Who is Bona Fide?

Bona Fide; Latin for "Good Faith"

We are five weeks into the college football season, approaching the middle of the season. Don't let that fool you. Most teams have not yet begun the real stretch of the season. We cannot look at their records and take it on "Good Faith" that they are a true indicator of a teams strength.

It is my personal opinion that you cannot judge a teams ability until it has played three good teams. A good team being any team in the top 40 to 50. One game gives us a beginning point. A second game gives us a trend. A third game confirms the trend. In a pinch, if a team only has two games against to 40 to 50 opponents, we can look at a couple games against teams ranked 50 to 80ish.

With that said, here are the bona fides for most of the country's top teams.

Alabama

5-0

117% bona fide

Wins over Florida, Arkansas, and Penn State qualify you. Duke and San Jose St. are meaningless.

Oregon

5-0
83% bona fide

Nice wins over Stanford and Arizona State, but you are still a little short. A win over Tennessee gets you closer (they've been giving better teams fits all year) but you're still short

Estimated 100% bona fide date:

October 21st vs. UCLA

Boise State

4-0

67% bona fide

Virginia Poly and Oregon State are tough teams, and credit to you for scheduling them. Unfortunately, you play in the WAC. Those other teams are terrible. Margin of victory can only do so much when you play the New Mexico's of this world.

Estimated 100% bona fide date:

First play Hawaii on Nov. 6

You then play Idaho the next weekend on Nov. 12.

If one of those teams do fall off your bona fide date moves to Nov. 19 vs. Fresno State.

If two of those teams fall in the 50-80 range (Fresno should be a solid bet, but the other two are just hanging on) Your last possible date you'll be bona fide, Nov 26th at Nevada. You have a long way to go.

Florida

4-1

100% bona fide

Congratulations, you've beaten South Florida and lost to Alabama. Those two games combined with wins over Kentucky and Tennessee tell us your solidly good. just good.

Ohio State

5-0

50% bona fide

You beat a good University of Miami team, and better than expected Illinois team (note, still not a good team and will struggle to get to bowl), but you ain't played shit yet.

Estimated 100% bona fide date:

October 16th at Wisconsin

Stanford

4-1

83% bona fide

You gave Oregon a good game. You lost, but we know you showed you can hang for at least one weekend. Add a couple wins against Notre Dame and UCLA and you're almost there.

Estimated 100% bona fide date:

October 9 vs. USC

University of Miami

4-1

83% bona fide

You lost to Ohio, and looked terrible doing it, but you did Clemson at Clemson. You also get half credit for beating Pittsburg.

Estimated bona fide date:

October 9 at Florida State

TCU

5-0

83% bona fide

You have a nice win against Oregon State, and another win against Baylor, which looks good for now. We also give you half credit for playing SMU

Estimated 100% bona fide date:

October 23 vs. Air Force

LSU

5-0

117% bona fide

You've beaten solid teams in UNC, and West Virginia. You even get half credit for games against Vanderbilt, Tennessee, and Mississippi State. You are the perfect example of a bona fide team. We can say all kind of things about you because you have established a solid trend line.

Example: You haven't played anyone we consider a top 25 team. We know you are better than most teams, but how will you fair against the tippy top? <--- See all those words. We can use them because we have lots of good data for LSU. The dats says "talented but disorganized"

Iowa

4-1

83% bona fide

You lost to Arizona, which we're sure makes you feel bad, but we learned a lot from your pain, like Arizona fans will flip off little children. You also beat the fish oil out of Penn State. Nice one! Half credit for Iowa State victory.

estimated 100% bona fide date:

October 16 at Michigan

Florida State

4-1

50% bona fide

You got your butt kicked by Oklahoma, so we know you aren't winning the BCS this year. Half credit for beating Virginia. So sorry to hear about how bad BYU is.

Estimated 100% bona fide date:

October28 at NC State. You have to play Miami next weekend, which will get you close. A slight improvement by Boston College or Wake Forest could move this date forward.

Oklahoma

5-0

117% bona fide

Good wins against Texas, Air Force and FSU. Half credit for beating Cincinnati,we think.

Utah

5-0

17% bona fide

Hey, you beat Pitt!

Estimated 100% bona fide date:

Half credit for a game at Iowa State October 9.

Full credit for a game against Air Force on October 30.

November 6 vs. TCU

Virginia Poly

3-2

100% bona fide

Lose to Boise State, and half credit for scheduling and losing to James Madison, a good FCS team that would run the Sunbelt Conference, and possibly finish third in the WAC. Nice win against NC State after getting things straight against East Carolina. Half credit for beating the pirates.

Arizona

4-0

67% bona fide

Good wins against Iowa and Kal-ee-forn=ya.

Estimated 100% bona fide date:

October 9th vs. Oregon State

Cal

2-2

83% bona fide

So you lost to Nevada and Arizona. Those are good teams. Cheer up buddy. We'll give you half credit for scheduling and beating Colorado. P.S. you should send a thank you letter to Georgia.

Estimated 100% bona fide date:

October9th vs. UCLA

Nebraska

4-0

33% bona fide

See, Nebraska, you need to show us more right now. Half credit for beating the skunk out of Washington. Not sure what that means yet. Another half point for beating ... Idaho. Didn't see that coming, did you?

Estimated bona fide date:

We'll give you half credit for playing Kansas on October 9, but that's not enough.

You'll also have to play Texas on October 16th

that makes your bona fide date October 23rd vs. Oklahoma State

USC

4-1

50% bona fide

Half a point each for playing Washington (and loosing), Virginia and Hawaii.

Estimated 100% bona fide date"
October 16th vs. Cal. You'll have to play Stanford the weekend before that.

Auburn

5-0

83% bona fide

Good wins vs. Clemson and South Carolina. Half credit for Mississippi State
Estimated 100% bona fide date:

October 9 vs. Kentucky

Arkansas

3-1

67% bona fide

You played Alabama tough and got a nice win against Georgia. Better hope the dogs straighten things out.

Estimated 100% bona fide date:

October 9 vs. Texas A&M

Texas

3-2

83% bona fide

You lost to Oklahoma, but you beat Texas Tech. You also lost to UCLA. The preceding words might as well be random gibberish as far as evaluating your team goes.

Estimated 100% bona fide date:

October 16 at Nebraska

Nevada

33% bona fide

Congrats. You beat Cal. WAC Love!

Estimate 100% bona fide date:

We have you down for an October 16th at Hawaii. We may be able to give you half credit for that.

A road trip to Idaho and Fresno State on November 6 and 14 will get two more 1/2 points.

November 26th Boise State

Oklahoma State

50% bona fide

You beat Texas A&M and Tulsa. Good for you.

Estimated 100% bona fide date:

October 23 at Nebraska. You also have to play Texas Tech the week before that

Air Force

4-1

50% bona fide

tough loss to Oklahoma and a nice win over Navy gets an extra half point.

Estimated 100% bona fide date:

October 23 at TCU, a game against San Diego State the week before should help.

Missouri

4-0

33% bona fide

1/2 a point each for Illinois and San Diego State

Estimated 100% bona dide date:

You can get a half point for playing Colorado on October 9

A full point for Texas A&M on October 16

Making your bona fide date October 23 vs. Oklahoma

NC State

4-1

100% bona fide

Wins over Central Florida and Cincinnati get you half credit. A nice win over Georgia Tech, better hope they straighten out and fly right, and a loss to Miami fulfill your requirements.

North Carolina

2-2

100% bona fide

God Damn that James Taylor! You played Georgia Tech and LSU tight, and get some credit for wins over Rutgers (falling fast) and East Carolina.

Michigan

5-0

50% bona fide

Wins over Connecticut and Notre dame followed by feasting on junk food.

Estimated 100% bona fide dates:

October 16 vs Iowa after playing Michigan State the week before

Oregon State

2-2

100% bona fide

You gave respectable showings against Boise State and TCU, and then beat Arizona. Well done to you.

Penn State

3-2

83% bona fide

Hey you beat Temple. That's good for something, like half credit. You also got you a new mud hole stomped by Iowa and Alabama. You have plenty of awesome and boarder line. You need some average to fill this out.

Estimated 100% bona fide date:

October 30 vs. Michigan

Arizona State

2-3

100% bona fide

Respectable losses Wisconsin, Oregon, and Oregon State. You know D+ isn't a grade they like to give out that often.

Wisconsin

3-2

67% bona fide

You beat Arizona State :-). Then you lost to Michigan state :-(

Estimated 100% bona fide date:

October 16 vs. Ohio State

Baylor

4-1

33% bona fide

You lost to TCU.

Estimated 100% bona fide date:

October 23 vs Kansas State. You can get a half point for the game against Colorado, and a full point for Texas Tech. Note, if need be this date may be pushed back to the following weekend when you play Texas.

Texas Agriculture and Mining (yes mining, not military, which makes the boy scout uniforms even more confusing

4-1

33% bona fide

What we know about you is you lost to Oklahoma State.

Estimated 100% bona fide date:

October 16 vs. Missouri. Get the rest of your required credits the week before against Arkansas.

Georgia Tech

3-2

66% bona fide

A win against UNC and a loss to NC state. We have two points, now which direction are we going.

Estimated 100% bona fide date:

October 23 at Clemson. We'll also pick a bonus half point against UVA this weekend

Texas Tech

2-2

67% bona fide

losses to Texas and Iowa State suggest you aren't very good, but a victory of SMU tells us it could be worse.

Estimated 100% bona fide date:

October 9 vs. Baylor

Georgia

1-4

100% bona fide

OUCH! Losses to Mississippi State and Colorado in addition to full credit losses to Arkansas and South Carolina. That sucks man!

Michigan State (maybe I should just use a picture of John Smoltz with mustache)

5-0

67% bona fide

Wins vs. Notre Dame and Wisconsin. God Jorb!

Estimated 100% bona fide date:

October 9 vs. Michigan

South Florida

3-1

33% bona fide

hey, you lost to Florida! Hurray!

Estimated 100% bona fide date:

First play West Virginia October 14 for full credit

then play Cincinnati for half credit the following weekend

Finally achieve 100% bona fide status by getting another half credit against Rutgers

November 3, vs. Rutgers.

If something goes wrong you may have to wait until November 20 when you play Pitt

Clemson

2-2

66% bona fide

Congratulations, you've played two real games and lost them both. One to Auburn, and one to Miami.

Estimated 100% bona fide date:
October 9 at UNC

Notre Dame

2-3

100% bona fide
Wait til next year. That's what your doing. Nice average losses to Michigan, Stanford, and Michigan State.