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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.
Four new team make their way into the top 25 this week. Some though upsets, others though just taking care of what they need to do from week to week. The log jam for the number two spot also loosened up a bit with Florida's loss to Georgia. But Oregon, Kansas State and Notre Dame all continue to win.
1 (1) Alabama
Mississippi State was supposed to be the Tide’s first true test and to the Bulldogs credit they didn’t let it get too far out of hand. Alabama once again never trailed and looked strong in a top ten test.
2 (2) Oregon
You honestly have to feel for Colorado, Oregon took their foot off the gas and still put up 70 on the Buffalos. Upcoming is the most important week for the Ducks, in Los Angeles to take on USC, win and they can take complete control of the Pac-12.
3 (4) Kansas State
Collin Klein accounted for four touchdowns on his own as his march to a Heisman Trophy continues. Oh and the rest of the Wildcats looked pretty good too in a rout of Texas Tech. Now a resurgent Oklahoma State team comes to the Little Apple to attempt to topple the Wildcats.
4 (5) Notre Dame
No team had a more impressive win last week than the Fighting Irish. A steamrolling of Oklahoma showed that the Golden Domers are for real this season. Meanwhile Manti Te’o continutes to show why he may make a serious run at the Heisman this season.
5 (6) LSU
The Tigers got the week off to prepare for Alabama, they are going to need it. With images of last season’s national title game I’m sure still fresh in their heads, LSU is going to look to excersie the deamons from that game and ruin Bama’s perfect run.
6 (7) THE Ohio State
Victorious in the “Inegible Bowl” at Penn State, moved the team to 9-0 in what Bob Kemp is calling the “road to revenge”. The Buckeyes are the only 9-0 team in the country right now, expect that to be 10-0 before their bye next week.
7 (11) Florida State
The Seminoles showed up in Durham and but a black mark on the fun story of the Duke football season blowing out the Blue Devils and only allowing seven points. Now they get a week off before a Thursday night show down with a Virginia Tech team with nothing to lose.
8 (13) Georgia
Forcing six turnovers in one game will generally lead to a win, that and it feels pretty good. When you force six turnovers against your biggest rival and ruin their National Title chances, even better. The Bulldogs have responded well after their loss to South Carolina and are back in the SEC East title hunt.
9 (3) Florida
Generally if you want to win games you have to hold onto the football. I think Will Muschamp forgot to tell the Gators that last week. Florida can still win the SEC East but it’s going to take luck now, they can forget all about the loss to Georgia with Missouri coming into town this week.
10 (14) Clemson
Clemson is waiting patiently for Florida State to slip up again, quietly blowing out teams week after week since their let down loss to the Seminoles. But they have to be careful not to slip up themselves some possible trap games remain with Duke, and NC State.
11 (17) South Carolina
South Carolina finally turned their fourtunes around after two tough weeks in a row. But Tennessee gave the Ganmecocks all they could handle and USC had to edge out a close win. This week they rest up on the bye before two warmup games before Clemson.
12 (8) Oregon State
Oregon State should have learned from Stanford that going into Seattle this season as a top 10 team could spell disaster, and that’s just what happened to the Beavers. But not all is lost, with Oregon still upcoming Oregon State can still make a lot happen this season.
13 (16) Louisville
The lone remaining soldier from the Big East and they may actually be a pretty good football team just stuck in a crappy conference. That question won’t truly be answered until the Cardinals play Rutgers in the final week of the season.
14 (9) Oklahoma
With the Sooners there is no middleground it seems, they are either blowing out their opponent, or they are the ones getting rolled. Now there is something to be said that their only two losses right now are to teams currently sitting in the top five.
15 (19) Stanford
Stanford has been a constant since their loss to Washington weeks ago. However the one constant that their seems to be is the stuggles of Josh Nunes, if Stanford wants to get better Nunes will need to improve.
16 (22) Texas A&M
If this was two or three years ago a 63-21 win over Auburn on the road would be the best win of the week. But this season it’s much like kicking a man when he is down. If the Aggies want a marquee win in their first season in the SEC it can come this week aginist Mississippi State.
17 (12) Mississippi State
There is no shame in getting beat by Alabama, especially if you manage to look like a compantant team in the process. But the Bulldogs should never have had asperations of an SEC West title, but they can strengthen their bowl placement with a win over Texas A&M this week.
18 (10) USC
The Trojans could not afford another conference loss with Oregon and rival UCLA remaining on the schedule, but they suffered a bad loss to Arizona in Tucson. That loss takes USC out of the drivers seat in the Pac-12 South, and this week Oregon comes to town, yikes.
19 (15) Texas Tech
It was a tall order for the Red Raiders last week trying to take down the machine that is Kansas State. But after Tech was the first team to take down West Virginia it was a possibility. Texas Tech gets a rare opportunity this week, they can knock Texas out of the top 25 with a win.
20 (21) Texas
The Longhorns are on the edge right now, they have won their past two after two straight losses, but they struggled to beat Kansas, one of the worst teams in the nation this year. But they can show all is well with a win over Texas Tech this week.
21 (24) West Virginia
Unless the bye brought in some new defenders West Virginia is going to still have struggles at the end of the season. TCU, Oklahoma State, and Oklahoma still remain on the schedule, it will be interesting to see if the Mountianeers can outscore all of them.
22 (UR) Nebraska
A hard fought loss to UCLA early in the season, and then a no shame loss to The Ohio State, are the Cornhuskers only two losses on the year. They can still win the Big 10 and make the Rose Bowl, not too shabby for their second year in the conference.
23 (UR) Kent State
Going into New Jersey and beating a 15th ranked Rutgers is a very impressive win for Kent State. But what is bad about the Golden Flashes schedule is that their only loss is to Kentucky, not exactly a good loss.
24 (UR) Arizona
Arizona makes it back into the rankings after taking advantage of Southern Cal mistakes and dealing USC it’s second loss this season. With the toughest part of their schedule now behind them the Wildcats can possibly make a push towards a possible Pac-12 south title.
25 (UR) Oklahoma State
Back in the top 25 after railing off three straight wins. But it may be a very short stay for the Cowboys, Kansas State, West Virginia, Texas Tech, and Oklahoma is their upcoming schedule.
Dropped From Rankings: (25) Wisconson, (23) Ohio, (20) Michigan, (18) Rutgers
Other Reciving Consideration: Toledo, UCLA, Rutgers
Biggest Rise: Georgia (13) – (8)
Biggest Fall: Rutgers (18) – (UR)
Games in the Top 25 this week:
(1) Alabama @ (5) LSU
(25) Oklahoma State @ (3) Kansas State
(2) Oregon @ (18) USC
(16) Texas A&M @ (17) Mississippi State
(20) Texas @ (18) Texas Tech
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