Another quality weekend of college football is in the books. We learned that Alabama is on a mission, Oregon still has some fight (and hope) in them and the only thing that may be able to stop the Sooners is the Playoff Committee. How they (and Oklahoma State) fare in this week’s Playoff Rankings should give us valuable insight on whether the Big 12 will be left out of the playoffs once more.
If you’re new to these rankings or need a refresher on how they work, you can find the explanation here.
The Rankings
- Alabama (Record: 9-1 | Non AP Rank: 1 | Score: 100.00 | Last Week: 2 | Opponent: Charleston Southern): Despite having one loss, the Tide take the top spot due to their impressive schedule, which ranks third in my SoS metric.
- Clemson (10-0 | 2 | 97.64 | 1 | Wake Forest): Another underwhelming performance from the Tigers, but it was enough to stay unbeaten and in the playoff hunt.
- Ohio State (10-0 | 4 | 94.58 | 3 | Michigan State): With College GameDay visiting Columbus this weekend, the Buckeyes will have a chance to prove they are a legitimate threat to repeat.
- Oklahoma (9-1 | 3 | 92.80 | 10 | TCU): Following their 10-point victory over Baylor, Oklahoma now boasts the nation’s largest Point Differential Over Average (PDOA).
- Iowa (10-0 | 5 | 89.93 | 4 | Purdue): The Hawkeyes are 10-0 for the first time in school history and have just Purdue, Nebraska and the Big Ten Championship standing between them and perfection.
- Notre Dame (9-1 | 7 | 88.25 | 7 | Boston College): The Irish’s playoff chances got a whole lot better with Baylor and Stanford falling over the weekend. Of course they still have to beat the Cardinal to get in.
- Oklahoma State (10-0 | 8 | 88.02 | 6 | Baylor): This weekend was the fourth time the Pokes have won a game by one score or less, all of which have come against unranked foes.
- Florida (9-1 | 9 | 85.39 | 11 | Florida Atlantic): The Gators haven’t looked great since their win against Georgia. They will have a chance to work out the kinks against FAU this weekend before hosting Florida State.
- Houston (10-0 | 6 | 84.93 | 14 | Connecticut): We continue to progress towards a Navy-Houston showdown to determine who the best Group of Five team is, with a New Year’s bowl game as the prize.
- Michigan State (9-1 | 11 | 83.81 | 13 | Ohio State): The good news is Connor Cook should be able to play this week; the bad news is they still have to play in Columbus.
- Baylor (8-1 | 13 | 81.65 | 5 | Oklahoma State): Given they had a true freshman going against a red-hot Sooners team, this outcome was about as good as they could have hoped for.
- North Carolina (9-1 | 12 | 81.24 | 17 | Virginia Tech): Clemson better not sleep on these Tarheels. They have won six games this season by at least 27 points.
- Navy (8-1 | 10 | 80.37 | 18 | Tulsa): Navy had no problem dismantling SMU as they continue to have perhaps the best season of any armed forces team during my lifetime.
- Michigan (8-2 | 14 | 78.54 | 16 | Penn State): Where has the defense that posted three straight shutouts gone? Allowing 41 points to the Hoosiers is not a good sign with Ohio State fast approaching.
- Stanford (8-2 | 15 | 77.91 | 9 | California): The Ducks season may have not gone as well as planned, but their fans can sleep a little better knowing they ended Stanford’s shot at making the playoffs while keeping their Pac-12 title hopes alive.
- TCU (9-1 | 18 | 77.62 | 15 | Oklahoma): If Trevone Boykin and Josh Doctson can’t play for the Horned Frogs this weekend, things could get ugly quickly.
- LSU (7-2 | 17 | 75.94 | 8 | Ole Miss): Giving up nearly 300 yards rushing and only gaining 59 yourself — especially when you have Leonard Fournette — is completely inexcusable.
- Utah (8-2 | 19 | 74.97 | 12 | UCLA): This weekend’s matchup should be fun as you pair two teams who you have absolutely no idea what you are going to get.
- Florida State (8-2 | 21 | 74.24 | 24 | Chattanooga): One of the downfalls about growing up in Idaho is that anytime you see the word “Chattanooga” you instantly have a country music song running through your head.
- Memphis (8-2 | 16 | 72.35 | 19 | Temple): What once looked like an exciting matchup between two ranked teams now has about the same appeal as a matinee showing of Spectre.
- Wisconsin (8-2 | 23 | 72.30 | 23 | Northwestern): Since this is a Big Ten matchup, I’m sure there’s some sort of trophy (an ax, bucket, used tractor) on the line, but I’m too lazy to look it up. I’m sure the winner will give the trophy the honor it deserves.
- Toledo (8-1 | 20 | 71.20 | 27 | Bowling Green): I’m not going to lie; I’m giddy about this matchup. Usually Tuesday night games suck, but with these two teams combining for 80 points, you now have an excuse not to watch Chopped
- USC (7-3; 24 | 71.16 | 26 | Oregon): The Ducks can continue their “Us Against the World” campaign this week when they host a ranked but struggling USC squad. The Trojans won their last three by a combined 17 points.
- Ole Miss (7-3; 22 | 70.26 | 25 | LSU): In light of what they did to LSU, the Rebels excruciating loss to the Razorbacks doesn’t seem so bad now.
- Northwestern (8-2 | 28 | 69.46 | 28 | Wisconsin): Okay, I looked it up. This game is not a “rivalry” game for a trophy. In fact, of the 15 Big Ten rivalry trophies, the Wildcats are only involved in one, Illinois-Northwestern for the highly coveted Land of Lincoln Trophy.
AP Teams Who Missed the Cut
Sorry Ducks fans, but Oregon (30) was still a ways off from the top 25. They did jump up 12 spots from their win and will continue to climb if they can beat USC. Also missing from my top 25 was Washington State, who came in at 40. Both teams are hampered by low point differentials. Oregon’s +47 is second-worst among the top 40 teams and Wazzou’s +54 is third-worst.
Oregon Update
The Ducks were covered above. While they prevented Stanford from clinching the Pac-12 North on Saturday, they likely were just delaying the inevitable. That said, their bounce-back from lowest point in years should be applauded.
What shouldn’t be applauded is anything that is happening in Corvallis. The Beavers slid another five spots, down to 112th this week. They have no lost seven-straight by an average of nearly 24 points per game and are looking to go winless in conference play.
Other Notable Teams
Bowling Green (27) hopes to continue their strong season against Toledo … Appalachian State (28) is still the apple of the Sun Belt’s eye … Western Kentucky (29) has put a big gap between themselves and the other teams from Kentucky … Air Force has quietly snuck up to 43, taking the top spot of the Mountain West away from Boise State (45) … Arkansas State got a vote in the AP poll but is only 48th in my rankings … Nebraska (63) is the best sub-.500 team … Kentucky (90) is now the worst team in the SEC, one spot behind South Carolina (89) … and our Bottom Five for this week are: Wyoming (124), Eastern Michigan, Kansas, North Texas and UCF.
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