You’ve been waiting for it…the most difficult poll to get into. Zero poll inertia. Ya win, ya stay the same (mostly). No preseason ranking clouding my judgement. It is truly merit based so some fans will be excited (Maryland) and some will slink back to the AP (South Carolina).
Real AP Poll:
- Georgia (31)
- Ohio State (18)
- Tennessee (13) – Two first place voters changed their opinion because…? UT didn’t kill UT Martin by enough?
- Michigan
- Clemson (1) – Ah, yes, they clearly looked like a #1 team last week.
- Alabama
- TCU
- Oregon – The question now is…if they win out, will that be enough to counteract their 43 point loss in Atlanta to start the year? I’d lean yes. The UGA and Tennessee loser will not win the division. At most the SEC would have two teams in. The OSU / Michigan loser will also be out. So you have potentially 2 SEC teams, 1 Big Ten, and Clemson. BUT Clemson has had some tight games, what if they get upset in the ACC title game? What if the SEC title game loser is Alabama with two losses. There is a path to 2 SEC teams, 1 Big Ten, and somebody. That somebody could be Oregon. There is also a path of 1 SEC, 1 Big Ten, Clemson, and somebody. There is also the crazy case of 1 SEC, 1 Big Ten, and 2 somebodies. Then what about something truly crazy like Illinois stuns the world in the Big Ten Title Game? There is just so much football left to be played so if Oregon keeps winning, things could work out in their favor.
- Oklahoma State
- USC & Wake Forest
- TIE AT TEN
- UCLA
- Penn State – Okay Nittany Lions, ya got OSU next. Win and you are top 10. Lose big enough you are probably out of the polls. Have fun!
- Utah
- Ole Miss
- Syracuse
- Illinois
- LSU – In the words of coach Kelly, “we are a faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaammmmmmuhleeee”
- Kentucky
- Cincinnati
- North Carolina
- Kansas State
- Tulane
- NC State
- South Carolina – Just think, if he stays long enough Beamer Ball will come to mean South Carolina and not Virginia Tech.
Dropped: Texas (20), Mississippi State (24)
Receiving Votes: Texas, Liberty, Oregon State, Mississippi State, Maryland, Troy, UTSA, Washington, Florida State, Arkansas
Josh’s Top 25:
- Georgia
- Ohio State
- Tennessee
- Clemson
- Michigan
- Alabama
- TCU
- Oregon
- USC
- Wake Forest
- Oklahoma State
- Utah
- Ole Miss
- UCLA
- Illinois
- Kentucky
- Cincinnati
- Penn State
- Oregon State
- Tulane
- North Carolina
- Kansas State
- -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
With Cincy and Tulane safely in my poll you are looking at two teams: UCF and ECU. The Knights have the slightly better record at 5-2 compared to 5-3 but the Pirates just beat UCF. As a result, the AAC is nominee-less this week.
AAC Nominee: No One
Atlantic Coast Conference
The Tar Heels are safely in my poll so I have a spot for either NC State, Syracuse, or both. The argument is pretty easy, Syracuse beat NC State head-to-head and was 6-0 (and 20th in my poll last week). As NC State continues to deal with the Leary injury, I will not have them ranked until they show they can win without their star qb.
ACC Nominees: Syracuse
Big 12 Conference
Texas was ranked 18th in my poll last week but they left a lot to be desired even before loosing. Against Oklahoma State they didn’t play enough defense and are now 5-3. There are better teams out there at the moment than UT.
Big 12 Nominee: No One
Big Ten Conference
PSU survived my poll elimination process and moved up into the safe part of the poll as a result of dismantling Minnesota. With Purdue’s flatline against Wisconsin we have just one team worth of consideration…Maryland!!!
Big Ten Nominee: Maryland
Conference USA
Meep Meep! UTSA was on my radar last week and knocked off North Texas. The win moves them to 6-2 and they boast wins over both WKU and NT, the second and third placed teams in league. Let’s move them onto the elimination rounds.
C-USA Nominee: UTSA
Independents
Liberty was also on my radar last week and then molly whopped BYU. I don’t know what has happened to BYU (okay their defense is god-awful) but beating them like that in Provo was attention-getting.
Independents Nominee: Liberty
Mid-American Conference
There are four teams all with 5-3 records (Buffalo, Ohio, Toledo, and Eastern Michigan). Despite their success in the MAC, neither team has performed consistently well enough to be considered ranking yet, though I will say UB’s crazy comeback win on Saturday was awesome.
MAC Nominee: No One
Mountain West Conference
Winners of three straight has pushed Boise State to 5-2. I doubt they have enough meat on the bone to survive the elimination rounds just yet, but I’ll examine them a little bet more thoroughly to check.
MWC Nominee: Boise State
Pac-12 Conference
Oregon State survived elimination last week and thanks to bulldozing the Buffs, moved up in the poll. Joining the Beavers at 6-2 is Washington. They’ll get some looks this week.
Pac-12 Nominee: Washington
Southeastern Conference
Last week I nominated LSU and they just missed out on a ranking. I nominated them over South Carolina. Both clubs went out and had themselves a week so now I have a double nomination situation on my hands.
SEC Nominees: LSU and South Carolina
Sun Belt Conference:
My Jags, noooo!! The Sun Belt curse continues as whenever a team gets ranked the league must eat them. Troy and Coastal Carolina are the most worth of getting a look, but this is a packed week with five power conference teams and more deserving Liberty / Boise in the mix.
Sun Belt Nominee: No one
Elimination Time:
We have our nominees set. Now we need to do some weeding! The first criteria I will look at is who has played FCS teams and then look at any bad games.
FCS Much?…UTSA’s 6-2 mark is aided by conference dregs FIU and MTSU plus…Texas Southern? Roadrunners run home for this week. Boise also has the same exact issue LSU did last week: a FCS team plus New Mexico. That is way too much cup and not enough cake. Or something. South Carolina, you already had Charlotte and Georgia State on your schedule and then you just had to go and add a FCS team. If you remove those sweet, sweet cupcakes, USC is 2-2 against real teams. I can’t in good conscience sign off on the Gamecocks just yet.
Bad Game(s)…I was already tempted to boot Liberty thanks to a FCS team along with Akron and UMass but then I noticed that FCS win was by one point. That my friends is a bad game. They also beat awful Akron by just 9 and stinky Southern Miss by 2. Flames burn out right here.
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.
- LSU
- BW: Ole Miss
- WW: FCS
- BL: None
- WL: Tennessee (by 27)
- Maryland
- BW: SMU(?)
- WW: Charlotte
- BL: at Michigan (by 7)
- WL: Purdue (by 2)
- Syracuse
- BW: NC State (maybe Purdue or Louisville)
- WW: FCS
- BL: at Clemson (by 6)
- WL: None
- Washington
- BW: Michigan State (?)
- WW: FCS
- BL: at UCLA (by 8)
- WL: At Arizona State (by 7)
So the first thing that catches my eye is how Washington’s wins are pretty poor and their losses are way worse compared to Maryland’s and also larger in number than LSU and Syracuse. They are the odd man out while Maryland just barely sneaks in.
That leaves the two lone loss teams. You have a classic case of one giant win versus a lot of good wins. I’ll take Syracuse for the totality of putting together a lot of good wins versus LSU having one fantastic day against Ole Miss. Obviously this can change but if you are picking the 25 best teams, you want some totality in your decision making.
Final Verdict:
22. Syracuse
23. LSU
25. Maryland
League Breakdown:
6 – SEC
5 – Big Ten, Pac 12
4 – ACC
3 – Big 12
2 – American
Big Ten and Counting 