Not much fluctuation at all in the rankings. In fact our top ten remains identical to last week’s. Pretty much every game was the antithesis of suspenseful and, according to our rankings, went the way we expected it too. But still, it’s a college football Saturday. I’m certainly not going to complain about it. Onto the rankings.
- LSU
No reason to move them. This might sound strange, but I’m not going to penalize a team for winning a road night game against a ranked team. It’s this type of forward thinking that keeps us on the cutting edge.
- Alabama
The Tide’s win was just as impressive as LSU’s. From here on out, it’s going to take their annual game against Louisiana Monroe for us to drop them after a win.
- Oklahoma
It was a good enough win against Missouri, but is ameteur hour compared to the weekend’s of the banner SEC west teams. We can’t have them leap-frogging anyone, but they’re now a relatively convincing #3. It’s going to be unfortunate if they have to lose to one of those two SEC teams in the title game.
- Wisconsin
Nice win against South Dakota, guys. Congratulations. It’s time to play a credible opponent, and Nebraska is more or less that. This is one of three games Wisconsin could conceivably lose this season, so it’s going to be tremendously disappointing for the standing of the conference when they lose.
- Boise State
Unfortunately for Boise, they don’t really have any Nebraska’s in their future. Much like every year they have to go undefeated and hope at least everyone but one team loses a game. The former is almost a given, the latter is distinctly unlikely this season.
- Oklahoma State
Speaking of potential losses for higher ranked teams, Oklahoma State seems to be on a crash course for an undefeated match-up with Oklahoma. The one wrench in their plans is Texas, who no one (including Vegas) seems to be able to put their finger on.
- Stanford
I’m still not sure anyone outside of Palo Alto can name a single player on this team after Andrew Luck. Still, for the most part they play the role of a top ten team. They could be UCLA this Saturday by fifty points and my opinion isn’t going to change one way or the other. Expect this team to stay put until they play USC Halloween weekend.
- Oregon
They forego the 7th seed because Stanford was more convincing in their win over Arizona than Oregon was in their’s.
- Virginia Tech
Their game against Clemson is the first ACC game in at least three years that we’re looking forward too.
- Florida
The Gators play in the SEC and have their annual game against Florida State, so we can’t take too many digs at the remaining three games on their schedule. But one would think even they’d eventually be curious how they’d fair against a team out of conference that isn’t Florida State or Furman.
- Clemson
Well, they can win high profile match-ups at home, which should be expected when your home is referred to as Death Valley. Still, in a resurgent (or just coincidentally deep) ACC they’ll have to pull out a few on the road to get to the BCS.
- South Carolina
If you ranked everyone’s strength of schedule in the country, South Carolina would be dead center. Their four opponents thus far have been East Carolina, Georgia, Navy & Vanderbilt. None of them are particularly bad or good, and with the exception of Vanderbilt they’ve all been competitive. Still, this defense is only going to improve as the season goes along and they don’t play a ranked opponent until after Halloween when they play Arkansas & Florida. Fully expect this team to be 8-0 by then.
- Georgia Tech
Much like South Carolina, this team could be 8-0 before losing their first game. It was a relatively close call against their first real opponent in North Carolina, but the Tarheels are probably their toughest opponent until October 29th against Clemson, who they actually get at home.
- Nebraska
If they beat Wisconsin in Madison next Saturday night, they will have earned that 8th seed that both the AP and Coach’s pool are giving them. Right now the best team they’ve beaten is Washington and Nebraska let them score 38 points. They’re the eighth ranked team in the country on name recognition only.
- Illinois
This team can’t get any respect from the pollsters. Only beating Western Michigan by three and being 4-0 for the first time since 1951 might have something to do with it. But 16th in the country seems appropriate if only for holding Arizona State to fourteen points.
- Baylor
They’re getting a lot of mileage out of that TCU win in which they allowed 48 points. Thirty-one points to Rice isn’t too hot, either. But their defense was obviously never why they were ranked so high.
- South Florida
Much like Baylor, all their credibility is built on a high profile win in week one. Unlike Baylor, their competition throughout the rest of the season doesn’t pose much of a threat. Right now, they have one scheduled game against a ranked opponent: A West Virginia team that was just manhandled at home.
- Michigan
I know it was just San Diego State, but the defense seemed to make a leap from not only earlier this year, but also the past four. As an unabashed Ohio State fan, consider me officially concerned.
- Texas
They jumped three spots primarily due to four teams in front of them losing. None the less, having their starting quarterback decided for them may turn out to be a good thing.
- Arkansas
Not a good loss, but at the same time, no one really expected them to beat Alabama. Really good chance they climb back up the rankings before the season’s over.
- West Virginia
They lost to the best team in the country, I’m not going to crazy with dropping them.
- Florida State
There really isn’t any reason to still have them ranked, because while the two team’s they lost too are extremely competent and are both favorites to win their conferences, if you can’t beat anyone competitive then why should you be ranked at all? Default seems to be the answer.
- Texas A&M
They had a lead and blew it, which is more than you can say for the three teams in front of them. But the team they lost too has a significantly worse resume than LSU, Clemson & Alabama. Plus, we’ve never had the Aggies higher than 14th.
- Temple
Judging by the Maryland game, the Penn State loss was something of a fluke. It’s a good sign when Penn State beats you the same way they ever beat any SEC team in a bowl game. Temple will probably finish the season 11-1.
- TCU
The polls like them more than I do, but whatever. They’ve beaten everyone convincingly that they’ve played since losing to Baylor. That’s good enough to round out the rankings.
