College Football
WVU Football Falls to New Low in ESPN FPI
To further show how much can change in one week, WVU has dropped to a new low in a major network’s poll.
The ESPN FPI (Football Power Index) now has the Mountaineers as their No. 72 team, marking a worse placement for the Mountaineers than even any from recent years under former head coach Neal Brown.
West Virginia’s previous low was when they fell to No. 66 after losing to Ohio, which was also where they were at the start of the season. And for a sense of som irony, WVU sits just in front of the Bobcats, who are ranked at No. 73.
So while the ESPN FPI isn’t recognized as a major poll and it does tend to rank teams based on actual level of play based on their competition more than the others, the once-proud WVU program outside of the top 70 is sill note worthy
And to no surprise, WVU is considered a massive underdog in their next game. Oddsmakers are now fully expecting West Virginia to drop to 0-2 in Big 12 play following their poor performance against Kansas.
Despite coming off a big comeback win over Pitt the week before, Rich Rodriguez’s Mountaineers were embarrassed on the road in their Big 12 opener on Saturday. Now on the heels of their 41-10 defeat at the hands of Kansas, major sportsbooks have WVU as a double-digit underdog to Utah.
Both DraftKings and FanDuel have West Virginia as a 11.5-point underdog at the open of the week.
Utah is also coming off a loss, the Utes fell to Big 12 favorite Texas Tech. Prior to their 34-10 loss to the Red Raiders, Utah beat Wyoming, Cal Poly and UCLA.
West Virginia now holds a 2-2 overall record, with wins over Robert Morris and Pitt and losses at Ohio and Kansas. The Mountaineers are undefeated at home through the first four weeks of season.
WVU and Utah will kickoff on Saturday at 3:30 pm ET from Milan Puskar Stadium. The game will be nationally televised on FOX.
Find more coverage of the WVU football program at WV Sports Now.
