Tuesday, October 29, 2024

National landscape - week nine, Oregon stands tall

Oregon stood up to Ohio State and dominated Illinois. Those are their only wins against ranked opponents. Does that make them worthy of the top spot? At this point I have them neck and neck with Georgia. Then again, it doesn't mean too much to be #1 vs #2 now that the playoff includes 12 teams. 

  1. Oregon (bye)
  2. Georgia (bye)
  3. Clemson (bye)
  4. BYU (bye)
  5. Texas A&M (hosts)
  6. Penn State (hosts)
  7. Ohio State (hosts)
  8. Notre Dame (hosts)
  9. Iowa State
  10. Miami
  11. Texas
  12. Boise State
The biggest move this week was A&M jumping up to #5. Last week I had LSU at #6, and really thought the winner of Saturday evening's game wouldn't be that strong of a consideration. But the Aggies showed me something different...in the second half. Marcel Reed makes them a true contender I think. Going to South Carolina will be a true road test, and they get Texas at home to close the season.

Elsewhere in the SEC, Georgia sits on their bye weekend. Moved Texas down a spot after their win over Vanderbilt. That's mostly because I still don't believe they have an offensive line that can consistently let their playmakers make plays. They're really, really bad.

Miami beat FSU by three touchdowns. Think about that for a moment. As recently as a year ago all the way back to the 90's, that would be a major headline. FSU is that bad and I really don't think Miami is that good. Again, without some help from the referees, the Canes could be 5-3.

The Big 10 is truly a mystery to me. After Oregon, what team is deserving? Indiana probably should be next. In the end I decided to let the Ohio State at Penn State game this weekend shake things out.

BYU notched a cross country road win against UCF to stay atop the Big 12. Their biggest competition for the top spot is Iowa State. The Cyclones definitely have the harder schedule ahead: Texas Tech on Saturday and at Utah later in November. 

The Golden Domes trounced a good Navy team. That loss to the Salukis really brought Notre Dame around.

Which brings me to #12. I don't know how you can leave Boise State or Army out of the equation at this point. The reason they expanded the playoffs was to give teams like these a chance. Army is undefeated and is probably the one team that no one really wants to play. But I'm sticking with the Broncos as they beat my original Group of 5 inclusion, UNLV.

And just because it's hate week: Where are the Gators you ask? Basking in their OT loss to the Vols maybe?

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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