FMI Week 6: Sadness Comes Sooner or Later

Welcome to Week 6 of the Fan Misery Index. As usual, if you are unfamiliar with the FMI please see the original post for the rules of despair.

The story of the week in college football is also the sadness of the week here at the Fan Misery Index. The unranked Longhorns ousted their arch rival #7 Sooners, shaking up the top ten and the First Circle in one fell swoop. At one point Texas was up by 21 points, dangling in front of us the tantalizing possibility of the first 3 level drop in the history of the FMI. Instead the Sooners rallied and Kyler Murray ended up having a great game while the Longhorns still won, offering Aggies a result so disappointing it should register in our rankings.

Here’s the big board:

MISERY OF NOTE

• Gotta hand it to Mississippi State. They were last week’s Featured Sadness, but they answered by knocking off #9 Auburn. Perhaps Starkville is just poison to any ranked team? If so, we won’t know for sure until the Bulldogs’ next home game. Now excuse me while I take a comically large sip of beer and check their schedule.
• Last week we also mentioned that four teams were on the precipice of a 5 game losing streak, and as misfortune would have it all four teams paid off. Arkansas combined theirs with a 34-point crotch kick from Alabama and now we’re all tied up in the Eighth Circle. With no rankings or potential streak hits among them, a 21-point loss is the most likely way for Arky or Rutgers to claim the title of Saddest Of Them All. My money is on UCLA, who can hit the loss to a rival rule as they take on Cal this weekend (this guy researched whether Rutgers even has a rival and concluded that Maryland is close but no cigar.)
• Don’t look now, but former FMI darling New Mexico State has themselves a 2-game win streak after they knocked off conferencelessmate Liberty this weekend. I feel like I hardly even know them anymore.
• Just as Alabama is the Dealer of Despair cutting off win streaks everywhere they turn, given the low level of their competition there’s probably good research to be done in how many loss streaks are saved by playing Rutgers. The Illini found themselves a much needed W in the arms of the Scarlet Knights this weekend. Truly they are the Washington Generals of their time.