I read an article online (I'll see if I'm sufficiently motivated to find a link before I post this) where the writer covered "possible candidates" for the Kansas coaching opening.

Two of them were Mike Leach and Jim Leavitt. They are both good coaches, but I find this particularly laughable for a couple reasons. First of all, Leach is going to get more money to coach somewhere a little more high profile, like ASU. Second of all, BOTH of these guys had high profile player "abuse" cases that got them fired. So, let me get this straight - you fired Mark Mangino, probably your best coach ever who coached your school's best season ever (albeit against a schedule full of cupcakes - no Texas, no Oklahoma and you got beat by Missouri) because he hurt some players feelings and poked a kid in the chest on TV... and NO ONE outside of Lawrence, Kansas knew or cared about it... and now you are going to try to hire one of two guys who had big ESPN storylines for mistreating players. Now, for the record, I think the Leach thing was a railroad job, but the fact remains you look a bit hypocritical if you try to hire Leach when you ran off Mangino for the same thing.

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The Napkin Rankings (a quick and easy way to rate teams based on actual performance) enter Week 6.  Teams get a point for a win, a win against a BCS conference team, a dominant win (30+ points) and a road win.  Neutral site games are half a point.  Here's a look at the best teams in each conference.

ACC:  Georgia Tech, 12 points.

Big 12:  Oklahoma, 10.5 points.

Big East:  West Virginia, 8 points.

Big Ten:  Michigan, 11 points.

Conference USA:  Houston, 10 points.

Independents:  Notre Dame, 8 points.

MAC:  Temple, 7 points.

Mountain West:  Boise State, 7.5 points.

PAC 12:  Stanford, 12 points.

SEC:  LSU, 13.5 points.

Sun Belt:  LA-Lafayette, 7 points.

WAC:  Hawaii, 5 points.

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The Napkin Rankings enter Week 5.  If you haven't read the earlier posts, the Napkin Rankings are a quick and easy way to rate teams based on actual performance, not on whatever system the polls are using this week. Let's put it this way:  last year's national champion, Auburn, was unranked in the preseason polls.

You get a point for a win against a FBS team, a point for a win against a BCS team, a point for a win on the road (Neutral site games are 0.5 points), and a point for a dominant (30+ points) win.  You can't get the dominant win points unless the team you dominated has won a game, though - and the dominant point is the only point you can get when you play an FCS team.  You lose a point for a loss (away losses are 0).

Here's the best teams by conference.

ACC:  Georgia Tech, 10 points.

Big 12:  Texas, 8 points.

Big East:  3 teams tied with 6 points.

Big Ten:  Wisconsin, 8.5 points.

Conference USA:  Houston, 8 points.

Independents:  Notre Dame, 7 points.

MAC:  Ohio, 5 points.

Mountain West:  Boise State, 4.5 points.

PAC 12:  Stanford, 9 points.

SEC:  LSU, 10.5 points.

Sun Belt:  UL-Lafayette, 6 points.

WAC:  Hawaii, 5 points.

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Well, 4 weeks are in the books; the season is 1/4 over.  This Saturday was especially wild with some big games and high scores.  Let's show the cream of each conference, using the quick and easy Napkin Rankings to find out what team is really good and what team is overrated by the traditional polling system.

ACC:  Georgia Tech, 7 points.

Big 12:  Oklahoma State, 7 points.

Big East:  South Florida, 6 points.

Big Ten:  Wisconsin, 5.5 points.

Conference USA:  Houston, 6 points.

MAC:  Temple, 5 points.

Mountain West:  3 teams tied with 4 points.

PAC 12:  Stanford, 7 points.

SEC:  LSU, 8.5 points.

Sun Belt:  Louisiana-Lafayette, 5 points.

WAC:  Hawaii, 3 points.

After the jump, we'll go over a top 10 list....

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Just interested in what people think.  What are the best road trips in the Big 12?  Austin?  I don't know if any other place is really that great.  But the best road trips in the SEC?  Gainesville, Knoxville, Baton Rouge, Oxford... there's a lot more than one.  Besides, this Texas thing is never going to go away until we get out of their sphere of influence.  The worst part is that the Big 12 made Texas (and OU, to a much lesser extent) what they are today.  No other conference is going to accept the LHN.  So why should we stay in a conference with the LHN?

There has been a ton of debate recently over conference realignment.  I don't think it's a secret that a majority of the fanbase wants to end up in the Big Ten based on culture, geography and academics.  However, when looking closely at the academic standings of our school and other schools as ranked by U.S. News & World Report, it's time we put to bed the notion that our academics would suffer in the SEC.

For purposes of fairness, I used the last 12 team Big 12 lineup, a commonly proposed Big 10 lineup, and a theoretical SEC lineup.

After the jump...

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Week 3 of the Napkin Rankings and we are starting to see the wheat separated from the chaff, so to speak.  The Napkin Rankings are a simple, unbiased way to tell how good a college football team is without having to rely on the inexact science of recruiting rankings, preseason rankings, and gut feelings.  It rewards performance with points.  The link to the points system is in the first Napkin Rankings Fan Post, if you care to check it out.

Top Teams By Conference:

ACC - Georgia Tech, 5 points.

Big 12 - Texas, 5 points.

Big East - South Florida, 5 points.

Big Ten - Wisconsin, 4.5 points.

Conference USA - Houston, 5 points.

MAC - Ohio, 4 points.

Mountain West - San Diego State, 4 points.

Pac-12 - Stanford, 7 points.

SEC - LSU, 5.5 points.

Sun Belt - Florida International, 5 points.

After the jump, we'll go over the Top 10 teams in College Football... and one very terrible team.

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Based on this link from Orangebloods.com (I know, I know... read with a large shaker of Morton's salt) http://texas.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1263940 , this says that Oklahoma is determined to join the Pac-12, Colorado will sue them to keep the conference from moving to East & West Divisions.  Meanwhile our intrepid commissioner, Dan Beebe, wants the other schools to "work on Texas".  Work on Texas to what?  They aren't going to give up the LHN.  They probably CAN'T seeing as they signed a big money deal with ESPN.  Get Texas to go to the PAC?  Doesn't stop the incoming lawsuit from Colorado.

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First, I'll identify the best teams by performance in each conference, then list a top 10 after the jump.

ACC:  Virginia Tech (3 points)

Big 12:  Oklahoma State (3 points)

Big East:  South Florida (4 Points)

Big Ten:  Northwestern (3 points) on the strength of an away BCS win (beat out Michigan)

Conference USA:  Houston (3 points)

Independents:  BYU (3 points)

MAC:  Temple (2 points) with a conference win (beat out Ball State, Bowling Green and Ohio).

Mountain West:  Boise State (2.5 points)

Pac 12:  USC (4 points) on the strength of wins vs 2 BCS teams (beat out California and Stanford)

SEC:  South Carolina (4 points) with an away conference win (beat out Alabama)

Sun Belt:  Florida International (4 points)

WAC:  Hawaii (2 points) with a tougher SOS (beat out New Mexico State)

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Some of you may have seen the Bob Valvano Napkin Rankings. 

Here's a link to a Google Document with the rankings system.

http://co107w.col107.mail.live.com/default.aspx#!/mail/ViewOfficePreview.aspx?messageid=57e5d62e-f523-11df-9e55-00215ad8c1be&folderid=66666666-6666-6666-6666-666666666666&attindex=0&cp=-1&attdepth=0&n=2070913998

After the jump, we'll go over the teams that made an impression.

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