Jags Make USA Today’s Not-So-Good List

September 21, 2012 · Filed Under Football · 1 Comment 

The Jags have been in the Sagarin rankings for a couple seasons now and we have pointed out how the Jags were rated in those rankings. But now they have made one of USA Today’s rankings that schools do not want to be on.

Jeff Sagarin has been producing a college football power ranking for USA Today since 1985. His list includes FBS and FCS teams, which now includes about 245 schools. His computer rankings are even used as part of the BCS formula to determine its rankings.

This week, USA Today published a story that was titled “Walk of Shame: The Worst 25 FBS Schools Right Now”. They took the lowest ranked FBS teams in the Sagarin rankings to create this list. Two schools from the state of Alabama are on that list. South Alabama is ranked #5 while UAB is ranked #12. But the Jags are not the only Sun Belt schools on this list. Florida Atlantic, Middle Tennessee State, Florida International and defending SBC Champs Arkansas State are all on the list along with future SBC member Texas State.

The entire list of 25 are (with #1 being the “worst” team in the FBS):

  1. UMass
  2. Memphis
  3. Florida Atlantic
  4. Texas-San Antonio
  5. South Alabama
  6. Eastern Michigan
  7. Akron
  8. Tulane
  9. Colorado
  10. New Mexico
  11. Texas State
  12. UAB
  13. Central Michigan
  14. Idaho
  15. UNLV
  16. Colorado State
  17. Buffalo
  18. Kent State
  19. Army
  20. New Mexico State
  21. Middle Tennessee State
  22. Florida International
  23. Miami-Ohio
  24. Houston
  25. Arkansas State

South Alabama will be facing all four of the current Sun Belt members on the list. Also, the Jags are ranked better than UTSA, who the Jags lost to in a heart-breaker of a game in the season opener.

Hopefully this will be a big motivating factor as the Jags travel to Mississippi State on Saturday to face their first SEC team and their first Nationally ranked opponent.