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My AP Top 10 as of October 22nd, 2022
What an interesting week. Georgia Michigan and USC were all byes. TCU and Alabama faced off against fellow ranked teams and UCLA and Ogregon battled each other.
#1 Georgia- My top two teams from last week were on bye. As a result there isn’t much to write this week.
#2 Michigan- See #1 above.
#3 Ohio State– Before it was Ohio State vs Alabama for the two spot. Now it’s Ohio State vs Tennessee for the 3 spot. I’m not upset either way. Tennessee has had some horrible defensive moments, while Ohio State’s best win is Notre Dame. Again, these things will sort themselves out in the end.
#4 Tennessee- With LSU most likely joining the ranks soon, Tennessee continues to have the best overall resume. The argument for who has the best win comes down to Tennessee over Alabama or Georgia over Oregon. Tennessee’s win holds value because of its historical significance and name recognition of who they beat, despite it being a walk off field win at home. While Georgia’s gets a lot of credit for how utterly dominant they were and how good Oregon has looked since.
#5 Clemson- Let’s get the negative comments out of the way now. Clemson continues to start slow. Clemson continues to look beatable. Clemson continues to make it hard to defend a team that has now beaten three ranked opponents. Three teams that Clemson was their first loss. NC State, Wake Forest and Syracuse all watched perfect seasons die to the Tigers. Even FSU was a solid team. Still, it is the best 4 game stint the ACC has thrown at Clemson in a long time. I wish Clemson would have delivered knock out blows earlier in each match. But they’re undefeated. That counts for something. I consider Alabama the cut off for tier S. If Clemson keeps struggling early, Alabama will jump them.
#6 Alabama- Even if I think this is the worst Saban team in a long time, it’s still hard to bash too hard on this team. Alabama didn’t give Mississippi State the thrashing most teams get from Alabama. Yet, this was still one of, if not their best win of the season. With close calls against Texas, Texas A and M and Tennessee, and they allowed Arkansas to climb back in for a quarter, it must have been nice to not have to sweat a power 5 matchup. Truthfully, I’m not sure what to do with Alabama. As TCU has the better win and is undefeated. They’ve earned a higher spot than Alabama. Oregon has the worse loss, but a better resume as a whole. I feel like they’ve earned a higher spot as well. Though, I’m not sure either of those teams could win at Alabama. Yet, Alabama has been horrible on the road and would probably lose at either of their home fields.
#7 TCU- TCU has now beaten Oklahoma, Kansas, Oklahoma State and Kansas State in consecutive weeks. They are now just a win over Texas away from most likely being undefeated heading into the B12 Championship Game. I think a dominating performance against Texas could elevate them over Alabama since Alabama struggled to the Longhorns.
#8 Oregon- Oregon is probably wishing they played anyone but Georgia in week 1 as they have been rolling people. UCLA and Oregon were two of the hottest teams in the country and Oregon extinguished UCLA seemingly before the opening kickoff. It was truly a game that was never in any real doubt. Its hard to hold week 1 against them, you just wish they had shown a pulse at some point in that game. Otherwise, this team would be battling for the 5 spot.
#9 Oklahoma State– With Ole Miss and UCLA thumped, it vacated two new spots. Oklahoma State is the most deserving team to take that 9 spot. Their only loss is to unbeaten TCU. They responded to that loss by handling a red hot Texas team. They find themselves in a decent spot to make a run for the title game.
#10 Wake Forest– Wake Forest is benefitting from two things. A. Both USC and Utah are on byes (as though would be two teams gunning for this ten spot.). B. They have a QB that can play with anyone. This is supported by the fact their only loss was in overtime to Clemson. They might not quite be a juggernaut or household name, but I like them a lot up to this point in the season.
So that’s my top ten. I had a Halloween party yesterday so I don’t have a lot of other predictions. I will say the B12 probably takes a big hit as I think K State and Texas could drop out of the rankings. While the SEC will get a nice bump as LSU and South Carolina look to jump into the top 25.
Thanks for reading. Have a great day.
My AP Top 10 Today! October 2nd, 2022!
Two top 10 teams fell to two ranked teams. There’s little shame in that, but some big shakeups. I have 2 new teams joining the top 10 while the others get shuffled around. Georgia looked beatable two weeks in a row, while Alabama and Ohio State continued to separate themselves. Here’s a breakdown of our top 10 college football teams.
#1 Ohio State- I’m convinced of 1 thing this weekend. There will be a new number 1. And the debate of Ohio State or Alabama will continue to rage on. For the last two weeks they have looked on another level after Georgia continues to struggle.
#2 Alabama- I’m not stressing about the ordering at this point in the season. Alabama took a quarter off against Arkansas before reminding them who their daddy was. Both Ohio State and Alabama have big matchups left. Eventually one of them will pull away in the voting, but for now they are equal in my eyes.
#3 Clemson- This very well could be Georgia, but Clemson has impressed me the most out of the remaining teams. They never looked bad this season. Their game with Wake was up in the air for most of it, but Wake Forest might turn out to be really good after all. They just bounced former top 10 team NC State. It appears as if Clemson is moving upward in momentum, whereas Georgia seems to be slipping as the season goes on.
#4 Georgia- Last week, I felt like you could slide Georgia down and it wouldn’t have been a big deal. Still, they had earned enough goodwill that I let last week’s performance go. I chalked it up to a fluke. I assumed they were playing down to lesser talent. However, this weekend reinforced Georgia might be actually struggling. Georgia’s defense saved them, holding Missouri to 5 field goals. This included a FG on a drive that got to the Georgia 1. The first half was miserable and hard to watch. Georgia got it going in the second half and eventually snatched the lead with mere minutes to go. Georgia needs a few get right games or they may continue to fall.
#5 Michigan– The biggest issue for Michigan remains that they haven’t played anyone, whereas Georgia will continue to be held up by the thrashing they put on Oregon. The offense seems to have slowed down a bit now that they are in conference play. That’s fine, but now they aren’t beating teams by 50. That’s kinda a big deal when you aren’t playing ranked opponents. Michigan desperately needs some big wins or some of the teams below them could jump them as the season progresses.
#6 USC– The same could be said about USC. Their offense is still humming along though. And the defense remains serviceable. As Lincoln Riley is finally not having win shootouts each week. The close game against Oregon State remains a knock against them moving higher, but if they rout Utah in addition to being unbeaten, USC could jump to #4.
#7 Oklahoma State- Okla State took a huge step forward in solidifying their top 10 status by ousting Baylor. The Big 12 looks to be stacked top to bottom, but will ultimately be hindered for not having any elite schools. Still if Oklahoma State can take care of business this season, we will see how high they climb.
#8 Tennessee– The slide for Tennessee is fairly easy to explain. They were on bye while USC and Oklahoma State had chances to impress, also, factor in Pitt losing, which was one of their resume builders. It all adds up to a week that doesn’t exactly help you move up.
#9 Ole Miss– There’s a chance in the AP Poll the committee just moves Ole Miss to 7, taking Kentucky’s spot. I’m opting to put them here for now. The SEC West will provide opportunities to keep climbing. Still they edged out fellow SEC overachiever Kentucky, which never hurts your case.
#10 Utah- I view the 10 spot as a 4 headed race. Penn State would be a front runner if we were going off records, but Penn State has not impressed outside of a good showing at Auburn. Oregon has bounced back tremendously after week 1 thumping to Georgia, but not enough to jump into the top 10. Kentucky barely lost on the road against a now top 10 team. I would understand completely if you left Kentucky at 10. Though. My vote goes to Utah. They gutted a team that just took USC to the wire. They, too, have rebounded nicely from their week 1 let down, which could’ve been a fluke at this point.
So there’s my top 10 for this week. I’m feeling pretty good about it. By my estimations there are six teams getting removed from the top 25: Oklahoma, Texas A and M, Florida State, Minnesota, Arkansas and Pittsburgh. Baylor is probably on a short leash now, or out as well. That opens the door for a few teams such as UCLA, Kansas, TCU, LSU, Mississippi State, Cincinnati or Washington State.
What do you guys think of the rankings? Where would put teams? Let me know in the comments down below.
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My AP Top 10 Today! September 25th, 2022
This week delivered us two losses to top 10 teams so we have some shake ups. Florida State and Kansas remain unbeaten and look to sneak into the rankings. Wake Forest and Florida hope their close showings against Clemson and Tennessee are enough to stay ranked. While Oklahoma and Arkansas pray for mercy after nail-biting losses. Let’s break down our new top 10!
#1 Georgia- I really wanted to be a prisoner of the moment and have Ohio State ascend to #1, but I couldn’t. Georgia had the weakest showing of the top 3 for once. It still resulted in a double digit victory, but they let Kent State have a pulse for way too long.
#2 Ohio State- This game was never close. Ohio State was up 14-0 before I had a chance to blink. Wisconsin tried to make it respectable but that is a tough task. Week 1’s slugfest with Notre Dame is looking like a fluke more and more. I know people will probably keep Alabama at two after thrashing Vanderbilt. I said last week this debate would rage on all season, and both teams looked darn good this Saturday.
#3 Alabama- Hard to rag on them too bad for beating up Vandy, as Vandy had the best record of any team they’ve played this season. Still, it’s hard to say if they’ve truly cleaned up both sides of the ball when roughing up perpetual bottom feeders. We will learn a lot about Alabama as they get into the thick of their SEC schedule.
#4 Clemson- Here we are. Clemson has been on the outside looking in for the top 4 all season. This weekend really helped push the top 3 versus the field narrative. As no one outside of the top 3 looked that good. Still Clemson had to handle some real adversity, as they were down late on the road to a QB that could sling it. It’s hard too imagine them moving much higher than this without one of the big 3 losing. And a QB switch might not solve their problems. DJ played solid, but the defense gave up big play after big play. And then there’s the over 100 penalty yards. Those need to be cleaned up quickly.
#5 Michigan- We thought there was a chance Michigan could end up in a dog fight with Maryland and we got it. The Wolverines managed to pull away late, but Maryland cut it back to one score. Michigan is probably better for the near death experience, though. Up to this point they had yet to be tested. Their previous opponent’s only had 1 combined win.
#6 Tennessee– Call it a hot take or click bait if you must. But the teams that were ahead of them just didn’t not feel me with confidence. Now, you could just as easily move Kentucky to 6 on account of their game with Florida wasn’t nearly as close as Tennessee’s was. Still, I don’t think Kentucky looked great this weekend. Tennessee can now brag about their wins over Pitt and Florida.
#7 Oklahoma State– Oklahoma State gets the benefit of being on bye this week. As a result, there’s no chance to sky rocket up or plummet down the rankings. We will learn more when a potential top 15 matchup takes them to a tough Baylor team.
#8 USC- We were almost given the double upset special. Oklahoma failed to pull off their comeback, while USC fended off a tricky Oregon State team. As a result, USC could go 1 of 2 ways in the official rankings. Move to number 6, jumping OU, or, fall a little for narrowly escaping. I’m parking them here at 8 and seeing how they regroup.
#9 Kentucky- Kentucky has played 1 inspired game of football up to this point. That was against Florida. If you get up to face all your difficult teams, but then cruise control past lesser opponents, I will get nervous. I could possibly be overreacting. The poll could squarely rank them higher than this.
#10 NC State– Number 10 is the spot I’m more curious about. Oklahoma and Arkansas both lost close games, so I don’t think either fall from the top 20. Arkansas lost a game they had in total control. Meanwhile at Oklahoma, you don’t expect them to give up that many penalty yards again, especially not at home. Back to NC State I was quick to write them off after a 1 point victory over ECU. However, they’ve quietly turned it around these last 3 weeks. Now, that win over Texas Tech finally looks a little better. That’s why I have NC State at #10.
I think Oklahoma and Arkansas will remain top 20 teams (as the teams below them all made pushes to move into the top 15). I vote to keep Wake Forest in at #25. We should boot out Miami and Texas and move Kansas and Florida State into the top 25.
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My AP Poll Today! September 18th, 2022!
Week 3 is behind us now. It was easily one of the most boring weeks for upsets in recent memories. A few teams got pushed (Kansas, Notre Dame, Texas, Arkansas Wake Forest and Florida), but ultimately I think only three ranked teams lost, and two of them lost to ranked opponents ( BYU and Miami), leaving Michigan State as the true disappointment of the weekend.
#1 Georgia- Theres nothing to add here. Their signature win against Oregon got a lot better. They added their first SEC win of the season to their resume and that game was never close.
#2 Ohio State- Ohio State and Alabama will probably be a debate for a while. Alabama will get chances at some ranked opponents, though the West looks pretty up and down so far, while Ohio State is hoping Michigan and Penn State remain in the top 10 in order to get some quality wins.
#3 Alabama- Alabama will remain #2 in the official AP Poll, I’m sure. But until Alabam Crushes a real opponent, I’ve got to sit them here at #3. There’s enough doubt around an Alabama team for once. You could make the argument for them at #5, but the #1 philosophy of college football is don’t bet against Saban. So I’ll park them at #3.
#4 Michigan- Truthfully, Michigan is my #2 right now. They just lack a quality win. But they’re the only team outside of Georgia that has showed zero flaws or concerns through 3 weeks. If they scheduled a tougher out of conference schedule, this would be a lot easier.
#5 Clemson- Clemson, to me, is like Oklahoma this year. I’m just not sure how good they are this year. The ACC has some tricky teams now in Florida State and NC State and maybe Wake Forest. So there’s chances to get some quality wins.
#6 USC- I really think people don’t know where to put USC. Their matchup with Oregon got a lot of luster back after Oregon dominated BYU. Washington also could be a sneaky good game. Still their offense can probably carry them to a ten win season at this pace.
#7 Oklahoma- The win at Nebraska was much needed. Nebraska had nothing to lose with this being their interims coach’s first game. The game was at Nebraska. And this is one of the most historic rivalries in the sport. Nebraska came out hungry, but ultimately OU was up 6 touchdowns in the 3rd, thus calling off the ponys. It was a dominating performance of a power 5 opponent OU desperately needed early in BV’s career.
#8 Oklahoma State- I’ve felt like, for the most part this season, Oklahoma State is probably the best team in the Big 12. But really, it is hard to take anything away from a 63-7 curbstomping of Arkansas-Pine Bluff. But hey, at least they handled business.
#9 Kentucky- Newcomer to the top 10, Kentucky took care of their FCS Opponent Youngstown State with ease. Shutting out the Penguins 31-0.
#10 Arkansas- By my estimation, Arkansas is the Lone team is danger of getting kicked out of the top 10. My money is on that they will stay here though. They struggled to Missouri State, losing for most of that game. Not a great look for a top 10 team. Luckily for them teams #11 (Michigan State) #12 (BYU) both got dismantled this weekend, while #13 Miami lost a weird one to Texas A and M. So Kentucky looks safe. I don’t think #14 Utah has the resume to jump all the way to 10. That leaves Tennessee has the only real threat to their top 10 placing.
Though it was a boring week, theres still some interesting things to keep our eyes out for. Do Florida State, LSU, Washington and Kansas finally Crack the top 25? Where do Oregon and BYU relocate to? Do Michigan State and Wake Forest fall out of the top 25 with their uninspired performances? That, to me, are the things to watch this week.
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