First WAC Power Rankings

Since power rankings are en vogue, particularly with other sports, it would benefit this blog to do the same with the Western Athletic Conference. Few newspapers give credence to the conference since it's not a Bowl Championship Conference and filled with cupcakes (only two other conferences have more weaker teams - the Sunbelt and the Mid-American.)

So, how these ratings are going to work:

San Jose State is commonly referred to as "middle of the pack" in the Western Athletic Conference when it comes to football. The team since the Dick Tomey era began has neither been terrible, nor has it been great. The Spartans have finished slightly worse than a fifth place out of nine teams since 2005.

It makes them a nice barometer for the conference. Thus we have essentially three categories:

Better than the Spartans - The potential BCS contenders, and the class of the division. Wins against these teams are considered a monumental achievement, like Hawaii would have been last year.

Equal with the Spartans - Teams that are on the same level as the Spartans on a year-in-year-out basis. It's a 50-50 shot to beat them, and on any given Saturday the game is a coin flip. The final game of the season against the Wolfpack last year is an example of this.

Worse than the Spartans - The divisional cupcakes that rarely have a shot against the rest of the conference. Idaho on a regular basis is an example.

So, now that we've established how these teams will be ranked, lets get to it:

BETTER THAN THE SPARTANS

Fresno State Bulldogs - Fresno doesn't need to play a conference game to prove its worth. Schooling Rutgers, and beating UCLA is proof enough, although the Bulldogs are far from the BCS busters everyone thought it would be.

Boise State Broncos - The last undefeated team in the conference, the Broncos are only second place because there is still a question of whether or not they can beat Fresno. Boise State beat Oregon in Eugene, which counts for something.

EVEN WITH THE SPARTANS

Nevada Wolfpack - Nevada has been both impressive and terrible in the last few years, and so far this year hasn't been much different. Led by Colin Kaepernick at quarterback, the Wolfpack will have to prove themselves in WAC play after dumping two games to two ranked teams, and defeating two teams that are essentially cupcakes.

Louisiana Tech Bulldogs - The Bulldogs are trending upward once with WAC play beginning. Louisiana Tech upset Mississippi State in week one, but were shut out against ranked University of Kansas. The Bulldogs will probably drop its opening game of conference play when the team travels to Boise State, but could finish above .500 in the WAC.

WORSE THAN THE SPARTANS
The Western Athletic Conference as a whole is trending way down, because one team that was the class of the division has dropped a long distance in terms of talent. Normally, the division balances 3-3-3 (3 Class, 3 Middle of the Road, 3 Cupcakes). This year, it's unbalanced 2-3-4.

Hawaii Warriors - People thought the Warriors were going to be way worse with head Coach June Jones moving on, and virtually the entire offense going pro. A loss to Florida was expected, and it's difficult to judge whether or not a loss to Oregon State, in light of the Beavers win over the number one ranked team in the country on Thursday, should have been expected. But a loss to San Jose State at Aloha Stadium is cause for concern. Hawaii went from BCS Party Crasher to No-Bowl really quickly.

New Mexico State Aggies - The Aggies have been trending upward in talent, but history is not in New Mexico State's corner. Since joining the WAC in 2005, the Aggies have never passed four wins total during a season, and haven't won more than two conference games. I would expect that to change this year considering Hawaii's down year, but that's still open for debate. But the Aggies have one knock against them so far - NMSU has the NCAA's worst run defense through last week, an issue that will cause problems for the Aggies throughout the season considering Boise's, San Jose's, and Nevada's running games.

Utah State Aggies - The Aggies, unlike NMSU, are not trending upward, but the only legitimate indicator of that was a loss to Nevada-Las Vegas in the first week. The other indicator the team hasn't gotten any better - Utah State has the 108th-ranked run defense. Although, once the rankings update for this week, this number will improve after their destruction of the Vandals this week.

Idaho Vandals - The San Francisco 49ers weren't the only team Dennis Erickson screwed. One year after being canned by San Francisco, Erickson thought he would help revive the team that gave him his first coaching break. While the Vandals were only 4-8 in 2006, Idaho won three conference games and looked like they were getting better. Then the wheels came off - Erickson followed the money and went to Arizona State, leaving the Vandals high and dry. Now on year two of the after Erickson era, the Vandals are among NCAA footballs worst. They haven't won a conference game since the 2006 team beat Louisiana Tech mid-season, which was also the last non-FCS team the Vandals beat. This year isn't going to change anything. They are still the worst team in the conference. among the worst in NCAA football, and the odds the team will win a division game is low.

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That's the rankings for this week. More rankings in two weeks, after the homecoming game and conference play gets going in earnest.