Four SEC Teams Enter the AP Top 10 and Voters Lose Confidence in MSU and OSU
Written by Ryan Wright
Twitter: @HogManInLA
The Week 7 AP rankings came out on Sunday and in a nutshell summary Baylor switched places with TCU, Michigan State tumbled despite winning, voters lost more confidence in Ohio State, and Utah is now viewed as legitimate. The bigger trouble for the rest of the Power Five Conferences is the surge by the SEC with four teams now in the Top 10.
Big Ten
Week 6 in the Big Ten ended without any major shakeups in the conference standings sans Michigan downing Northwestern 38-0. Wolverines’ head coach Jim Harbaugh has his team rolling posting three consecutive shutouts (BYU 31-0 and Maryland 28-0). Iowa remained unbeaten moving to 6-0 topping Illinois 29-20. Penn State took down Indiana at home 29-7 and Minnesota went on the road to beat Purdue 41-13.
The gut wrenching game of the week was Nebraska’s fourth last second loss on the season – the Cornhusker only have four losses on the season. Wisconsin nailed a 46-yard field goal with four seconds left in the game giving Nebraska yet another reason to believe the season is cursed.
No. 1 Ohio State did not start putting away Maryland until late in the third quarter going on to win 49-28. The game was tied early in the third at 21-all leading AP voters to again reduce the number of first place votes for the Buckeyes from 38 last week to 27 this week. Michigan State continues their backward slide from No. 2 now resting at No. 7 following another lackluster win over Rutgers on the road winning 31-24.
ACC
Nothing surprising happened in the AAC with No. 12 Florida State knocking off Miami 29-24 behind Dalvin Cook’s 222 yard performance with two scores. Duke beat Army 44-3, Virginia Tech defeated N.C. State 28-13, and Pitt stopped Virginia 26-19. If one was looking for somewhat surprising results in the ACC Wake Forest beat Boston College 3-0 and South Florida stuck it to a visiting Syracuse team 45-24.
Clemson moved up to No. 5 in this week’s rankings after downing Georgia Tech 43-24 at home. The Yellow Jackets have fallen from a preseason Costal Division favorite to 2-4, 0-3, on the year.
Big 12
The Big 12 had one near miss and one direct hit with TCU dodging Kansas State on the road 52-45 and then No. 10 Oklahoma falling to unranked Texas 24-17. Baylor continued their hot streak against subpar teams whacking Kansas 66-7 and Texas Tech found little resistance against Iowa State at home winning 66-31. Oklahoma State remained unbeaten improving to 6-0 with an overtime 33-26 thriller against West Virginia.
Pac-12
The conference that may have had the biggest shakeup of all the conferences at any point in the season to date was the Pac-12 in Week 6. The festivities started on Thursday when USC lost at home to Washington 17-12. The loss may contributed to the Trojans temporary, for now, dismissal of head coach Steve Sarkisian on Sunday. The other shakeup was Washington State beating Oregon 45-38 in double-overtime on the road. Arizona took care of Oregon State 44-7 and Arizona State easily defeated Colorado 48-23.
The big game of the week was No. 23 Cal vs. No. 5 Utah. Both squads will look back on the game as a “what if” scenario, especially Cal after Jared Goff was picked off five times. Goff is still one of the best in the nation in the pocket and the Utes defense is also one of the best. Utah could have stretched the lead but Utes starting quarterback Travis Wilson gave the ball back to the Golden Bears twice. The game feature nine total turnovers – Cal 6, Utah 3.
SEC
The biggest move and loss in the SEC was for then No. 19 Georgia. The Bulldogs lost one of the nation’s best running backs to a horrible looking left leg injury and Tennessee overcame an early deficit to win 38-31.
For three quarters Arkansas gave Alabama a scare before unraveling in the fourth quarter losing 27-14. Ole Miss topped New Mexico State 52-3 and Mississippi State upended Troy 45-17 in non-conference play.
It took a half, but in the third quarter LSU stretched a 17-10 lead to 38-24 before the start of the fourth winning 45-24. The two biggest takeaways from the game, Leonard Fournette was held under 200 yards rushing ending with 158 and Brandon Harris passed for 228 yards hitting 18-of-28 passes with two touchdowns tossed. Florida shutdown an anemic Missouri offense winning 21-3 on the road.
The Changes
Ohio State remains No. 1 but lost 11 more first place votes.
Baylor jumped TCU even though Baylor has yet to play a decent team.
Michigan State fell from No. 4 to No. 7 but remain undefeated.
Florida jumped from No. 11 to No. 8 setting up a big Week 7 Top 10 showdown with LSU.
Alabama dropped from No. 8 to No. 10 after their somewhat close run-in with the Razorbacks.
Northwestern fell from No. 13 to No. 20 and Michigan jumped from No. 18 to No. 12.
USC and Georgia are out of the rankings with Duke and Houston joining the Top 25 club.
Week 7 AP Rankings (Oct. 11, 2015)
- Ohio State (27)
- Baylor (13)
- TCU (3)
- Utah (16)
- Clemson (1)
- LSU
- Michigan State
- Florida
- Texas A&M (1)
- Alabama
- Florida State
- Michigan
- Ole Miss
- Notre Dame
- Stanford
- Oklahoma State
- Iowa
- UCLA
- Oklahoma
- Northwestern
- Boise State
- Toledo
- California
- Houston
- Duke
Photo credit: L.G. Patterson; Florida’s Jalen Tabor celebrates a pick-six vs. Missouri Week 6.