Let’s start today’s post in a different direction: with a look at the biggest surprises of the week. And there was no bigger surprise than Iowa’s blowout win over Ohio State.

After week 10 (which, of course, compresses the ratings since the year-long ratings include the week 10 results), Iowa has an SRS of 55.0, while Ohio State is at 61.6. Given that the game was in Iowa, we would have expected Iowa to lose by 3.6 points.  But Iowa won 55-24, for a difference of 31 points, and an adjusted MOV of 26 points.  That means Iowa exceeded SRS expectations by 29.6 points, the most of any FBS team this week.

Army, Bowling Green, Baylor, and Utah round out the top 5 in terms of biggest overachievers in week 10:

Iowa also produced not just the best single-game SRS score of the week, but of the season! By beating a team with an SRS of 61.5, with an adjusted MOV of 26, that produces a whopping 87.5 single-game SRS score! Washington destroyed Oregon 38-3, for the second largest win of the week, with Miami’s victory over Virginia Tech earning the bronze. The table below shows the top single-game SRS performances of week 10. The difference between this table and the picture above, of course, is that this table is independent of the team’s actual rating.

Notre Dame actually recorded its worst win of the year, and its second-lowest SRS performance of the season, in a 48-37 home win over Wake Forest. But with Penn State losing to Michigan State, the Irish jump to #1 in the SRS.

The full week 10 SRS ratings are below. As always thanks to Dr. Peter R. Wolfe for providing the weekly game logs.

As always, please leave your thoughts in the comments.