Obviously, the big news of the week was K-State collecting its best win of the season with its best performance of the season. That helped the Cats' RPI to swell to 35.
Also assisting in that regard, though, were wins by vanquished foes Charleston Southern, Loyola and Virginia Tech.
George Washington and UMES continued to lose, though, as did North Florida, whose coach can, IMO, rot in Hell after he equated us to Auburn and Miami, all of which he labeled "not big-time programs." Scoreboard, you whiny bitch.
This week is one I've long awaited, as the Cats will fly to sunny Honolulu to confront the Diamond Head Classic.
Wins by Auburn, Clemson and Hawaii, combined with Xavier's stunning home loss to Oral Bob, make this field appear more balanced and challenging than it looked just a few weeks ago. It should be a fun 12 games to watch on ESPNU.
In Big 12 action, Kansas sat out the week to "take finals" (which is Jayhawk code for missing court appearances), while Iowa State, Missouri and Texas Tech collected scalps of outmatched opponents at home.
Texas logged a nice victory over Temple, while Oklahoma continued its winning ways with a closer-than-it-should-have-been survival of Houston in Oklahoma City. And Baylor's win at BYU was the best of them all.
Now for the bad. Texas A&M fell to 0-2 in SEC play and received a rude introduction to the state of Florida at the hands of the Gators, who led 50-25 at halftime after holding the Aggies to just a pair of field goals in the first 10 minutes.
(Excuse me while I stifle my uncontrollable laughter.)
Meanwhile, Oklahoma State put itself firmly on the bad side of the conference ledger with a loss to New Mexico that wasn't as close as the score indicates. The Pokes didn't score for the final 7 1/2 minutes.
With games still to come against Alabama, SMU and Virginia Tech, the overrated LeBryan Nash and his compadres appear to be in some serious bubble trouble. Told ya so.
Overall Record = 7-1
Big 12 Record = 0-0
RPI = 35
SOS = 63
Signature Wins (RPI 1-30) = Alabama
Quality Wins (RPI 31-100) = Virginia Tech
Bad Losses (RPI 101 or greater) = none
- Charleston Southern (6-3, 2-0 Big South) | RPI = 113: Win at The Citadel (88-69) and loss at Charleston (68-70)
- Loyola Chicago (3-7, 0-2 Horizon) | RPI = 200: Win over Chicago State (64-49)
- UMES (3-9, 0-1 MEAC) | RPI = 285: Loss at Air Force (60-64)
- George Washington (4-6) | RPI = 146: Loss to Bradley (66-67)
- Virginia Tech (8-3) | RPI = 42: Win over Campbell (85-60)
- West Virginia (7-2) | RPI = 53: Win over Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (84-64)
- North Florida (5-6, 1-0 A-Sun) | RPI = 150: Loss at Auburn (71-84)
- Alabama (8-3) | RPI = 24: Loss to Kansas State (58-71)
- Southern Illinois (2-5) | RPI = 336: Win at Northern Illinois (62-49)
- Clemson (5-4) | RPI = 161: Win over Winthrop (60-40)
- UTEP (3-5) | RPI = 284: Loss at UNLV (54-65) and win over Southern (87-57)
- Auburn (6-1) | RPI = 101: Wins over USF (52-40) and North Florida (84-71)
- Hawaii (5-4) | RPI = 321: Wins at Hawaii-Hilo (79-66) and over North Carolina A&T (65-57)
- Long Beach State (4-5) | RPI = 28
- No. 14 Xavier (8-1) | RPI = 27: Loss to Oral Roberts (42-64)
- Howard (3-8, 1-1 MEAC) | RPI = 317: Loss at Oregon State (72-93)
- No. 12 Kansas (7-2) | RPI = 20
- No. 9 Missouri (11-0) | RPI = 67: Wins over Kennesaw State (104-67) and William & Mary (94-56)
- No. 6 Baylor (9-0) | RPI = 50: Wins over Bethune-Cookman (69-42) and at BYU (86-83)
- Oklahoma (8-1) | RPI = 31: Win over Houston (79-74)
- Texas (9-2) | RPI = 86: Wins over Nicholls (93-40) and Temple (77-65)
- Oklahoma State (6-4) | RPI = 93: Loss to New Mexico (56-66)
- Texas Tech (5-4) | RPI = 192: Win over Grambling State (87-59)
- Iowa State (8-3) | RPI = 60: Win over Central Michigan (59-52)
- Texas A&M (8-2) | RPI = 187: Loss to Florida (64-84) in the Orange Bowl Classic