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Josh’s Week 10 Top 25

Hats off to the AP voters for not dinging Temple.  They are clearly one of the nation’s best coached and competitive teams when they can play like junk against Notre Dame and still nearly win the game.  As for dropping Duke, hmm.  That’s too bad.  If we had a governing body with a spine, they would figure out a way to do something more.  As for the refs being suspended, what a joke.  I would fire them and not release their paychecks from the Duke-Miami game.  Hell, if Miami had any class they would forfeit the game or offer to play the remaining six seconds again.  But that seems about as likely as me becoming the next Nebraska coach.  Of course I didn’t have Duke ranked last week so, I’ll just let that humble brag slip in there

Real AP Poll:

  1. Ohio State (39)
  2. Baylor (6) – Baylor lost a first place vote after not playing a game.  Damn, must have been a rough bye week performance.
  3. Clemson (6)
  4. LSU (5)
  5. TCU (4)
  6. Michigan State
  7. Alabama (1)
  8. Notre Dame – They flip flopped with Stanford.  Stanford won by two on the road at a pretty good Washington State team.  Notre dame won on the road by 4 at a pretty good Temple game.  Not sure why they flipped, but okay.
  9. Stanford
  10. Iowa
  11. Florida – What does UF have to do to move up?  Blowout the team that beat Alabama?  Oh…wait.
  12. Oklahoma State
  13. Utah
  14. Oklahoma – When does beating a conference opponent 62-7 on the road moves you up the poll zero spots?  When that opponent is Kansas.
  15. Memphis
  16. Michigan
  17. Florida State
  18. Houston
  19. Ole Miss
  20. Toledo
  21. North Carolina – Ranked coastal teams haven’t been so lucky.  Pitt lost to this very UNC team and Duke was jobbed by the zebras.  UNC faces Duke next.
  22. UCLA – Two losses and won by 4 against Colorado.  Sure, move them up two spots.
  23. Temple
  24. Mississippi State – Hmmmm
  25. Texas A&M – Didn’t we bury this team already?

My Top 25:

  1. Ohio State
  2. Stanford – Well I nearly jinxed ’em but a win is a win.  I love how portable this club is and I think the narrow victory in Pullman said much, much more about the improvement of the Cougs under Mike Leach.
  3. TCU
  4. Baylor
  5. Michigan State
  6. Alabama
  7. Clemson – Didn’t move them again, why?  Because the NC State game left a lot to be desired.  Don’t worry Tigers.  I really like your team and OSU/MSU play.  Alabama/LSU play.  TCU/Baylor play.  Those are all regular season games.  OSU/MSU, Stanford, and Alabama all have title games.  Plenty of time.  Don’t worry.
  8. Notre Dame
  9. LSU
  10. Memphis
  11. Florida
  12. Michigan
  13. Utah – Didn’t the Utes beat Michigan?  Yeah, I know, I’m having a hard time justify this.  I suppose the fact that Utah kind of slept walked past Oregon State and UM has 3 shutouts since the loss has me leaning Wolverines for now.
  14. Houston
  15. Oklahoma
  16. Iowa – What gives, aren’t you an Iowa fan?  Didn’t you defend them on the podcast.  Yes and yes.  Here’s the deal, I adjust for injuries and I’ve also seen every second of Iowa play this year.  For every great game – i.e. Northwestern – they have a clunker – i.e. Illinois.  Lets just let this thing play out.  Remember what I said about Clemson and all the head-to-heads that will help them?  Well Iowa has all the Clemson games as well as Notre Dame/Stanford, Memphis and several AAC teams, Florida and the SEC title game, Michigan/OSU, Utah and the Pac 12 title game (if they make it) and Houston’s several AAC games.
  17. Oklahoma State
  18. Florida State
  19. Temple
  20. Toledo
  21. Ole Miss
  22. Bowling Green
  23. Northwestern
  24. Navy
  25. SEE BELOW – Jump to Final Verdict

See Below?  What the hell is that?

One of the nice things about not having Duke in my poll last week is I don’t have to drop them out.  Oops, I did it again (dated reference).  I see 14 teams again with realistic arguments.  I’m going to slim down the leagues with multiple clubs:

ACC – UNC, Pitt, Duke.  Duke has the worst case since they barely beat BC, needed OT against Virginia Tech and even if they had won, their performance against Miami wasn’t very good.  UNC has the head-to-head win over Pitt.  The Tar Heels’ opening day loss to South Carolina as well as two FCS wins isn’t great, but Pitt has been squeaking by with tight games.  I’ll give the nod to UNC.

ACC Rep – North Carolina

Big 10 – PSU, Wisconsin.  Both are 7-2 (4-1).  Both are 0-2 against ranked teams (Alabama/Iowa for Bucky and OSU/Temple for the Lions).  Both have creamed Rutgers.  The eye test favors Wisconsin as their defense is outstanding and with Clement back they are more dynamic.  I also think UW’s two road conference wins are more impressive than Penn State’s lone trip outside of Pennsylvania resulting in a blowout loss.  Edge to Sconnie.

Big Ten Rep – Wisconsin

C-USA – Marshall and Western Kentucky are fun teams to watch.  Both are undefeated in league but the Herd is 8-1 overall and WKU is 7-2.  Hilltoppers have had the harder schedule though with three power conference teams (1-2) and zero FCS clubs.  Marshall is 1-0 against power league teams but has played an FCS team and lost to a pedestrian MAC team (Ohio).  As much as I love these teams and try to support the little guy, I have a feeling neither will make it too far but I’ll give the edge to Marshall for now since they have a better record.

C-USA Rep – Marshall

Mountain West – Boise and SDSU will most likely meet in San Diego for the conference crown on the line.  For the purposes of this though, I can’t look past Boise losing 52-26 to Utah State.  USU then turned around and lost 48-14 to these Aztecs.  Based on that swing, Rocky Long’s bunch moves on for now.

Mountain West Rep – San Diego State

SEC – Mississippi State and Texas A&M are some zombies that we can’t quite shake.  Neither has a marquee win, unless you count A&M taking down this very same Miss. State team.  My problem with the Aggies is the 64-26 back-to-back losses resulting in a 1-2 mark over the last three games.  MSU played LSU very well so despite the head-to-head loss, I’ll let the Bulldogs stay around.

SEC Rep – Mississippi State

Elimination Time:

That 14 team master list has been slimmed to North Carolina, Wisconsin, Marshall, SDSU, MSU from conferences with multiple nominees.  I’ll bring in BYU, UCLA and Appalachian State for a total of eight final nominations.

First Cut – Bad Game(s)…SDSU has 3 losses, the most of any team on this list and one of them is South Alabama.  Marshall lost to an Ohio team that no one worth ranking would lose to.  UCLA gave up half a hundred to Stanford, was creamed by Arizona State and barely beat Colorado.  Bye-bye Bruins.

Second Cut – FCS much?…Appalachian State and BYU are 5-2 and 6-1 when you remove their FCS wins.  BYU was shut out by Michigan (do ranked teams get shut out?) and App State was bulldozed by Clemson.  UNC has beaten TWO members of the lower division.  They’re out until they make the ACC title game as far as I’m concerned…unless they really start to drop the hammer and blow out ACC foes.

Final Two:

That leaves Wisconsin and Mississippi State.  I’ll do my favorite Best Win / Worst Win / Best Loss / Worst Loss final comparison for these two.

  • Wisconsin:  BW – @ Illinois, WW – Miami (OH), BL – Alabama, WL – Iowa
  • Mississippi State: BW – Kentucky, WW – FCS, BL – LSU, WL – @ TAMU

Pretty even, neither win is too impressive but Wisconsin’s was on the road and they didn’t play an FCS team.  The losses are also in Wisconsin’s favor as Alabama is ahead of LSU and Iowa is well ahead of A&M.  Lastly the Iowa game was a 4 point thriller that Wisconsin could have (and arguably should have) won.

Final Verdict:

25. Wisconsin

League Breakdown:

6 – Big Ten

4 – American, Big 12, SEC

2 – ACC, MAC, Pac 12

1 – Independent

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