9/4/2018 football Edit

Statistically Speaking: Week 1 Pac-12 Power Ranking

Joseph Silverzweig • UteNation

Staff

Joseph has spent the last five years doing in-depth quantitative analysis of the Utes and the PAC 12. His mission is to take sports narratives and put them to the test.

A week of football is in the books, giving us some data to test our preseason expectations against. Some teams met expectations, some fell short, and some surprised observers with a strong performance. This twist on typical power rankings are based on changes in advanced metrics and performance given the strength of opponent. They don't care about brand, or hype, or that new hot QB recruit--it's who you played and how you did.

Proj. Wins- Most likely number of wins based on an analysis of every possible schedule for each team.

Make Bowl- Percentage chance this team makes a bowl game, based on the wins analysis.

Change in Pts. Adj.- A team's advanced metric is measured in points against an average opponent. This number is the change from last week to this week in that number.

Chip Who? The Bruins dropped one to Cincinnati and looked soft, slow, and out of position.

The Beavers performed worse than expected and were totally hopeless to begin with.

After BYU, you thought "Weren't the Wildcats supposed to be good?" You weren't alone.

The Buffs looked sharp vs. CSU, but still have a ways to go before they break out of the cellar.

Herm Edwards' debut was quite impressive, but they need a better opponent to prove it.

The Model loves the Bears, but they'll have to improve at QB if they want to hit 8 wins.

The Cougars rolled out a complete, well-coached team and took care of business.

You don't play that badly against UNLV, even for two quarters, and get away with it.

Utah barely budges this week, hitting their mark against an overwhelmed Weber State team.

Oregon impressed this week, scoring 30 points in the second quarter en route to a blowout.

Too many missed opportunities cause the Huskies to slip out of the top spot.

Stanford couldn't get Love going, but compensated with a fantastic passing performance.