Kentucky was surprisingly closer than expected.  The score was only a 7-3 with Kentucky leading after the first half. The Hilltoppers came into the game with a lot of moxy for a team just 2-10 a season ago and were not all intimidated by their SEC foe. Tailback Bobby Rainey managed to get over 100 rushing yards for WKU, but it took 28 carries to do so. Linebacker Andrew Jackson (6’1 255lbs) may have been the star of the game for the Hilltoppers with 11 tackles, two tackles for loss, and a sack. The Wildcats seemed a little lost without Randall Cobb, but quarterback Morgan Newton had a big 58 yard run and a huge throw late in the fourth quarter to secure the win for Kentucky. Final Score: Kentucky 14 Western Kentucky 3.

I ended up catching part of the fourth quarter and overtime of what ended up being the game of the night in Wake Forest at Syracuse. The Orange scored 22 straight points including a two point conversion to come back despite having a field goal blocked late in the fourth quarter and beat the Demon Deacons in overtime. Final Score: Syracuse 36 Wake Forest 29.

Here are the rest of the scores for Thursday night:
Central Michigan 21 South Carolina State 6
Florida International 41 North Texas 16
Toledo 58 New Hampshire 22
Georgia Tech 63 West Carolina 21
Rutgers 48 North Carolina Central 0
Utah 27 Montana State 10
Bowling Green 32 Idaho 15
Arizona State 48 UC Davis 14

SEC
West
Alabama (13-0) 21.35
Auburn (9-3) 14.475
LSU (8-4) 13.4
Mississippi State (7-5) 12.563
Arkansas (8-4) 9.835
Ole Miss (4-8/5-7) 9

East
Florida (11-2) 15.033
South Carolina (6-6) 10.2
Georgia (8-4) 8.811
Tennessee (5-7) 7.286
Kentucky (7-5) 6.853
Vanderbilt (2-10) -1.975

*Conference Championships are included in projections.
*Games against FCS teams were not projected. However, teams were given a win for FCS games to show a better depiction of the projected season record, but this does not help in accuracy since FCS teams do win some games.
*Bowl games are not projected.

This is the second set of the Burnette Power Rankings called the Preseason Momentum Rankings. This type of ranking is for preseason only and will be done again next year. I did not include the formula or process of the ranking due to its complexity and I plan to add further to it next year. However, the factors that determine the team’s Momentum score and projected record include:

·         Five year trends for wins, points scored, and points allowed.

·         Schedule Strength including home and away games.

·         Recruiting during the offseason.

·         Returning starters and returning quarterback.

·         Coaches leaving (only successful coaches that left for desired positions or necessity are factored in but retirement does not qualify.)

The five year trends for wins, points scored, and points allowed are the most significant factors. I found in my extensive research of the last five college football seasons’ data that recruiting is a much more significant factor than returning starters or returning quarterbacks. Next year, I plan to do more research to see the effects of the coaching carousel. However, I noticed that the most glaring impact of a coaching change is if a coach leaves a program for a better job such as Brian Kelly did when leaving Cincinnati to go to Notre Dame. The Bearcats went from being 12-0 with Kelly in 2009 to 4-8 in 2010 without him.

This blog I just posted the SEC conference and I will post the other BCS conferences this weekend. I will also try to get some of the non BCS teams posted before the season starts. The first thing you may notice is that some teams have a higher Momentum score than teams with a better projected record. The projected record takes into account home, away, and neutral site scores that I developed. Also, teams may have a negative Momentum score as in Vanderbilt.

This is a non-bias formula ranking. For example, if I went by my own bias then I would have projected Arkansas with at least 10 or more wins since they are my favorite team, but they are projected at 8-4. However, from my analysis three of their four projected losses are close and any team from the SEC with a score above eight could have a chance to play in the BCS championship. Auburn came out of no where last season to win it. Overall, there were many closely projected games in the SEC. Ole Miss' record has two different projections due to their game with BYU being projected as a tie. Alabama is the only strong favorite. A couple of wins for Florida are projected to be very close and the same with a couple of the losses for LSU. The two big out of conference games in week one for the SEC in Boise State vs. Georgia and Oregon vs. LSU are both projected losses for the SEC.

Nothing to surprising about my picks, but I may change some before the season starts.These are my BCS conference champion predictions:
ACC: Florida State
Contenders: Florida State is almost everyone's preseason favorite for ACC champion, but Virginia Tech is the frontrunner to win the Coastal division and the conference overall this year should be solid.
Big East: West Virginia
Contenders: Pitt may be the next contender, but overall the conference looks bland coming into this season and West Virginia seems to be the only strong team in the conference.
Big 12: Oklahoma
Contenders: The Sooners are the clear favorite, but the Big 12 does have other contenders for the 2011 championship including Texas A&M, Oklahoma State, and longshot Missouri.
Big 10: Wisconsin
Contenders: It looks as though Ohio State should finally have a down year so that leaves the field wide open. Nebraska may be the next favorite to win championship after Wisconsin and they should win the Legends division, but plenty others have a chance including Michigan State and Michigan.
Pac 12: Oregon
Contenders: With Andrew Luck returning, it makes Stanford a contender, but it will be difficult for them to duplicate last season with all of their other key losses. If USC was not under a ban, then they could possibly win the championship. The Trojans may end up with one of the better records in the Pac 12. Oregon has a wealth of talent and should win another championship this year, but off the field issues are now looming over the program that may have an effect.
SEC: Arkansas/ Alabama
Contenders: I listed two champions for this conference since I am somewhat bias on this selection since I'm a known Hog fan. I do believe the Razorbacks can win the SEC this season, but Alabama is the clear favorite among most others. However, the SEC is stacked with competition with the West having other stout contenders in LSU and Mississippi State as well as in the East division there are contenders in South Carolina, Georgia, and maybe Florida under new coach Will Muschamp.