Nope, I’m not changing my blog to start my poll before four games have been played. I hate the poll having too much say in things since wins become really impressive at the time and a team gets jumped up for a big win, but that club never has their ranking adjusted if that win turns out to be a dud. Think of it like this, BYU beat Wisconsin and climbed into the polls. What if the Badgers spiral and are sitting at 3-3 by the mid-point of the year, are the Cougars going to see their rank dip any? Nope. That’s why I like to wait and actually watch some games.
Real AP Poll:
- Alabama (58)
- Georgia
- Clemson (3)
- Ohio State
- Oklahoma
- LSU
- Stanford
- Notre Dame – Do they really feel like the 8th best team in the country? They don’t to me.
- Auburn
- Penn State
Washington - Kansas – KIDDING! There is a tie at 10
- West Virginia
- Virginia Tech
- Mississippi State
- Oklahoma State – Big 12 race suddenly got real interesting, didn’t it?
- UCF
- TCU
- Wisconsin – Obviously they didn’t look it but with their crossover games against PSU, Michigan, and a potential Big Ten title game, UW still has a really good shot at making the “playoffs” if they win out.
- Michigan
- Oregon
- Miami (FL)
- Texas A&M
- Boston College – A.J. Dillon might be the most impressive player in the ACC. That’s saying a lot when you look at some of the players Clemson, Miami, and Va Tech have.
- Michigan State
- BYU
Dropped: Boise State (17), USC (22), Arizona State (23)
Receiving Votes: Iowa, Boise State, Duke, Colorado, California, Kentucky, South Florida, Texas, NC State, Arizona State, Missouri, Utah, San Diego State, North Texas, South Carolina, Washington State, Syracuse
Teams on my Radar:
American Athletic Conference
Obviously ranked UCF and receiving votes member South Florida are gathering major headlines within this league but don’t sleep on the Bearcats. UC’s hot start continued last Saturday as they pushed their mark to 3-0. 2-1 Navy, Houston, and Memphis are also dangerous clubs out west.
Atlantic Coast Conference
The Atlantic is probably the most fun division in football with Clemson as the giant and BC, Syracuse, NC State, and even Wake having flashes of giant-killer in them. Of course the Coastal is also probably the most fun division in football because the ACC is insane. Va Tech, Miami, and Duke all have played well to star the year (not so much Miami vs LSU though). Awesome league to follow again this year.
Big 12 Conference
The four ranked teams all look dangerous. Texas got a bounce-back against USC and Iowa State is the best 0-2 team in the country. The rest of the league is 2-1 but I would need to see more from Baylor, Kansas, K-State, and Tech for me to buy too much stock in them.
Big Ten Conference
Yeah, let’s not talk about it. What a dismal weekend. On the plus side, the Hoosiers, Hawks, and Gophers are all 3-0. Even Illinois looked like a competent football team in their narrow loss to USF. At least all five ranked teams are worthy of being ranked…………I think.
Conference USA
Tons of fun ball in this league but clearly the team with the best shot at getting ranked is North Texas. They knocked off a SEC-ish member in Arkansas (what a brutal coaching debut for Chad Morris, fyi) but they are electrifying on offense and that is what catches everyone’s attention. Marshall and Louisiana Tech also remain undefeated.
FBS Independents
Irish and Cougars are sitting pretty. Army just knocked off that red-hot Hawai’i team to get to 2-1 but their schedule is really soft after next week so if they have any hope of getting ranked, they probably have to pull the stunning upset in…Norman. Good luck, Knights!
Mid-American Conference
Three up and three down for Buffalo as they are halfway to a bowl. Awesome story for this routinely down and out program. Akron also remains undefeated thanks to their stunning upset over Northwestern. Not that it was stunning that the Zips could hang with NU, but it was stunning to see three defensive touchdowns in one game.
Mountain West
Yeesh, everyone in this league has at least one loss but Boise State and Utah State have separated themselves in the Mountain in my opinion and SDSU and Fresno State have done the same in the West. Not giving up on Hawai’i just yet but with how big their rebuild is, we are probably a year away from really seeing the warriors be a threat to be nationally ranked. Shout-out to both Nevada schools for getting to 2-1 as well.
Pac-12 Conference
North has three teams ranked plus two unranked teams sitting at 3-0 (Cal and Wazzu). It smells a little like the old Big 12 where one division is AMAZING and the other has…Nebraska. Still, Colorado is 3-0 in the south and Utah’s defense is pretty scary. I think we will see some other teams get ranked by the end of the year.
Southeastern Conference
Not sure who can compete with Georgia in the east but Kentucky and Mizzou are both 3-0. Vanderbilt also squandered some good opportunities at Notre Dame. The West is insane as ever with five teams ranked and a good chance for them to stay there for the long haul.
Sun Belt Conference
Well just when I said it would be difficult for a team from this league to get back into the mix of the poll, Troy goes out and knocks off Nebraska. They had a pretty rough go of things against Boise State so while it is a long shot to see them in the polls, the win in Lincoln means we can’t abandon these Trojans just yet, either.
Big Ten and Counting 