Week 9 College Football AP Rankings with Breakdown
Posted by Ryan Wright
Twitter: @HogManInLA
There was some major reshuffling going on in the Associated Press Top 25 after two Top 10 teams lost making for some interesting matchups in the coming weeks in the Big Ten and Big 12. With Alabama downing Texas A&M 33-14 at home, the Tide remain locked in at No. 1 cementing their spot as the best team in the nation.
Even though Ohio State and Texas A&M lost, neither team was severely punished. In the rankings. The Aggies dropping one on the road to the No. 1 team in the land forced a slide from No. 6 to No. 9; not too bad of a drop. Ohio State on the other hand lost 24-21 on the road to an unranked Penn State team that was 4-2 at the time moving from No. 2 to No. 6. Adding to the confusion in the voting, the Nittany Lions lost to Michigan in Week 2 49-10. Has PSU improved that much thus far this season giving OSU the benefit of the doubt?
Keeping in the Big Ten, Nebraska moved to 7-0 bouncing Purdue 27-14. The Cornhuskers have five games left including showdowns against Wisconsin (Oct. 29) and Ohio State (Nov. 5). With three losses in the conference between Northwestern and Iowa, Nebraska looks like a lock to win the West Division.
In the Big 12, West Virginia remained unbeaten with a 34-10 home win against TCU. The win pushed them up one in the rankings into the Top 10 over Wisconsin. WVU still has six conference games left to play getting Oklahoma State next week on the road with big contests against Oklahoma (Nov. 19) and Baylor (Dec. 3) to finish the regular season. Oklahoma trounced Texas Tech 66-59 in a defense optional game. The Baylor Bears were on a bye.
With Houston losing to SMU 38-16, Boise State is now the top Group of Five team hoping for a shot at the College Football Playoff. The Broncos are 7-0, 3-0, with five Mountain West Conference games left to play against teams they should beat. Boise State has what could be construed as three quality non-conference wins against Washington State (31-28), Oregon State (38-24) and BYU (28-27). Will an undefeated BSU team make enough movement up the rankings in the coming weeks to crack the Top 4?
The top of the Pac-12 is not filled with the usual names seeing Washington (7-0, 4-0) and Washington State (5-2, 4-0) atop the North along with Utah (7-1, 4-1) and Colorado (6-2, 4-1) leading the way in the South. Utah slipped past UCLA on the road 52-45 and Colorado stunned Stanford 10-5. Washington topped Oregon State 41-17 and Washington State beat Arizona State 37-32 on the road. Who would have thought that WSU could be challenging for a spot in the Pac-12 Championship Game after starting off with losses against Eastern Washington and Boise State. Upcoming games against Cal, Colorado, and Washington on Nov. 25 should decide who could get a shot at playing in the playoff. Utah gets Washington next week in a key matchup.
Clemson and Louisville are still the cream of the crop in the Atlantic and North Carolina and Virginia Tech are rising in the Coastal. Pitt is one to watch out for with the Hokies coming to town on Thursday.
The SEC is still up for grabs in both the East and West Divisions. LSU looked really strong in their 38-21 win over Ole Miss. Auburn laid it on Arkansas 56-3. Both Tiger squads maybe the only teams left that could be a ding in Alabama’s perfect regular season. Florida is in the driver’s seat in the East but must play Georgia, Arkansas, South Carolina and LSU to win the division and then play FSU. If they win out, there would be little doubt they are one of the top teams in the nation. Chances are at least one loss is coming.
AP Top 25
- Alabama
- Michigan
- Clemson
- Washington
- Louisville
- Ohio State
- Nebraska
- Baylor
- Texas A&M
- West Virginia
- Wisconsin
- Florida State
- Boise State
- Florida
- Auburn
- Oklahoma
- Utah
- Tennessee
- LSU
- Western Michigan
- North Carolina
- Navy
- Colorado
- Penn State
- Virginia Tech
Photo credit: Star Telegram; No. 2 Trevor Knight takes a big hit against Alabama.