Oh the polls, how much I love to argue with you. For instance, HOW IS OHIO STATE STILL RANKED ABOVE PENN STATE?!?! Anyway, here’s how I stack ’em up, hypocritical and all.
Real AP Poll:
- Clemson (60)
- Alabama
- USC
- Washington
- Oklahoma
- Ohio State
- Penn State – NO! I strongly disagree with the notion that OSU is better than PSU.
- Florida State
- Wisconsin
- Michigan
- Oklahoma State
- Stanford
- LSU
- Florida
- Western Michigan
- Virginia Tech
- Colorado
- West Virginia
- USF
- Miami
- Louisville
- Tennessee
- Utah
- Auburn
- SDSU
My Top 25:
- Clemson
- Alabama
- Florida State
- Washington
- USC – This was a really tough ranking. USC won the head to head and finished red, red hot. On the other hand, the Trojans were killed by Alabama, UW wasn’t. USC was crushed by Stanford, UW demolished the Cardinal. USC lost to Utah, UW didn’t. UW beat Colorado by more than USC did. UW beat 4 ranked teams, USC beat 3. On body of work, I still think Washington is a pinch better. But it is a coin flip. In all honesty both would cream Iowa so it is what it is, ya know?
- Penn State
- Wisconsin
- Oklahoma
- Ohio State – So I’m sure some Buckeye fans will immediately point out that they beat Wisconsin and Oklahoma. Sure, they did but it was in mid September and October. There has to be some what of a statute of limitations on head to head wins. Plus in the UW game wasn’t an ass whipping as OSU won in overtime. If they played tomorrow, I think Wisconsin would win that rematch, thus they are ranked higher. As for OU, does anyone want to play them right now?
- Michigan
- Oklahoma State
- Stanford
- Western Michigan
- Florida
- Virginia Tech
- LSU
- Miami
- Colorado
- USF
- -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 spot all willy nilly. I had a reader say that this section wasn’t very clear so I’ll try to 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. On rare exceptions, I’ll take more than one team but for the most part, I really try and weed out within leagues first. 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 .500 Sun Belt team would qualify or a lopsided loss would count as a bad game). 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
League champs Temple were ranked a poll ago but they lost their bowl, opening the doors for Tulsa to get in. It is hard to know how much coach Matt Rhule’s departure meant in the face of an amped-up Wake Forest team wanting to get rid of the stink of that strange play-calling leak. Since each have ten wins and didn’t face each other, I’m going to let the Owls and Hurricanes move on to a national stage.
AAC Nominee: Temple, Tulsa
Atlantic Coast Conference
Pitt and Louisville were ranked before losing their bowls. Joining the conversation are bowl winners Georgia Tech. Pitt won eight games but had by far the hardest schedule. Their losses include at Okie State (11th), Va Tech (15), and at Miami (17). Their wins though are pretty impressive as they include Penn State, Georgia Tech, and at Clemson. They lost a ton of talent in that bowl game, including their starting QB, and still only lost by a touchdown. I think they have a strong argument.
Louisville and Tech are really challenging. Tech beat just one ranked team, Va Tech, but took down Kentucky in their bowl to rip off 4 straight in a 6-1 finish. Why did I mention Kentucky? Because they upset Louisville, so some head-to-head data. On the other hand, Louisville cleaned Florid State’s clock, a team I love. Does that balance out a three game skid? Well one other plus is they beat 3 other non FSU bowl winners. I guess I trust UL more than Tech, despite the way they finished.
ACC Nominee: Louisville, Pitt
Big Ten
Iowa was ranked a week ago and are obviously gone. Minnesota has a little bit of an argument to be ranked after their upset of Washington State but I think they are worse than Georgia Tech who I just knocked out. No nominee.
B1G Nominee: No One
Big 12
West Virginia was ranked a week ago and Kansas State has come on strong. The head to head doesn’t matter since it was a one point game, essentially these teams are even. Sadly for the Mountaineers, they got stomped in their bowl game. All three of their losses were ugly. As for KSU they may have lost one more game than WVU but they sure as heck balled out in all of them. Take the Oklahoma teams. KSU lost by 21 in Norman. WVU lost by 28 at home. Against State, the Wildcats lost by just six. WVU was dominated in a 17 point game. Honestly this was a no brainer for me. I added this after finishing the rest of the piece because I thought people might think it was strange I completely ignored WVU.
Big 12 Nominee: Kansas State
Conference USA
Western Kentucky was ranked a poll ago and won. I don’t know their exact finish but will be ranked. Louisiana Tech and Old Dominion also won bowls. Tech over a good Navy team to get their 9th victory and ODU over a pesky Eastern Michigan team to get win number 10. Their resumes are almost identical and of course didn’t play each other so from the AAC rules, both get to move on for the time being.
C-USA Nominee: Louisiana Tech, ODU, WKU (Lock)
Mountain West Conference
Boise was ranked a week ago but no-showed in their bowl game. League champ and bowl winner San Diego State gets the nod.
MTW Nominee: SDSU
Southeastern Conference
Tennessee beat a very blah Nebraska team to get to 9 wins, Auburn lost to a good Oklahoma team to stay at 8 wins. I did have Auburn ranked a week ago, which matters a tad BUT, I’m going with UT based on finishes. The Vols went 4-1 down the stretch. Auburn went 1-2.
SEC Nominee: Tennessee
Sun Belt
App State, Arkansas State, Troy, and plucky Idaho all won bowls to get to 8+ wins. The lovable Vandals get eliminated because they lost to two teams from this list. Arkansas State had the fewest wins of this group and lost to a FCS school. They are also gone. Troy won the most of these teams but lost to the eliminated ASU team. That sounds like it will leave App State but they lost to Troy. You know I like to get small schools in, but I’m not sure any of these Sun Belt teams are quite worthy. Still, an extremely exciting season in the Belt with co-champions, and a lot of solid bowl performances. They just beat up too much on each other to get into my poll.
Sun Belt Nominee: No One
Elimination Time
These nine teams join BYU, Kansas State, and Utah to form a master list of 12 teams trying to get the last six spots in my poll. The first criteria I will look at is who has played FCS teams and then look at any bad games.
FCS Much?…No one had the oddity of two FCS teams or a loss to one but BYU has some explaining to do. They beat awful Arizona, MSU, Cincy, UMass, Utah State, and a FCS team. That is a strength of schedule stank I can’t over look. Oh by the way, they also lost to Utah, a team they are competing with to get in this poll. They’re gone.
Bad Game(s)…Old Dominion was a club I was really hoping to slip into this ranking but I can’t. They were crushed by App State (eliminated above), NC State, and Western Kentucky. Awesome season, but not rankable.
Utah is a team that I just don’t get why they are ranked. They beat a FCS team, BYU, and AWFUL San Jose State in the non con. They lost to Cal and Oregon in league play. They barely beat a junky Indiana team in a bowl to finish just 1-2. Outside of beating USC way back before the Trojans discovered Sam Darnold, what have they done? They’re out.
Last but not least Louisiana Tech. They beat a good Navy team and WKU during the regular season but they lost the rematch to WKU in the league title game, finished 1-2, and opened the 1-3 with losses to beatable power five teams Arkansas and Texas Tech. For that they sadly go.
Final Eight
From 12 to eight as I search for my 20th through 25th ranked teams. Since I had WKU ranked in the previous they are a lock and get to skip this next elimination process. 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.
- Kansas State
- BW: Texas A&M (Bowl)
- WW: FCS
- BL: Oklahoma State (by 6)
- WL: Oklahoma (by 21)
- Louisville
- BW: Florida State
- WW: Charlotte
- BL: at Clemson (by 6)
- WL: at Houston (by 26)
- Pittsburgh
- BW: at Clemson
- WW: FCS
- BL: at Oklahoma State (by 7)
- WL: at Miami (by 23)
- SDSU
- BW: Houston (Bowl)
- WW: FCS
- BL: at Wyoming (by 1)
- WL: Colorado State (by 32)
- Temple
- BW: USF
- WW: FCS
- BL: at Penn State (by 7)
- WL: Wake (Bowl, by 12)
- Tennessee
- BW: Virginia Tech
- WW: FCS
- BL: at Texas A&M (by 7, double OT)
- WL: at Vanderbilt (by 11)
- Tulsa
- BW: at Memphis
- WW: FCS
- BL: at Navy (by 2)
- WL: at Ohio State (by 45)
The first thing that jumps out at me is Tulsa having a double whammy. In addition to having by far the most lopsided loss in this group, they also have one of the weakest best wins. Tulsa did many, many great things this year. Unfortunately they won’t be rewarded with a ranking in my poll. This also impacts Temple. Tulsa’s best wins is one of the teams Temple lost too. 10 wins is awesome, but thanks to the title game and the bowl they played a really long schedule. They had four losses, that adds up. Still AAC champs means a banner that is never coming down.
By knocking out those two American teams and pulling WKU back in, that gives me six teams. One thing I know is that WKU has to be ranked ahead of SDSU. In the regular season and title week, the Hilltoppers beat five bowl teams. SDSU beat just two. It was a down year for the Mountain West and C-USA was really deep. That sorts out a couple things.
Between Tennessee, Louisville, and KSU we have some common opponents. UL lost to Kentucky and UT beat them. UT lost to Texas A&M and KSU beat them. Using the transitive property, doesn’t it make sense that UL is the lowest ranked of the power teams?
Then we get to Pitt. Pitt has BY FAR the best win. They are the only team to beat the champ. They also beat a damn good Penn State team. I’m not a huge believer in bowl games, and I’m especially not going to put much stock into one in which half the Pitt team got hurt in it. I’m confident of this group Pitt is the most dangerous and thus my 20th ranked team.
The Big 12 was down a bit this year with Texas and Texas Tech failing to make bowls. As a result KSU beat just two bowl teams in their regular season. Tennessee beat six. I’m confident that the Vols are just after Pitt.
Since I know KSU will be ahead of Louisville and Western ahead of SDSU it becomes just a simple head to head comparison the rest of the way. First up is WKU and KSU. State and Western are really similar, even including a common opponent – FAU – that they both obliterated. I’m going to go with Western though. KSU played just one air raid team and gave up 38 points to them. The only reason they won is Texas Tech refuses to play defense. WKU is the rare breed of an air raid club that likes to also hit some people. Western is way more dangerous that people realize.
Since KSU is clearly a better team than SDSU that settles our next slot. So then, Louisville versus SDSU. This would be a killer game in real life. Pomphrey versus Jackson. Unfortunately the UL offensive line has disappeared down the stretch and SDSU mauled Houston’s front in their bowl game. Because of the terrifying pass rush in the Las Vegas Bowl, SDSU destroyed Houston who humiliated Louisville. Problem solved.
FINAL VERDICT:
20. Pittsburgh
21. Tennessee
22. Western Kentucky
23. Kansas State
24. SDSU
25. Louisville
League Breakdown:
6 – ACC
4 – Big 10, Pac 12, SEC
3 – Big 12
1 – American, C-USA, MAC, MTW
Big Ten and Counting 