Well the poll held up pretty well outside of Pitt and maybe Utah State but one club that will be taking quite the tumble is Michigan. 62 points?! Yikes!!
Real AP Poll:
- Alabama (61)
- Clemson – They deserve a lot of praise for the eye test but their two most impressive wins are Syracuse and Texas A&M. Not exactly a murderers’ row Clemmy had to face in the down ACC this year.
- Notre Dame
- Georgia – Hmm, does this mean the SEC winner can still get in? Controversy!
- Oklahoma – Weekly defensive update: 56 points given up to West Virginia.
- Ohio State
- UCF
- Michigan
- Texas
- Washington
- Florida
- LSU
Washington State – So the Pirate finally added some defense, now he just needs to add some form of running for when his team has to play in snow games. - Rutgers – Kidding, there is a tie at 12th
- Penn State
- West Virginia
- Kentucky
- Utah – Holy cow that was a great comeback in the Holy War. For those of you that went to sleep, the Utes were down 27-7 in the third quarter before ripping off 28 straight to win the game.
- Syracuse
- Boise State
- Mississippi State
- Northwestern
- Texas A&M – Isn’t college football overtime great? Other than NHL playoff sudden death overtime, the college OT is the best way to break a tie.
- Army
- Iowa State
- Fresno State
Dropped: Utah State (14), Pittsburgh (24)
Receiving Votes: Utah State, Missouri, NC State, Cincinnati, Stanford, Iowa, Oregon, Appalachian State, Buffalo
Josh’s Top 25:
- Alabama
- UCF – No Milton, no problem…for one game at least. 391 rushing yards and 38 points to go along with holding the Bulls to just 10 points.
- Clemson
- Notre Dame
- Oklahoma – So if they blowout Texas, do they jump Notre Dame who won’t have a championship game? What about if Georgia upsets Alabama? Hmm, if only the “playoffs” were eight teams instead of a moronic four.
- Georgia
- Ohio State – I’m not sure walloping Northwestern will be enough for the Buckeyes to sneak in. Their biggest wins, Penn State and Michigan are both flawed and borderline top-10 teams. Alabama or Georgia will get a top 10 win in the SEC title game. Notre Dame has a win over the same Michigan team. OU can get a big win over Texas. In reality, OSU’s best hope is for UCF to get screwed over again, Clemson to get upset by Pitt, and Texas to sweep Oklahoma.
- Texas
- Washington
- Michigan
- Washington State
- Penn State
- Utah
- Florida
- LSU – Perhaps too big of a drop off but when you break down LSU’s 9-3 mark you notice that some of their big wins (Miami and Auburn) really flamed out. They also got manhandled by Florida and Alabama. Lastly they are 2-2 in their last four. I know the Georgia win is a strong one but the Bayou Bengals are clearly trending down.
- Army
- West Virginia
- Syracuse
- Kentucky
- Boise State
- Northwestern
- Iowa State – Just like Utah, the Cyclones mounted an awesome comeback to knock off Kansas State in what could possibly be Bill Snyder’s last game.
- Missouri
- -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(s) 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 (bad games could be narrow wins over bad opponents, a blowout loss, or a stunning upset). 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
After a disastrous start, Temple completed a 7-1 league run to go 8-4. Cincinnati has been reliably consistent with a 10-2 mark and division champ Memphis also went 8-4. The problem I have with Cincy is their schedule. 10 wins is awesome and should be applauded but they faced just one ranked team and were blown out by 25 points. They faced another quality opponent in Temple and lost. They’re out. Memphis gave UCF a scare but looked awful against Missouri (lost by 32). Worse, they dropped games to Tulane and Navy. The Owls will move on.
AAC Nominee: Temple
Atlantic Coast Conference
I had Pitt ranked last week but their four game run ended with a blowout loss to Miami of all teams. Worse, that loss brought their mark to 7-5. As a result the spotlight turns to NC State who bounced back from their choke job to Wake with back-to-back wins over bottom feeders Louisville and North Carolina.
ACC Nominee: NC State
Conference USA
UAB has been sniffing around all year and finished 9-3 (7-1) but has lost back-to-back games. In the finale they lost to Middle Tennessee who also went 7-1 and 8-5 overall. These two will meet again for the C-USA title game but neither can be under consideration. UAB because of the flat finish and the Raiders went 0-3 against the SEC this year, demonstrating they are not up to snuff for getting ranked.
C-USA Nominee: No One
Mountain West Conference
Utah State was ranked a week ago so I gave them a look but also added Fresno State into the fray. USU went 10-2 this year which, just like Cincy, is an awesome feat. Feel good about your year Aggies! The problem is the same as the Bearcats. Just one ranked team faced and they lost. Winning ten straight is awesome but quality wins are a factor. Fresno State is also 10-2 and hasn’t faced a team when ranked (Boise is now ranked). Still going with Fresno though because they played Boise much closer than Utah State. Bulldogs also obliterated some bowl-bound teams like Nevada and SDSU that Utah State didn’t have to face. In fact, Fresno took on seven bowl teams and went 5-2. USU took on five and went 3-2. That last data point should even quiet the most diehard fan in Logan, Utah.
MTW Nominee: Fresno State
Southeastern Conference
A pair of 8-4 teams take center stage as Texas A&M knocked off LSU in a seven overtime epic and are 5-3 in a stacked division. My love-hate affair with Mississippi State continues as they knocked off the Rebs in the Egg Bowl to end 4-4 in league play. Since my biggest hang up with State was being under .500 in league play is now gone, I have to move them on. A&M’s win over LSU was their third in a row and second over a ranked team. Their resume is worthy enough of being put to a national test. Both will move on.
SEC Nominees: Mississippi State and Texas A&M
Elimination Time:
The above five teams join Appalachian State, Buffalo, and Iowa to form a master list of eight teams trying to get into the best poll the internet has. The first criteria I will look at is who has played FCS teams and then look at any bad games.
FCS Much?…App State has the unfortunate circumstance of missing a game due to weather so their 9-2 mark becomes an 8-2 record when the FCS game is removed. With seven of those wins coming against Sun Belt teams, I cannot find a way to justify the Mountaineers getting ranked. Iowa and NC State also take a bow here. Iowa is 7-4 with the FCS win removed but their last two games of the season were against non bowl teams Illinois and Nebraska. In fact, Iowa hasn’t defeated a bowl-bound team since Minnesota way back on October sixth. NC State is 7-3 with that FCS game out and their last two wins were awful Louisville and North Carolina. Just like Iowa, the Wolfpack haven’t beaten a bowl-bound team since Boston College on, you guessed it, October 6th.
Bad Game(s)…Buffalo can’t survive this criteria because they are still trying to pay off the debt of losing 52-17 to Ohio last week. UB is close, especially thanks to that Temple win, but that Ohio debacle is still fresh in my mind.
Final Four
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.
- Fresno State
- BW: Hawai’i or at Nevada
- WW: FCS
- BL: at Boise State (by 7)
- WL: N/A
- Mississippi State
- Texas A&M
- WW: FCS
- BL: at Alabama (by 24)
- WL: at Kentucky (by 21)
- Temple
- BW: Cincinnati
- WW: Connecticut
- BL: at UCF (by 12)
- WL: Villanova (by 2)
- Texas A&M
- BW: LSU or Kentucky
- WW: FCS
- BL: Clemson (by 2)
- WL: at Mississippi State (by 15)
The first thing that caught my eye is Temple’s disaster against Nova. The defending hoops champs had a bad 4-6 (1-6) season. I know the Colonial was an amazing league in the FCS but this is not the same as losing to North Dakota State or James Madison, this is a horrendous loss. Rallying and going 8-3 the rest of the way is nice but they also lost to Buffalo, Boston College, and whiffed against UCF. They’re out.
Next is sadly Fresno. They faced just one top-25 team and lost. They also went 5-2 against bowl teams. An awesome mark but Texas A&M played nine bowl-bound clubs and won five of them. State took on eight such teams and won four of them. Unfortunately, even I can’t ignore the SEC edge these teams have this season when compered to a Mountain West club.
So that leaves State and A&M for the poll. State should be ahead of A&M because of the head-to-head but the Bulldog’s only other win against a top-25ish team is Auburn who went on a massive slide and isn’t close to getting ranked. A&M beat Kentucky and LSU, both safely ranked teams. While I will acknowledge the head-to-head in my final ranking, I can see why some would put the Aggies ahead of the Bulldogs.
Final Verdict:
24. Mississippi State
25. Texas A&M
League Breakdown:
8 – SEC
4 – Big 12, Big Ten
3 – Pac 12
2 – ACC, Independent
1 – American, Mountain West
Big Ten and Counting 