# Who will take the College Football Belt from WVU? **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [September 2, 2012, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-will-take-the-college-football-belt-from-wvu/633462 "2012-09-02T17:56:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2012, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-will-take-the-college-football-belt-from-wvu/633462/1 "2012-09-02T17:56:10Z")
For background see [this thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=651293) and [this page](http://collegefootballbelt.com/Schools/West%20Virginia%20Stats.htm) Since West Virginia has maintained possession of The Belt by defeating Marshall, it will fall to one of these teams to wrest ownership during the coming season: ```auto 99 James Madison Sep 15 vs. James Madison (Landover, Md.) 74 Maryland Sep 22 Maryland 39 Baylor Sep 29 Baylor (Homecoming) 13 Texas Oct 06 at Texas 40 Texas Tech Oct 13 at Texas Tech 34 Kansas State Oct 20 Kansas State 8 TCU Nov 03 TCU (Mountaineer Week) 6 Oklahoma State Nov 10 at Oklahoma State 4 Oklahoma Nov 17 Oklahoma 64 Iowa State Nov 23 at Iowa State 85 Kansas Dec 01 Kansas ``` [[Schedule taken from [this site](http://www.wvusports.com/schedules.cfm?sport=football) ]] The numbers to the left of the teams are from [Sagarin’s Pre-season rankings](http://www.usatoday.com/sports/sagarin/fbt12.htm) and are used to be able to include teams from the FCS as well as the FBS with a hint as to their strength. In the poll indicate your guess as to who will win The Belt from West Virginia, whose Sagarin rank at pre-season was – 23 West Virginia. Public poll will close before the James Madison game. Comments and discussion welcomed in this thread. ---
**Author:** ![Oakminster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/77aa72/32.png) [@Oakminster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oakminster)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2012, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-will-take-the-college-football-belt-from-wvu/633462/2 "2012-09-03T00:24:59Z")
Gotta go with Texas. ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2012, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-will-take-the-college-football-belt-from-wvu/633462/3 "2012-09-03T04:26:38Z")
> [@Oakminster](#): > > Gotta go with Texas. The numbers make sense, but I bet that Baylor game will be fun to watch, too. In any case, that’s some gauntlet WVU has to run to hang onto The Belt. ---
**Author:** ![NetTrekker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nettrekker/32/2909_2.png) [@NetTrekker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NetTrekker)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2012, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-will-take-the-college-football-belt-from-wvu/633462/4 "2012-09-03T17:10:58Z")
> [@Oakminster](#): > > Gotta go with Texas. +1. It’s now a conference game. ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2012, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-will-take-the-college-football-belt-from-wvu/633462/5 "2012-09-06T19:11:34Z")
If it might help your decision making, here’s how the Sagarin rankings have changed since this weekend’s games: ```auto OLD NEW 23 West Virginia 23 99 James Madison Sep 15 vs. James Madison (Landover, Md.) 103 74 Maryland Sep 22 Maryland 79 39 Baylor Sep 29 Baylor (Homecoming) 32 13 Texas Oct 06 at Texas 16 40 Texas Tech Oct 13 at Texas Tech 42 34 Kansas State Oct 20 Kansas State 34 8 TCU Nov 03 TCU (Mountaineer Week) 5 6 Oklahoma State Nov 10 at Oklahoma State 8 4 Oklahoma Nov 17 Oklahoma 3 64 Iowa State Nov 23 at Iowa State 56 85 Kansas Dec 01 Kansas 88 ``` ---
**Author:** ![mkecane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9e8a1a/32.png) [@mkecane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mkecane)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2012, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-will-take-the-college-football-belt-from-wvu/633462/6 "2012-09-06T21:17:46Z")
Unless a team has a defense like Bama’s, they’re not stopping WVU from scoring, and I don’t think Texas will have a defense like that. So what teams have an offense to match up with WVU? The first one I see is OSU. With that game in Stillwater, I picked the Cowboys. ---
**Author:** ![Zakalwe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zakalwe/32/270_2.png) [@Zakalwe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zakalwe)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2012, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-will-take-the-college-football-belt-from-wvu/633462/7 "2012-09-07T00:12:34Z")
Where’s the option to call WVU the cowards that they are? If they had manned up and played the game they contracted to, we’d own the Belt as of this coming Saturday. Now we’re stuck with Savannah State. Honestly, I just feel bad for those kids, just got beat 84-0 by OkState and now they have to come here. Their AD should be fired, the $450K they’re getting for this game isn’t worth it. ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2012, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-will-take-the-college-football-belt-from-wvu/633462/8 "2012-09-11T02:10:23Z")
Just in case you’re still interested in voting in the poll, here’s how those Sagarin rankings have changed after the Week 2 games: ```auto OLD NEW Newer 23 West Virginia 23 22 99 James Madison Sep 15 vs. James Madison (Landover, Md.) 103 88 74 Maryland Sep 22 Maryland 79 71 39 Baylor Sep 29 Baylor (Homecoming) 32 14 13 Texas Oct 06 at Texas 16 12 40 Texas Tech Oct 13 at Texas Tech 42 11 34 Kansas State Oct 20 Kansas State 34 4 8 TCU Nov 03 TCU (Mountaineer Week) 5 25 6 Oklahoma State Nov 10 at Oklahoma State 8 23 4 Oklahoma Nov 17 Oklahoma 3 8 64 Iowa State Nov 23 at Iowa State 56 24 85 Kansas Dec 01 Kansas 88 100 ``` ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2012, 12:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-will-take-the-college-football-belt-from-wvu/633462/9 "2012-09-30T12:43:55Z")
Judging from yesterday’s games, I’m not so sure Texas is up to the task.