Southern Utah revised 2012 prospects...look out for the T-Birds.

First of all, I want to say that I am not making this up.  Here is a link to the USA today computer rankings.  Check it out for yourself.

Southern Utah surprised some people by knocking off Portland State last week at Jeld-Wenn field.  But it was not a surprise to Jeff Sagarin and his computer rankings at Portland State.  SUU was picked to finish 8th in the pre-season Big Sky Conference polls.  That is the surprise.  According to the computer rankings, SUU is 6th with a predictor of 54.38.  They are as stronger than the BSC average of 54.03, and should represent themselves well the rest of the way, beginning with this Saturday's game against conference favorite, Montana State, who the computer says is very overrated.

The home field adds 2.38 points to the score.

Remaining opponents from strongest to weakest

Eastern Washington   64.34  (SUU score 54.38+2.38=56.76)--Predicts a 10-point EWU win.
@ Montana   59.53--Predicts a 7-point loss
@ North Dakota   58.68--Predicts a 7-point loss
@ Northern Arizona   58.24 --Predicts a 7-point loss
Montana State   54.31--predicts a 2-point win
Weber State   52.89--predicts a 4-point win

Sacramento State   46.02--predicts a 10-point win

The computer predicts, at this time, that SUU will surprise Montana State, but finish with a 5-6 season while going 4-4 in conference play.  The schedule is not kind to the Thuderbirds as they play the cream of the BSC, with most of those games on the road.  It probably would have been nicer to have Idaho State or Northern Colorado instead of North Dakota or Montana, but these are the breaks.  Montana State may be overrated, but #7 Eastern Washington is the real deal while Montana, North Dakota and Northern Arizona may be a little bit underrated.

These games are not played on the computer, and the actual results are probably going to differ.  The computers do not take into account anomalies like turnovers and penalties.  But if Montana State is truly overrated, Southern Utah will be the team that can prove it.  The T-birds may not finish the season higher than the middle of the conference, but at least for one week, or even two, they will be the talk of the Big Sky.