College Football Week 10 AP Rankings with Breakdown

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Written by Ryan Wright

Twitter: @HogManInLA

Even though there was not as much hype about the games scheduled going into the weekend, college football did not disappoint with exciting showdowns that produced big upsets that could affect the end of the season playoff.

ACC

The near upset that would have shaken college football to the core was Virginia rising up at home to take on No. 5 Louisville. The Cavaliers hung tough taking a one-point lead in the closing minutes of the fourth quarter only to see Louisville drive the field for a 32-25 game winning touchdown with seconds left on the clock. Florida State gave Clemson all they had but in the end suffered their third loss of the season falling 37-34 at home. The up-and-down seasons within the ACC continued with Wake Forest losing 21-13 at home to Army, North Carolina State dropping a 21-14 contest at home to Boston College, and Miami losing on the road 30-27 to Notre Dame.

Big 12

The Big 12’s College Football Playoff hopes were seemingly dashed on Saturday when then undefeated West Virginia lost on the road 37-20 to Oklahoma State and with Baylor’s 35-34 fall down the road to Texas. Oklahoma steamrolled Kansas 56-3 and Texas Tech got a surprise 27-24 double-overtime win in Arlington against TCU. The Sooners are undefeated in conference with OSU, Baylor, and WVU each with one-loss.

Big Ten

No. 2 Michigan kept pace beating in-state rival Michigan State 32-23. Previously undefeated Nebraska fell 23-17 in overtime to Wisconsin in Madison and Penn State kept their upward trend beating Purdue 62-24. Ohio State avoided another upset holding Northwestern off 24-20 at home. Minnesota got the best of Illinois 40-17 and Maryland dropped another with Indiana holding home field 42-36.

Pac-12

Stanford found their winning ways on the road easily downing Arizona 34-10. Ditto for Oregon against Arizona State winning 54-35. USC is finding their mojo taking care of a visiting Cal squad 45-24. Another surging team in contention for the Pac-12 Championship Game is Washington State. The Cougars beat Oregon State 35-31 in Corvallis. The Pac-12’s best shot at making the College Football Playoff, Washington, remained undefeated with a convincing 31-24 win over then- No. 16 Utah.

SEC

Four SEC teams took a bye week leaving just six games on the docket. Mississippi State got by Samford 56-41 in non-conference action as did Texas A&M manhandling New Mexico State 52-10. The in-conference games were interesting. Kentucky is starting to catch fire beating Missouri 35-21 in Columbia. Auburn got an easy 40-29 win over Ole Miss extending the Rebels slide. Another team on a slide is Georgia. The Bulldogs are now 4-4, 2-4 in SEC play, after losing 24-10 to SEC East rival Florida. The biggest upset in the conference was South Carolina shocking Tennessee 24-21.

Games of Note

Navy looked primed to surge ahead into the polls but dropped a tough 52-45 game on the road to South Florida. The other big loss was Boise State, perhaps the only Group of Five team left that could have cracked the College Football Playoff. The Broncos lost a tough 30-28 contest to Wyoming on the road.

Top Games this Week

Baylor will look for a bounce back win against a visiting TCU squad that appears to be on the ropes. North Carolina State could put a fork in Florida State’s season and Iowa has a chance to make some noise in Happy Valley against Penn State.

Games with playoff implications includes UCLA looking to bounce Colorado out of South Division contention in the Pac-12. Arkansas welcomes Florida, a squad poised to win the SEC East and with just one-loss a potential contender as one of four.

Ohio State is another potential playoff contender, as is Nebraska. The Cornhuskers took the loss last week while the Buckeyes found a way to win. Is Ohio State vulnerable enough to suffer a home loss against Nebraska? Cal has not played as well as most thought they would this year, but are they scrappy enough to give a visiting Washington team fits? We’ll find out.

The top game has to be No. 1 Alabama vs. No. 15 LSU. LSU, even with two-losses, could find a way to sneak into the playoffs if they can finish the season without another defeat. Alabama should claim a No. 1 seed in the playoffs if they can get past LSU and Auburn. First tough test up next.

AP Top 25

  1. Alabama
  2. Michigan
  3. Clemson
  4. Washington
  5. Louisville
  6. Ohio State
  7. Texas A&M
  8. Wisconsin
  9. Nebraska
  10. Florida
  11. Auburn
  12. Oklahoma
  13. Baylor
  14. West Virginia
  15. LSU
  16. Utah
  17. Western Michigan
  18. North Carolina
  19. Florida State
  20. Penn State
  21. Colorado
  22. Oklahoma State
  23. Virginia Tech
  24. Boise State
  25. Washington State

 

Photo credit: fansided.com; No. 8 Lamar Jackson drops back to pass against Virginia.