The mid-season report card feature is going to actually run for over two weeks, since FAU has two byes in the first six weeks, their midpoint isn’t until October 24. But along the way, we’ll get a chance to look at every team outside the Big 6 conferences, including teams that haven’t gotten much attention even here. The plan is to take a subjective look using objective numbers:
- Wins- the only stat that really, truly matters. 5 or 6 wins and you can probably give yourself an A.
- Production & Scoring- shine some light on the wins stat. Good numbers here suggest good things ahead.
- Turnover Margin- can help explain a few things and spot trends
- ‘The Curve’- a look at schedule strength and performance vs. original expectations. ‘Bonus Points,’ ‘No Change,’ or ‘Points Off’ depending on the semi-subjective impression they’ve made.
And I’ll try to provide a look at the schedule the rest of the way, guesses on where I think they’ll end up with best and worst case scenarios, and postseason outlook, if any. What I will not be doing is predicting individual wins and losses, or keeping track of my exact predictions. It’s very possible that the wins and losses might add up wrong, if you try to count all 50 something reviews. I also reserve to right to adjust the focus of the report cards as I write them, if I decide something I’m looking at isn’t interesting/relevant/worthwhile.
Teams will be covered in random order once they finish 6 games, or 7 in a few cases (teams that travel to Hawaii are permitted to schedule 13 regular season games). Really, I randomized my list of teams for each week. Now, it may seem front-loaded with MAC and C-USA schools, but remember that together, they’re almost half of the non-BCS, and since they have conference championship games, teams only have one bye week to work with so many of them start the season with six or more games in a row.
For the complete list of mid-season report cards as they come out, there is a tab at the top of the page.