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2022: Week 10 Poll

Welcome to the most difficult poll to get into. Zero poll inertia. Ya win, ya stay the same (mostly). No preseason ranking clouding my judgement. No wild jumps just because of an upset or a fall because of a bye week. It is truly merit based so some fans will be excited while some will cling to the goofballs over at the AP poll.

Real AP Poll:

  1. Georgia (30) – Blow out their rival and lost a first place vote, hmmmmmm.
  2. Tennessee (18) AND Ohio State (15)
  3. TIE AT TWO
  4. Michigan
  5. Clemson – #5? Big Cinco? Cinco de Mayo? It is the illuminati!!!
  6. Alabama
  7. TCU – Fun fact, TCU has played and beaten more ranked teams than Alabama. But wait you say, surely more of Alabama’s teams are still ranked than TCU’s. Nope. Wrong.
  8. Oregon
  9. USC
  10. UCLA
  11. Ole Miss
  12. Utah
  13. Kansas State – They went from 17 to 22 to 13. Fun stuff smashing Okie State, no?
  14. Illinois
  15. LSU
  16. Penn State
  17. North Carolina – Is there a quieter 7-1 team in America? Rumor is Mack Brown thought his team was 5-3.
  18. Oklahoma State
  19. Tulane
  20. Wake Forest
  21. NC State – I am a MJ Morris believer. His raw talent is incredible. Just needs some footwork practice.
  22. Syracuse
  23. Liberty
  24. Oregon State – some of us have had this team ranked for a while now 😎
  25. UCF

Dropped: Kentucky (19), Cincinnati (20), South Carolina (25)

Receiving Votes: Texas, Kentucky, Maryland, Cincinnati, Notre Dame, Washington, Arkansas, Baylor, Coastal Carolina, Florida State, Troy, Mississippi State, Boise State, South Carolina, East Carolina, UTSA, Louisville

Josh’s Top 25:

  1. Georgia
  2. Ohio State
  3. Tennessee
  4. Clemson
  5. Michigan
  6. Alabama
  7. TCU – TCU’s resume is better than Alabama’s but I hate reordering just because a team was off like Alabama. The good news is if LSU knocks off Alabama, it is all sorted out and the Horned Frogs move up.
  8. Oregon
  9. USC
  10. Utah
  11. Ole Miss
  12. UCLA
  13. Illinois
  14. Oregon State
  15. Tulane
  16. North Carolina
  17. Kansas State
  18. LSU
  19. Wake Forest – Wake lost due to one bad quarter. Oklahoma State lost badly with four horrific quarters.
  20. Penn State
  21. Oklahoma State
  22. Maryland
  23. -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

Pretty simple formula, Cincy was ranked and lost to UCF. They now have identical records but UCF the head-to-head. They will be the nominee. But don’t sleep on Cincy getting back into the polls. You also can’t discount ECU. They looked really good at BYU. If they keep it up, they’ll be ranked soon, too.

AAC Nominee: UCF

Atlantic Coast Conference

Well the ACC is giving me a headache because I barely had Syracuse ranked last week and I’ve had NC State out of my polls but then NC State has a huge comeback win, finds a new quarterback in MJ Morris while the Orange see their starting qb get hurt and lose to the Irish. Simple solution is to flip them BUT Syracuse has the head-to-head. Safe to say with MJ Morris in there and Garrett Shrader banged up, the smart pick is NC State.

ACC Nominees: NC State

Big 12 Conference

Texas is into the CFP poll and 26th in the AP but they are 5-3 (3-2) there are a lot of Big 12 teams with 5-3 marks. Baylor, Oklahoma, and Kansas all join UT at five wins. Kansas lost to both BU and OU so their five wins are the weakest. Oklahoma lost to TCU and Kansas State – the best teams in the league – but also lost 49-0 to Texas. I know injuries played a part, but that doesn’t explain all 49 points. Baylor has a better record against common opponents and has won two straight while Texas was off following the loss to Oklahoma State. I’m going to zag compared to the national folks and take Baylor based on their actual resume and recent play.

Big 12 Nominee: Baylor

Big Ten Conference

With Maryland more safe in my poll thanks to a well timed bye, the floor now becomes a battle between 5-3 Purdue and Minnesota. The Boilermakers won four straight before dropping the UW game and then were off. Minnesota lost three in a row, including to this Purdue team and looked awful during the stretch. They bounced back against lowly Rutgers. I don’t see PU advancing very far in this process, but they get the nomination.

Big Ten Nominee: Purdue

Conference USA

Meep Meep! UTSA was on my radar two weeks ago, then beat North Texas to get into the elimination process, and then had a bye week. They’ll remain in the elimination process.

C-USA Nominee: UTSA

Independents

Liberty was the nomination a week ago and has done nothing to slide. The new question is if 5-3 Notre Dame will get back into poll discussion. Not there yet for me, but with Clemson up next, a massive opportunity to get a statement win.

Independents Nominee: Liberty

Mid-American Conference

Last week four teams were 5-3 and from that Toledo and Ohio survived to get to 6-3. If anyone gets ranked this season from the MAC it would one of these teams.

MAC Nominee: No One

Mountain West Conference

Boise was my nominee last week and won their fourth straight to get to 6-2. Wyoming’s losses have all been lopsided so they have a lot of work to still do but they are up to 6-3 and officially on my radar.

MWC Nominee: Boise State

Pac-12 Conference

Oregon State keeps moving up and is in the safe range of the poll that leaves 6-2 (3-2) Washington trying to get back into the poll.

Pac-12 Nominee: Washington

Southeastern Conference

LSU is in the safe range but South Carolina and Kentucky lost. For Kentucky they haven’t looked the same since Will Levis got banged up.

SEC Nominees: No One

Sun Belt Conference:

Coastal, Troy, and South Alabama are all bowl eligible with at least six wins and Coastal leading the way at 7-1. None of these teams has a win over a power five but if they keep winning and one of the trio emerges with victories over the others, someone will get ranked here soon.

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?…Purdue is barely in this conversation to start with but the you see FCS Indiana State – a Pioneer team that doesn’t even offer full scholarships. Take that game out and they’re 4-3. Keep rolling down the tracks. UTSA got booted at this point last week and then they were off. The same idea works: FIU is dreadful, MTSU isn’t very good, and they had a FCS team. See you next week Roadrunner brothers. Baylor’s non conference already had a struggling Texas State team and yet they still chose to reach out to their natural rival…FCS Albany. Baylor is bounced.

Bad Game(s)…Last week I wrote, “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.” Guess what, Liberty was off last week. Nothing has changed.

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.

  • Boise State
    • BW: At Air Force (maybe Fresno)
    • WW: FCS
    • BL: At Oregon State (by 17)
    • WL: At UTEP (by 17)
  • NC State
    • BW: Florida State (at ECU?)
    • WW: FCS
    • BL: at Clemson (by 10)
    • WL: at Syracuse (by 15)
  • UCF
    • BW: Cincinnati
    • WW: FCS
    • BL: Louisville (by 6)
    • WL: ECU (by 21)
  • Washington
    • BW: Arizona (?), Cal (?), 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 UCF is hanging their hat on the win over the Bearcats. They have easily the ugliest loss of these four teams and their wins include that FCS team – but also Temple, Georgia Tech, and FAU. UCF will stand a great chance of getting ranked sometime soon, but just not this week.

That leaves the the other three clubs for three spots. NC State has the best resumes of the team left so those pack of wolves will be 22nd. Then you have steady Washington. No marquee victory yet but very consistent, just two one-possession losses away from being 8-0. Lastly Boise is trending up. Since their offense was shaken up with the OC dumped and the QB transferred, they just keep getting better and better. They feel more consistent than that UCF’s Gus bus experience.

Final Verdict:

22. NC State
23. Washington
25. Boise State

League Breakdown:

6 – Pac 12
5 – Big Ten, SEC
4 – ACC
3 – Big 12
1 – American, Mountain West

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