Photo: US Presswire
Every week Brett Harmon will bring you his NCAA Fottball Top 25. Harmon is one of the 324 voters for the reddit.com College Football Top 25 poll. You can find the rankings here.
For the first time this season there was no changes in the top five. But despite that there was still a lot of movement in the top 25, with some blowouts and upsets as there are every week. The race for the number two spot in the rankings is one of the most interesting right now with none of the teams ready to give an inch in the race for the national title game.
1 (1) Alabama
Honestly it is getting boring saying why Alabama is number one week after week. They are simply dominant in every game they play. The upcoming game against Mississippi St will be an interesting one where the Tide could be tripped up.
2 (2) Oregon
The Ducks had the national attention for the first time this year, and they did not disappoint with a complete domination of Arizona State before taking their foot off the gas in the second half. With Colorado on the schedule this week, Oregon is on watch for 100.
3 (3) Florida
With the most impressive win of the week, a steam rolling of South Carolina in the Swamp keeps Florida moving up in the rankings. The Gators now control their destiny in the SEC east and have a meeting to lock their position in the SEC title game at the World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party.
4 (4) Kansas State
If Texas Tech had not beaten the crap out of West Virginia the week before Kansas State’s win in Morgantown would have been better. But none the less taking Geno Smith down a few pegs in the Heisman race and putting your own guy, Quarterback Collin Klein, into the lead is definitely a good day.
5 (5) Notre Dame
Some have said the Notre Dame may be the weakest top five team, struggling against fellow independent BYU doesn’t help that argument. But the Irish are going to Norman this week in a matchup that has become one of the most interesting matchups of the week.
6 (6) LSU
When the game against Texas A&M started it looked like LSU was headed for another tough loss. But this time the Mad Hatter was able to get his team to rally to a win. This week the Tigers get a much deserved bye, and they’ll need it in two weeks, they head to Alabama.
7 (7) THE Ohio State
The Buckeyes showed their fortitude coming back to beat a Purdue team that was hungry for the upset. Clearly they are the best team in the Big 10 this year and now they go to surprising 5-2 Penn State in the battle in bowl ineligible teams.
8 (8) Oregon State
The Beavers are not getting the blowout wins of their cross state rivals, but they are getting solid no nonsense wins, and that’s all that really matters. If they want to make their end of the season matchup with the Ducks they’ll need to hold off Washington in Seattle, something that has proven tough this year.
9 (10) Oklahoma
Oklahoma has recovered very nicely from their early season blowout loss to Kansas St to get back into the top ten. The Sooners will look to push back up in the rankings, Notre Dame comes to town this week in what may be the biggest matchup of the week.
10 (11) USC
The Trojans have neither blown people away nor looked bad since their loss to Stanford in week three of the season. But USC still holds the keys to the Pac-12 title game in the Pac-12 south, and will not look to give that up any time soon.
11 (12) Florida State
You can never take a rival lightly and the Seminoles game against the U last week showed that, not taking over in the game until the fourth quarter. Back at home this week brings what may be the most underrated story in football this year, the Duke Blue Devils.
12 (15) Mississippi State
As great of a season as Mississippi St has had so far the question surrounding the team has been how good they truly are, since they have not really played anyone so far. But the Bulldogs can put any doubters to rest this week if they can keep it close, or even beat Alabama.
13 (14) Georgia
Georgia wants a spot in the SEC title game, but to get it they will have to take out undefeated Florida who will be looking to clinch the division in their meeting this week.
14 (13) Clemson
The Tigers are doing what they need to do to keep pace with Florida State right now. That is really all they can do, continue to win and hope that FSU stumbles somewhere along the line so that the Tigers can take a spot in the ACC title game.
15 (20) Texas Tech
Texas Tech has already taken down one offensive juggernaut when they wiped the floor with West Virginia. But this week is a much tougher task with Kansas State in Manhattan. The Red Raiders are going to need all of the defensive help they can get to slow down the KSU offense.
16 (17) Louisville
This week against Cincinnati was supposed to be a matchup of unbeaten, but instead the Bearcats lost to Toledo setting this up to just be a bad loss for Louisville if they should fall in what should be the Cardinals real challenge.
17 (9) South Carolina
It has been a rough couple of weeks for South Carolina first they fall from the ranks of the unbeaten with a loss to Georgia, and then they get blown out by Florida. The Gamecocks now look to start salvaging this season and the state of their bowl game this week.
18 (18) Rutgers
This may be one of the quietest and underrated teams in the country. Having just plodded their way through the season to this point. With mainly wins over teams from major conferences this may be a team that can make some noise some bowl season.
19 (21) Stanford
Stanford bounced back from a rough loss to Notre Dame with a solid win over Cal in the Big Game. The Cardinal should be ok the next couple of weeks with Washington State and Colorado on the schedule.
20 (24) Michigan
Even though they have some tough nonconference losses the Wolverines are undefeated in the Big 10. But Big Blue will have to be careful they have been vulnerable this season to solid teams, they will be tested against Nebraska this week.
21 (25) Texas
Taken to the limit last week versus a Baylor team that has been strong all year is nothing to turn your nose at. Texas needed five touchdowns from running back Joe Bergeron to take the win. No real challenge for the Longhorns this week versus Kansas.
22 (19) Texas A&M
There is no shame in the loss to LSU last week. The Aggies looked strong the whole game, and don’t forget that LSU was at one point a national title contender. A&M can get a winning record in the SEC back this week, which shouldn’t be too difficult as they are playing Auburn.
23 (23) Ohio
Ohio is looking toward the end of their season at this point with a bowl bid clinched up. Now with every win they just improve their location and pay day from the game.
24 (16) West Virginia
The Mountaineers may be the only team who have had a worse two week stretch than South Carolina. WVU has been blown out by Texas Tech and then embarrassed by Kansas State. A bye week to figure out what went wrong (spoiler alert: they have a terrible defense) before TCU.
25 (UR) Wisconsin
Well, well, well look at who is back in the rankings after a few weeks away. The Badgers have been remarkable consistent in their scoring with 30 or more points in each of the last five games, even their loss to Nebraska.
Dropped from Rankings: (22) Arizona State
Others Receiving Consideration: Penn State, Boise State
Biggest Rise: Mississippi State (12) – (15)
Biggest Fall: West Virginia (16) – (24)
Games in the top 25 this week:
(12) Mississippi State @ (1) Alabama
(3) Florida @ (13) Georgia
(15) Texas Tech @ (4) Kansas State
(5) Notre Dame @ (9) Oklahoma
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