Top 25: Ohio State Rises To 1, Ole Miss and UCLA Prove Themselves
Officially in "undefeated gets you ranked" territory
I posted on Twitter that I was taking a Monday post off after finishing all the Big Ten women’s basketball team previews. While I’m not taking Thursday off (I am here as you can see), I will be taking it easier, just doing the weekly college football Top 25.
Thank you so much to everyone that read the Big Ten previews, they were some of the highest performing posts that I’ve ever had, and I had a ton of fun making them. On Monday, I will go over the Preseason Big Ten team rankings and All-Big Ten picks, but let’s talk football for now.
At this point in the season, being an undefeated FBS team should mean a place in the top 25. Strength of schedule and how dominant a team is in said wins can make the rankings different, but having a zero in the loss column should be important!
With that said, here are this week’s rankings:
1.) Ohio State (+1)
2.) Alabama (+1)
3.) Georgia (-2)
4.) Michigan (-)
5.) Clemson (-)
6.) Tennessee (+3)
7.) USC (-)
8.) Oklahoma State (+2)
9.) Ole Miss (+10)
10.) Oregon (+2)
11.) Penn State (+4)
12.) BYU (+1)
13.) Kansas (+5)
14.) Utah (+2)
15.) TCU (NEW)
16.) Kentucky (-10)
17.) UCLA (NEW)
18.) NC State (-10)
19.) Kansas State (+1)
20.) Wake Forest (NEW)
21.) Washington (-10)
22.) Syracuse (NEW)
23.) James Madison (NEW)
24.) Cincinnati (-)
25.) Coastal Carolina (NEW)
Some thoughts:
For now, Ohio State is my No. 1 team. I was close to doing it last week, but with Georgia very nearly losing to Missouri, it sealed the deal. The Buckeyes look great on both sides of the ball and aren’t even playing at full strength. Alabama also looked real solid against Arkansas, but has had more of a slip-up than Ohio State elsewhere on the schedule.
Clemson is coming for that No. 4 spot, and looked great against NC State. Michigan continues to play its brand of football very well, and that Penn State matchup in two weeks will be substantial in proving if this Wolverines team is legit.
Tennessee has big wins and that’s enough for me to put the Vols top six. Big, big games lay ahead for them though, so this could be short lived.
I thought Oklahoma State was a fraud and I might have been wrong. Ole Miss, similar deal, and yet both had massive wins this past weekend to earn top 10 placements.
Kansas played its worst game of the season last week and still managed to beat a not-terrible Iowa State team. This upcoming matchup against TCU should be one for the books. Speaking of TCU, the Horned Frogs beat the absolute hell out of Oklahoma to stay undefeated. That earns them a pretty high debut in this ranking.
UCLA is also undefeated, but finally had a chance to prove itself. The Bruins did exactly that, outlasting Washington in a shoot-out battle to give the Huskies their first loss.
With Clemson looking so good against the Wolfpack, I may have been too hard on Wake Forest. The Demon Deacons handled an undefeated Florida State team for much of that game, and only have a very respectable blemish on the résumé.
Syracuse, James Madison and Coastal Carolina are undefeated teams No. 14, 15 and 16 remaining in the FBS. The Orange have scrapped and clawed their way here, but have taken down some pretty solid teams in the process. James Madison beat a very good App State team and has handled business every other matchup, this would be a true Sun Belt contender if there wasn’t a very dumb rule NCAA rule stopping it. And Coastal, a Hoopla favorite, has looked different shades of good to get to 5-0, but hell, the Chanticleers are here and still have an extremely fun offense. I’m happy to have them back.
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