Oh the polls, how much I love to argue with you. You know who is feeling pretty crappy, the Florida State fan base. They fall 11 spots on a last second field goal while Tennessee escapes with a last second Hail Mary and get bumped two spots. Both outcomes were incredibly lucky, yet one ends the season and the other gets back into the top 10. Here’s how I stack ’em up, hypocritical and all.
Real AP Poll:
- Alabama (53)
- Ohio State (6)
- Clemson (1)
- Michigan (1)
- Washington
- Houston – You know what they loved to see? Oklahoma beating TCU to get back in the top 25.
- Louisville
- Texas A&M
- Tennessee
- Miami – The U have faced no one so far but that all changes in a few days when they get Florida State. I know the Noles have had their issues, but it is still a much better measuring stick than a FCS school, FAU, @ Appalachian State, and @ Georgia Tech
- Wisconsin
- Nebraska
- Baylor – What do you bet every pollster and playoff committee member were the biggest Cyclone fans last Saturday hoping to avoid having to keep this team around.
- Ole Miss
- Stanford
- Arkansas – Jumping 4 spots for waxing a FCS team. Must be nice.
- North Carolina
- Florida – They beat Vanderbilt……..by 7.
- Boise State
- Oklahoma
- Colorado
- West Virginia
- Florida State – I feel like they beat a team above them, oh yeah, Ole Miss. C’mon voters. 9 spots separate these teams when they played head to head? So dumb.
- Utah
- Virginia Tech – Oh man who did they knock off to get ranked…oh, they were idle last week. So that makes sense.
My Top 25:
- Alabama
- Clemson
- Ohio State
- Louisville – I’m sorry, literally nothing in that six point ROAD loss to Clemson of all teams shows me that this team isn’t worthy of a top 5 ranking.
- Michigan
- Tennessee
- Washington – I was tempted to put UW past Tennessee but then I remembered that the Vols had a flat performance after beating arch rival Florida. Let’s see if the Huskies have their own flat performance against Oregon after getting over the Stanford hump. Plus, I generally don’t have teams get jumped after winning, so I’m fine with my decision to keep UW behind UT for right now. Still a lot of football left to go.
- Houston – Speaking of a lot of football left to go, UH’s win over OU looks a little better now and they get to face Louisville. This team can easily get into the top four.
- Texas A&M
- Wisconsin
- Stanford – I gave them the benefit of the doubt last year and they didn’t disappoint, winning the Pac 12 and the Rose Bowl so I’ll drop them five spots but still thinking they will get their defensive issues figured out once their week-to-week injured players in the secondary start coming back.
- Baylor
- Miami
- Nebraska
- Florida State – A ton, and I mean a ton of issues, but the talent is frighteningly good and a borderline pass interference putting UNC in miracle field goal territory before hitting a 54 yarder shouldn’t diminish the fact that a) UNC is pretty good and b) FSU battled all the way back.
- Ole Miss
- Western Michigan
- Arkansas
- Boise State
- West Virginia
- North Carolina
- Colorado – I’ve sort of been looking for reasons to rank this team and crushing a conference foe is just what the doctor ordered. After falling down 6-0, the Buffs dominated the rest of the way en route to a 47-6 win.
- Florida – While I think 18th is too high in the real AP, I do agree that they should be ranked (or in my case re-ranked) because that defense is still really good outside the second half at Tennessee, resulting in a loss at a top-10 team, this club looks like one of the 25 best teams in the country.
- – 25. SEE BELOW – Final Verdict
See Below – What the hell is that?
This is the most prestigious rankings on the internet, I can’t just give teams the final spots all willy nilly. I had a reader say that this section wasn’t very clear so I’ll try and state the process more clearly. Since many leagues will have a ton of teams on my radar, I only take one team from each league to start with. Then I see if my final selections have played any FCS teams or have had a bad game (for example a 3-0 win by a SEC school over a Sun Belt team would qualify). After those first two criteria, I take the remaining teams and examine their best win, worst win, best loss, and worst loss to make the final selections.
American Athletic Conference
South Florida dominated Cincy and Temple has regained their footing the last two weeks but the Bulls were beaten soundly by Florida State and the Owls are just 3-2, despite regaining much of their 2015 form. Adding to that, both Memphis and Navy fell from the ranks of the unbeaten last Saturday. As a result this usually reliable league will not be represented this week.
AAC Nominee: No One
Atlantic Coast Conference
NC State beat Wake Forest, who I had ranked a week ago (so I automatically look at their resume), and by virtue of being in the real AP poll I looked at Virginia Tech. What’s insane is between these three teams, the Demon Deacons still have the best portfolio. So yet again there will be a normal multi-nominated league with no one.
ACC Nominee: No One
Big 12
So Oklahoma is ranked in the real poll and I had TCU so they both get looked at and the Texas Tech / Oklahoma State duo also notched wins. OU has the 103rd ranked defense and other than the TCU win beat UL Monroe of all teams. While I still think highly of TCU, that win obviously doesn’t mean as much for the Sooners when you begin to look at the Frog’s overall portfolio now. Additionally, if I’m going to ding OU’s defense it is only fair to mention TCU’s is 92nd.
Oklahoma State is 3-2 and just knocked off Texas. A team that I have been berating like a drunk hockey dad yelling at the refs lately so why would I award the Pokes for that? As for Texas Tech…nope. Their record is boosted by a FCS team and Kansas. Plus they lost to Arizona State. Wow, three for three of dumping leagues.
Big 12 Nominee: No One
Big Ten
So no one represented the Big Ten last week, am I about to go four for four? No! I double checked MSU by virtue of being ranked a week ago, thought about Indiana, and looked at Maryland. While I’m buying Wake is vastly improved, the Hoosiers haven’t done enough yet to overcome that loss and MSU now has back-to-back defeats as well as a sluggish performance over a FCS school. That leaves 4-0 Maryland who just throttled Purdue, 50-7.
Big Ten Nominee: Maryland
Mountain West Conference
Ugh, San Diego State, why do you have to play a supporter like that?! For the second straight year they inexplicably lost to South Alabama. By virtue of being ranked last week I looked at them compared to 4-0 Air Force and did the unconventional thing! I like the Falcons but they haven’t played anyone outside of Navy and all their games have been at home but the trip to Utah State, who is a pretty ugly 2-3. SDSU has beaten Cal – that is way more impressive than what the Falcons have done thus far.
MW Nominee: San Diego State
Pacific 12 Conference
Well now that I got my Buffs in, where do I go? It’s tricky because ASU is 4-1, Cal is 3-2 and just knocked off Utah but lost to the Sun Devils, Utah was ranked last week and has a top 20 defense, and then there is UCLA with losses to a hot TAMU team and mostly sturdy Stanford. Adding to the mess is ASU’s loss was to USC, a team Utah beat, thus adding in a common opponent aspect. I think that the 3-2 teams, while having some interesting wins, aren’t there yet. As for ASU-Utah, to me the Utes have played the tougher schedule and have the identical record; therefore that would indicate they are more deserving of a ranking than Sparky. We’ll find out if they are actually better early November.
Pac 12 Nominee: Utah
Southeastern Conference
So by auto-passing Florida the SEC discussion gets really murky because everyone else is 3-2 but since Ole Miss is ranked with that record, I have to take a look. Georgia had the hard luck loss but before that had 3 ugly weeks in a row. No reason to consider them. LSU won in coach O’s debut handily against Mizzou but Auburn is in this 3-2 mix and that matters. Huh? War Eagle? That’s right, AU is also 3-2 with that win over LSU in their back pocket. Their two losses have been to Clemson and Texasn A&M by a combined 19 points. I’ll be stunned if they make it to the elimination round but for now let’s advance the boys from the planes.
SEC Nominee: Auburn
Elimination Time
The above four teams join Eastern Michigan, North Dakota State, and Troy to form a final seven in order to pick the last two spots in the poll. The first criteria I will look at is who has played FCS teams and then look at any bad games.
FCS Much?…Well this obviously hurts NDSU. The fact that Iowa has lost again and looked awful at Rutgers in a narrow win also hurts. Another issue is despite being undefeated their first two wins (both over FCS teams) were tight overtime affairs. Sorry Bison, I just can’t in good faith keep you in the running for right now. If you keep winning though, I’ll keep looking at ’em.
Everyone else but Auburn has played a FCS member (they play one on 11/19) but only Eastern Michigan has this unholy trinity: a FCS team, FBS newbie Charlotte, and a 40 point loss. Great 4-1 start to a program that has been down for a while but not sniffing the top 25 yet.
Bad Game(s)…This is where that loss at South Alabama torpedoes SDSU. If it had been a close game like Utah’s five point defeat at Cal I could explain it a little better but the Jags roughed up the Aztecs, 42-24.
Final Four
From a sizable list down to just Auburn, Maryland, Troy, and Utah to pick the final two spots. For this I try to just look at a couple of games: each team’s best win, worst win, best loss (i.e. a moral victory), and worst loss.
- Auburn
- BW: LSU
- WW: ULM
- BL: Clemson (by 6)
- WL: Texas A&M
- Maryland
- BW: Purdue (style points)
- WW: FCS
- BL: N/A
- WL: N/A
- Troy
- BW: Southern Miss
- WW: FCS
- BL: At Clemson (by 6)
- WL: N/A
- Utah
- BW: USC
- WW: FCS
- BL: At Cal (by 5)
- WL: N/A
In addition to knocking off a FCS school Utah got to beat up on San Jose State, a 1-4 team with their lone win being a FCS program and overall SJSU looks awful so far this year. factor in the Trojans sitting at 2-3 and their own mess, I’m just not feeling Utah, despite having them ranked 21st last week and the real AP keeping them in. To be fair, the real voters dropped them six spots, obviously if I dropped them the identical six spots, they would be out of my poll. So guess what, they’re out of my poll.
So an undefeated, a one loss, and a two loss team. Where to go with this. Well, Auburn’s win over LSU is probably the best but why? LSU is 3-2 with wins over two SEC bottom feeders. Troy’s win over USM is almost as good since USM is 4-1 with a win over a SEC bottom feeder. You could even argue that Troy losing to Clemson by the same margin – six points – in Clemson’s house is more impressive than what Auburn did by getting Clemmy in your own house.
Then there is Maryland, who frankly hasn’t played a soul but so epically destroyed Purdue and is still undefeated, they get to be looked at. I think it is time to pull out another weapon: opponent record. Maryland’s four are a combined 7-12. Auburn’s are 14-9. Troy’s opponents are a respectable 13-11.
That Maryland record is really jarring. I mean even Troy’s is better and they have a winless Austin Peay team holding them down! Apparently my Big Ten blog is becoming an all things Alabama blog for at least a week as I would argue, thanks to my preferred metrics, that Auburn and Troy get the nod. Helping me make this decision is the fact that Howard, Maryland’s FCS foe, was creamed by awful Rutgers.
FINAL VERDICT:
24. Auburn
25. Troy
League Breakdown:
7 – SEC
5 – ACC
4 – Big Ten
3 – Pac 12
2 – Big 12
1 – American, MAC, Mountain West, Sun Belt
Big Ten and Counting 