Perhaps last week I was a bit hasty in saying "the waters are a little less muddy." Bama was wildly inconsistent on the road and Texas didn't bother showing up until the 3rd quarter. And even then, only had spurts of success. Let's dig on in shall we?
- Oregon (bye)
- Clemson (bye)
- Georgia (bye)
- BYU (bye)
- Penn State (hosts)
- LSU (hosts)
- Ohio State (hosts)
- Notre Dame (hosts)
- Iowa State
- Texas
- Miami
- Boise State
I watched Miami beat Louisville on the road. I'm still not sold on them winning the ACC, but it was a win in a hostile-ish environment. Clemson however still has the better resume, and I believe the better overall team. Let's not forget, Miami was the beneficiary of bad calls against VA Tech, Cal, and now Louisville. They could easily be 4-3. So the Canes move into the rankings, but that's all I got for them right now.
ACC-lite: Notre Dame looked impressive against GA Tech in the Benz. But again, they'll need to beat Navy this weekend and Army late next month to stay in.
Georgia's win in Austin moves them up into a bye. I debated on how far Texas should slide and landed on (newcomer to the rankings) LSU hosting and Texas moving into a first round trip to Columbus. Alabama's lackluster performance in Neyland was more than enough for me to move them out, especially given it is their second loss in the state of Tennessee. Did the Vols show me enough to move back in? Nope. Keeping the SEC at three teams.
What about A&M, the SEC's other undefeated team (in conference play)? I decided to be as fair as possible. I took to social media and asked followers to vote on these five teams as a third entry for this week's rankings - A&M, LSU, Missouri, Texas, and Vanderbilt. LSU ran away with more than 50% of the votes. (If you don't follow me, here's the FB page and here's my TXitter.)
Moving on, Oregon benefitted from Texas' beat down to move up into the top spot. And they may not give it back as they have #20 Illinois this weekend, and after that their next ranked opponent could be in the Big10 Championship game. I didn't like the idea of both Penn State and Ohio State hosting a 1st round game, but with Bama and Texas Tech dropping out it was hard not to. They play each other in a couple weeks anyway. It'll sort out.
What about Indiana you say? They are undefeated, but the schedule seems soft to me. If they keep winning and take down the Buckeyes next month...
In the Big12, BYU remains atop the conference with Iowa State. I keep BYU as the conference winner and it seemed time to move the undefeated Cyclones in.
As far as true contenders for the whole enchilada...Dawgs definitely showed they can put things together. Again, I don't think Oregon is going to move much, so I have them as a true contender. And then I guess you have to include Ohio State as well since their game with the Ducks could've gone either way. And I think they're my only three at this point. Everyone else either hasn't impressed me enough to put on that level, or they are simply suffering from a weak schedule so far. We'll see.
Anyway, as always, we close this weekly post with this: Those are at least some intriguing matchups in Round 1. $till not $old on making the $ea$on thi$ long. But I'd watch, and I gue$$ that'$ why they expanded, right?
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