Tuesday, October 1, 2024

National landscape, week five. The Tide rises!

This week finds another shakeup in my poll as well as the SEC. Alabama's 1st half beat down followed by its 4th quarter resiliency forces Texas out of the top spot. Beating Georgia is a quality win. The Longhorns defeat of Michigan (even though that one was on the road) isn't nearly as shiny.

Let's get straight to it.

  1. Alabama (bye)
  2. Oregon (bye)
  3. BYU (bye)
  4. Clemson (bye)
  5. Texas (hosts)
  6. Ohio State (hosts)
  7. Georgia (hosts)
  8. Michigan (hosts)
  9. Tennessee 
  10. Texas Tech
  11. Penn State
  12. Boise State
Sticking with four teams in the SEC. Ole Miss could play their way back in, but Missouri has the easier path. Alabama goes from 7 to 1 as they look the most ready for a post-season run. Meanwhile, Texas drops from 1 to 5, and therefore Georgia drops from 5 to 7. Tennessee stays put.

From there, things get muddy quickly.

In the Big10, I'm sticking with Oregon getting the conference's bye. Ohio State and Penn State I believe will be the other contenders. The Nittany Lions move into this week's poll thanks to UCF's loss to Deion Sanders' ego Colorado. Indiana and Michigan lead the conference with 2-0 records.

Over in the Big12, Utah's loss takes them out completely. I suspect they'll remain in contention however. And I hope the Utes bounce back, because after BYU there is Texas Tech and Colorado. The Red Radiers grab the 10 spot with the toss of a coin.

Lastly, I'm giving the Group of 5 spot to Boise State. The Broncos are the highest ranked G5 team in the AP, while UNLV is ranked in the Coaches Poll. I went with the Broncos because Ashton Jeanty is chasing record books and a Heisman trophy, not NIL money (that I know of).

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?

No comments: