Football S&P+ Update: Not Last in the ACC! (Yet)

The Football S&P+ rankings are updated each week by FootballOutsiders, presenting a statistical analysis of each college football team’s offense, defense, and special teams - trying to separate emotion from the analysis and use raw numbers to make projections on how the rest of the season might play out.

Click through to the link above for a full explanation of how they are calculated, but in a nutshell, they measure Bill Connelly's Five Factors of college football: efficiency, explosiveness, field position, finishing drives, and turnovers.

Boston College is ranked #65 in the nation according to this system - #11 nationally on defense, but #115 in special teams and #121 (OUCH) on offense. Their "projected" win total statistically is 3.8, so basically the computers know they shouldn't have thrown that game away against Georgia Tech.

The good news? We’re not last in the ACC! Duke (#72), Syracuse (#78) and Virginia (#79) bring up the rear. The bad news? Only Syracuse is on BC’s schedule, reiterating that Saturday’s game might be the last-best-chance to snap that ACC losing streak.

#90 UConn is also ranked below BC, so that’s another game where BC will probably be favored.

BC is looking up the rankings at its other opponents, though not too far up to Wake Forest (#63). Like BC, the rankings are kind to Wake’s defense, but not to their offense.

NC State has surged up to #25 in the rankings, while FSU (#15) and Louisville (#5) remain up in the upper echelon as well. That’s not something that fills you with much confidence going in to the back half of the season, in which BC needs three wins in order to reach .500.