Plenty of good games on the schedule this week, despite the numerous cancellations. This dashboard is the college football watchability index, which highlights the most- and least- (if there could ever be such a thing with college football) watchable games of the week. The absolute value of the point spread is on the horizontal axis and this represents a measure of uncertainty of outcome. Lower point spreads, in absolute value terms, are expected to be closer games. The total (over/under) is plotted on the vertical axis, with higher totals representing games that are expected to be higher scoring. The shape of the point representing each game represents day and start time. The color of the point is differentiated by the use of Sagarin Ratings for each team and sums them for the two teams playing in the game. Gold represents a combined high sum (could be 2 good teams or a dominant team in the game) and Red represents a combined low sum (not among the better teams playing in the game).
The games that are likely to be most exciting, as they are expected to be close and high-scoring, are located in the upper-left hand quadrant. The top matchups here are Miami FL-Virginia Tech and Iowa-Minnesota. Other fun matchups in this quadrant are SMU-Tulsa, Louisville-Virginia, Baylor-Texas Tech, and Florida State-NC State. Many games in the lower-left hand quadrant, where games are expected to be close, but relatively lower-scoring. Lots of interesting Big 10 games here, along with an enticing matchup between California and Arizona State. The lower-right hand quadrant features some highly ranked teams (Notre Dame, Cincinnati, Coastal Carolina (!)) in anticipated low-scoring affairs (with higher point spreads), while the upper-right hand quadrant has an expected shootout between Wake Forest and North Carolina, in addition to what could be very entertaining games in South Carolina-Mississippi and USC-Arizona.
The individual games in each timeslot that I am looking forward to are Iowa-Minnesota Friday night, Miami, FL-Virginia Tech early Saturday, Notre Dame-BC midday, Wisconsin-Michigan in the evening, and Cal-Arizona State late. Hope you have a great Saturday – enjoy the games!
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