Monday, October 3, 2011

College Football Rankings - 3 Oct

Six teams were upset in the wild opening weekend of October, causing some shakeups in the top 25, both nationally and in my personal rankings. The top teams were all able to maintain their direction, and after five weeks there are still 15 undefeated teams out of 120. Most of those teams appear in my rankings, along with several teams who have blemishes but have still proven their talent in their wins. Here are the freshly updated rankings with every game of the season so far taken into account.

TW - LW - Team - Record - AP
1. (1) Stanford (4-0) (7)
2. (5) Wisconsin (5-0) (4)
3. (3) Oregon (3-1) (9)
4. (2) LSU (5-0) (1)
5. (9) Alabama (5-0) (2)
6. (6) Oklahoma (4-0) (3)
7. (4) Oklahoma State (4-0) (6)
8. (8) Boise State (4-0) (5)
9. (16) Michigan (5-0) (12)
10. (11) Washington State (3-1) (NR)
11. (15) Notre Dame (3-2) (30)
12. (NR) Tennessee (3-1) (36)
13. (20) Pittsburgh (3-2) (36)
14. (14) Utah (2-2) (NR)
15. (NR) Michigan State (4-1) (26)
16. (NR) Texas (4-0) (11)
17. (NR) California (3-1) (NR)
18. (NR) Florida (4-1) (17)
19. (21) San Diego State (3-1) (NR)
20. (NR) Nebraska (4-1) (14)
21. (NR) Washington (4-1) (28)
22. (19) Kansas State (4-0) (20)
23. (12) Georgia Tech (5-0) (13)
24. (17) Florida State (2-2) (23)
25. (7) South Florida (4-1) (31)

Dropped Out

(10) Texas A&M (2-2) (24)
(13) Ohio (4-1) (NR)
(18) Iowa State (3-1) (NR)
(22) Iowa (3-1) (NR)
(23) South Carolina (4-1) (18)
(24) Rutgers (3-1) (NR)
(25) Clemson (5-0) (8)

Ranked Teams by Conference

Pac 12 - 6
Big 10 - 4
SEC - 4
Big 12 - 4
MWC - 2
Big East - 2
ACC - 2
Ind - 1

Every team that appears in my rankings this week is a member of one of the 6 AQ conferences or Notre Dame, except for two, Boise State and San Diego State, which belong to the MWC. I believe there is a good case for the BCS to add the Mountain West as the seventh AQ conference this year, especially since they have outperformed the ACC and Big East in recent years.

Washington joined the many Pac 12 teams in my rankings thanks to an unexpected road win over the Utah Utes, who looked like a team that could challenge for the Pac 12 South title, but couldn't stay with the visiting Huskies. Washington's ascension makes the Pac 12 North even tougher to call, although it should still come down to the winner of Oregon-Stanford.

For the second straight week, Alabama beat a ranked opponent by at least 24 points, and this week was even more impressive because they did it on the road. There is sure to be a lot of buzz surrounding their matchup with LSU at the beginning of November, especially if both are still undefeated.

It may seem strange that Clemson dropped from my rankings after winning their third straight upset over a ranked team, especially since they are still undefeated, but all three teams they beat were very overrated at the time. They'll really earn their stripes (pun intended) if they can beat Georgia Tech at the end of this month, since they are the only other ACC team that looks like they are for real.

Texas finally beat an opponent worth noticing this week when they took out the previously undefeated Iowa State Cyclones on the road in a game that wasn't even close. They may not be as good as the Texas teams from a few years ago, but with another McCoy playing quarterback, maybe they are.

After beating up on crappy teams for several weeks, Wisconsin finally played a team that looked like it could put up a challenge, but it turns out that Nebraska was not a match for the Badgers either. They still haven't let an opponent get within 30 points, but they also haven't played a true road game, so we'll see if they can be as good when they travel to face Michigan State and Ohio State later this month.

Prediction Results

College Football: 15-8 (.652) 93-31 overall (.750)
Upsets: 2-3 (.400) 15-22 overall (.405)

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