So much for a quiet week with the AP. Both Utah and Florida State lost to unranked road teams so the top-10 and really everything gets a new look. Meanwhile my Memphis, Temple, Houston holy trinity continues to roll!
Real AP Poll:
- Ohio State (39)
- Baylor (7)
- Clemson (6) – The win was impressive but if you remove the “Miami” tag and replace it with, say “Virginia” does it generate the same climb? I think people assume the U is still a talented team with a competent coach. They aren’t, and he isn’t.
- LSU (5)
- TCU (3)
- Michigan State
- Alabama (1) – Hey, I found where that former TAMU #1 vote went!
- Stanford
- Notre Dame
- Iowa – As a Hawkeye fan, yes! As a nervous Hawkeye fan…oh god, oh no, oh god, oh no!
- Florida
- Oklahoma State – Condolences to Cowboy nation on a difficult day and bittersweet victory. Stay strong Stillwater.
- Utah
- Oklahoma – If Texas keeps winning, can that become a quality loss?
- Michigan
- Memphis
- Florida State – Even if they won, I think some of the performances (BC, Wake, Miami) would have dropped them some if they had made the game winning kick. Just not firing on all cylinders this year. Good team, just not scary good.
- Houston
- Ole Miss – They like playing teams with Maroonish and white uniforms!
- Toledo
- Temple
- Duke
- Pittsburgh – Is Pat Narduzzi making Paul Chryst look like a bad coach? Hmmmm
- UCLA – The SEC rules now work in the Pac 12! Beat a conference member, get ranked…
- Mississippi State – …See!
My Top 25:
- Ohio State – Back to back blowouts combined with Seth Russell’s injury lets OSU reclaim the top spot.
- Stanford – All in, baby. I don’t see them losing the rest of the regular season or the Pac 12 title game.
- TCU
- Baylor – I gave Baylor the nod over TCU due to injuries earlier this season, but now with the quarterback taken off the chess board, I have to dock the Bears.
- Michigan State
- Alabama – I dropped ‘Bama three spots because they looked vulnerable against Tennessee and MSU has a quarterback I trust. Not as high on Coker now after seeing the Vols rough him up.
- Clemson – I didn’t move them. That is how little I think of Miami.
- Notre Dame
- LSU
- Memphis
- Michigan
- Florida
- Utah – I still really like this defense. This game said more about USC than the Utes. I think Utah regathers, wins out and meets Stanford in the Pac 12 title game.
- Houston
- Oklahoma
- Temple
- Iowa
- Oklahoma State
- Florida State – This is a reoccurring theme for the ‘Noles. Their offense is just not consistent enough to be counted on. Did you know they only ran five plays in the third quarter against Georgia Tech?
- Toledo
- Pittsburgh
- Ole Miss
- Bowling Green
- SEE BELOW – Jump to Final Verdict
- SEE BELOW – Jump to Final Verdict
See Below? What the hell is that?
The way I see it, there are 14, yes FOURTEEN teams all with a legit argument to make this poll. They are:
AAC: Navy, 5-1 (3-0)
- Best win: Air Force
- Worst Win: FCS
- Lone Loss: Notre Dame
ACC 1: Duke, 6-1 (3-0)
- BW: Georgia Tech
- WW: FCS
- LL: Northwestern
ACC 2: North Carolina, 6-1 (3-0)
- BW: @GT
- WW: FCS x 2
- LL: South Carolina
B10 1: Penn State, 6-2 (3-1)
- BW: SDSU
- WW: Army
- Best Loss: OSU
- Worst Loss: @ Temple
B10 2: Wisconsin, 6-2 (3-1)
- BW: @ Illinois
- WW: Miami (OH)
- BL: Alabama
- WL: Iowa
B10 3: Northwestern, 6-2 (2-2)
- BW: Stanford
- WW: FCS
- BL: @ Mich
- WL: Iowa
C-USA: Marshall, 7-1 (4-0)
- BW: Southern Miss
- WW: FCS
- LL: @ Ohio
Indy: BYU, 6-2
- BW: Boise State
- WW: FCS
- BL: @ UCLA
- WL: @ Mich
MTW 1: Boise State, 6-2 (3-1)
- BW: Washington
- WW: FCS
- BL: @ BYU
- WL: @Utah St
MTW 2: SDSU, 5-3 (4-0)
- BW: Utah St
- WW: FCS
- BL: @ PSU
- WL: South Alabama
P12 1: Washington State, 5-2 (3-1)
- BW: @ Oregon
- WW: Wyoming
- BL: @ Cal
- WL: Portland State
P12 2: UCLA, 5-2 (2-2)
- BW: Cal
- WW: UNLV
- BL: Ummm…….? Arizona State?
- WL: I guess Stanford
SEC: Mississippi State, 6-2 (2-2)
- BW: Ummmmmm……..@ Auburn
- WW: FCS
- BL: LSU
- WL: @ TAMU
Sun Belt: Appalachian State, 6-1 (3-0)
- BW: Georgia Southern
- WW: FCS
- LL: @ Clemson (by 31….see Miami)
Elimination Time:
First Cut: App State and North Carolina are tossed out due to SOS and FCS concerns. The Tar Heels have 1/3rd of their wins right now against FCS teams and App has the Sun Belt.
Second Cut: Too many conferences. Obviously WSU/UCLA and all 3 Big Ten teams can’t get in so let’s do a mini round of just head to head junk:
- Penn State versus Wisconsin versus Northwestern:
- PSU is 0-2 against ranked opponents, winless on the road and has one-possession game wins against Army and Maryland, not exactly the feel of a ranked team.
- Wisconsin is 0-2 against ranked teams but held their own in both games. They have a 2-0 mark in road games and have been surviving a rash of injuries remarkably well.
- Northwestern is 2-2 against ranked teams but their two losses were by a combined 78-10. Their win over Nebraska docks the Badger’s best win and makes UW’s signature victory…….Illinois?
- Winner is: Northwestern
- Boise State versus San Diego State
- BSU is 0-1 against ranked opponents and 1-2 in road games. They are glad they are done with going to Utah.
- SDSU no longer has a ranked foe since Cal was neither ranked when they played nor ranked now. They are 1-2 in road games. They did crush Utah State who had blown out Boise. Law of transference means SDSU gets the nod.
- Winner is: SDSU
- Washington State versus UCLA
- WSU is coming on hot but is 0-1 against ranked teams, 3-1 on the road (nice!) but has an FCS loss – yikes.
- UCLA gets the nod over the Cougs because they did not schedule any FCS cupcakes, let alone lose to one of them.
- Winner is: UCLA
Third Cut: Bad Game(s):
- Marshall lost to a floundering Ohio team. Ranked clubs don’t lose that game.
- BYU was shut out. Ranked teams don’t get goose egged. Uh-oh Northwestern…
- SDSU has 3 losses, one of which was to South Alabama. Ranked clubs don’t lose that game.
Final Five:
I’m down to these teams: Duke, Mississippi State, Northwestern, UCLA and crazy X-factor Navy. I am tempted to drop NU right off the bat due to the BYU rule of ranked teams don’t have shutout losses but with Stanford and Duke, their quality wins are easily the best of all 14 nominees so they need to hang around. Let’s look back at those wins and losses.
- Duke:
- Best Win: Georgia Tech…does a 2-touchdown home win over a 3-5 (1-4) team really count? It gets notoriety now that GT took down FSU.
- Worst Win: FCS
- Lone Loss: Northwestern…If anything this helps the Wildcat argument for being ranked
- Resume claim: 4 straight wins, best record of these teams.
- MSU:
- BW: Like Duke, they don’t have one. At Auburn or Southern Miss are the best (possibly Kentucky?) but none of those teams look like they are going to make bowl games other than USM.
- WW: FCS
- Best Loss: 2 point game to LSU.
- Worst Loss: 13 point game to TAMU…….that just fell out of the polls.
- Resume claim: SEC
- NU:
- BW: Stanford, duh.
- WW: FCS
- BL: They don’t have one, they were killed in both games.
- WL: Michigan/Iowa, pick ’em.
- Resume claim: Stanford!!!
- UCLA:
- BW: Cal
- WW: UNLV
- BL: They don’t have one, they were killed in both games.
- WL: 15 at home to ASU or 21 at Stanford (w/ half a hundred dropped on ’em)
- Resume claim: umm…eye-test when we win?
- Navy:
- BW: Air Force, maybe ECU
- WW: FCS
- LL: Notre Dame
- Resume claim: look, we know we lost by 17 but it was at Notre Dame, Reynolds was banged up and the Irish are really, really good. Plus they had already played Georgia Tech so the option didn’t even confuse them.
I’m sorry, Duke and MSU’s lack of any meaningful win this late in the season despite playing in power conferences is really alarming. I am knocking both out since I weigh wins more highly than losses. Northwestern has the best win of any of this group and seemed to have re-found a few things in Lincoln so I will place them in. UCLA’s eye-test is great, I’ll concede that…but they also fail the eye-test when they lose. They were obliterated by Stanford and looked like junk, at home, against a pedestrian ASU team. The fact that Navy’s wins are almost as good as the Bruins’ but their lone loss is much better than UCLA makes me feel more confident with the Middies – for now.
Final Verdict:
24. Northwestern
25. Navy
League Breakdown:
5 – Big Ten
4 – American, Big 12, SEC
3 – ACC
2 – MAC, Pac 12
1 – Independent
Big Ten and Counting 