Top 25 Rankings- Stock Watch and Bubble Teams

 

RK	AP Poll	USA Today Poll	Jeremy	Nick
1	Florida State	Florida State	Florida State	Florida State
2	Auburn	Auburn	Auburn	Auburn
3	Mississippi State	Baylor	Mississippi State	Baylor
4	Ole Miss	Ole Miss	Ole Miss	Mississippi State
5	Baylor	Notre Dame	Baylor	Ole Miss
6	Notre Dame	Mississippi State	Alabama	Notre Dame
7	Alabama	Alabama	Notre Dame	Michigan State
8	Michigan State	Michigan State	Michigan State	TCU
9	TCU	Oklahoma	Oklahoma	Alabama
10	Arizona	Georgia	Georgia	Arizona
11	Oklahoma	Oregon	Oregon	Georgia
12	Oregon	TCU	Ohio State	Oklahoma
13	Georgia	Arizona	Texas A&M	Oregon
14	Texas A&M	Texas A&M	TCU	Ohio State
15	Ohio State	Ohio State	Clemson	Oklahoma State
16	Oklahoma State	Kansas State	Kansas State	Texas A&M
17	Kansas State	UCLA	Stanford	Kansas State
18	UCLA	Oklahoma State	East Carolina	East Carolina
19	East Carolina	East Carolina	Utah	Nebraska
20	Arizona State	Arizona State	UCLA	UCLA
21	Nebraska	Nebraska	Missouri	Georgia Tech
22	Georgia Tech	Stanford	Arizona	Utah
23	Missouri	Georgia Tech	Nebraska	Missouri
24	Utah	Missouri	Arizona State	Stanford
25	Stanford	Clemson	Georgia Tech	Arizona State

 

 

 

Movers and Shakers

No one saw their stock jump more this weekend than Arizona and TCU.  I get that their wins were impressive (at Oregon and vs. Oklahoma, respectively) but jumping from No. 25 (TCU) and unranked (Arizona) to numbers nine and 10 is a little ridiculous.  TCU has looked impressive this season and though their opponents haven’t been elite, the Horned Frogs had won by 34, 23, 56 points, before their 37-33 win over Oklahoma.  That puts the Frogs at 4-0 and it seems their offense is finally catching up to a defense that’s been elite for years.  That said, we need to see more before I’m ready to put them in the top 10.

Arizona knocked off Oregon for the second year in a row and somehow that’s enough for the brilliant minds to stick them at No. 10 this week… from unranked.  The Wildcats won big in week one against UNLV but in their next three games their margin of victory against UTSA, Nevada and Cal is 4.7 points and their win over Cal was a last second hail-mary.  It’s hard to overlook the 5-0 start for Arizona but this just isn’t a top 10 team, or even a top 15 team in my opinion.

Elsewhere in the top 25, the Mississippi’s are moving on up, taking over the number three spot in the AP Poll.  That’s right, they’re tied at number three.  Cute, huh?  Both teams have plenty of challenges ahead and it’s unlikely they’ll stay this high but for now, live it up!

Four teams drop from the AP Poll; LSU, USC, Wisconsin and BYU.  There’s a good chance you’ll see USC and Wisconsin back in the rankings at some point and LSU could work their way back in with a few good wins.  Quarterback, Taysom Hill broke his leg on Friday against Utah State and it’s likely we’ve seen the last of the Cougars in the top 25.

 

 

Going Up 

 

The State of Mississippi

I have to admit I was very skeptical about the Mississippi schools and all the hype built up this weekend...and both Ole Miss and Mississippi State both delivered. I think Miss State has the higher ceiling of both teams, but Ole Miss is super talented and both of these teams are going to have something to say when it comes to the SEC West title. Both teams have another huge weekend coming up with Texas A&M calling on the Rebels and Auburn calling on the Bulldogs. No one say let down yet...

 

TCU

TCU-Oklahoma was the most entertaining game for me on Saturday, back and forth and back and forth until TCU made some huge plays to win this game. I think Gary Patterson and the Horned Frogs seem to finally have found themselves in the Big 12, but they have a bear of a schedule coming up with a trip to Waco this weekend for a chance at their second-straight win over a top 5 team and the next weekend Oklahoma State comes to Fort Worth for another stiff test. We will learn a lot about TCU over the next two weeks.

 

Michigan State

Sparty seems to have found itself back on track over the past few weeks and I had the chance to see this team in person two Saturdays ago and I think they are for real. I was pretty impressed with them on Saturday stopping a very good Nebraska rushing attack. This is probably the best thing that could have happened to the B1G a weekend of upheaval just thrust the conference back into the playoff discussion.

 

 

Going Down 

 

Pac-12 North

Stanford is 3-2, Oregon just lost for the second-consecutive year to Arizona and Cal...yes Cal is leading the division. For a division that was supposed to challenge the SEC West for its dominance this season, but it looks pretty pedestrian right now. Stanford’s offense is anemic, Oregon cannot keep Marcus Mariota upright or out of harm’s way. I am not selling this division yet just thought that it should be mentioned that it is not a tough as billed.

 

Anyone who thinks they might know what will happen this season

This doesn’t need to be explained too much. There is not one dominant team this year and anyone can beat anyone on any given Saturday. Good luck playoff committee. That being said, could there be a better way to start the College Football Playoff era than with a lot of good or really good teams but no elite teams? I love the upheaval every weekend and I hope it continues.

 

LSU

The Tigers suffered their second big conference loss in three weeks on Saturday.  Looking at their remaining schedule and the issues they’re having at quarterback and on defense, things could get worse for Les Miles and the Bayou Bengals before they get better.

 

Oregon

Thursday’s loss to Arizona might signal the end of an era for the Ducks.  There’s no doubt that they’re still very good football team but they just seem to have lost the edge that they once had.  While they do have arguably the best player in college football in Marcus Mariota, their offensive line is a complete mess and the defense hasn’t quite played up to expectations under first year DC Don Pellum.  With the heart of the Pac-12 schedule coming up, the bottom’s looking pretty deep for the Ducks.

 

 

Bubble Watch

 

Marshall

The Thundering Herd is 5-0 this season and has scored 42-plus points in every game this season. I know they haven’t played anyone of note yet and doesn’t the rest of the season, but this team looks like it could be in contention for a New Year’s Day bowl game if it can avoid a slip up.

 

Kentucky

The Wildcats have improved much faster under Mark Stoops than expected and if not for a 3OT loss on the road at Florida, we’d be talking about a 5-0 Kentucky team.  The ‘Cats are coming off a win over South Carolina and with UL Monroe and a struggling LSU team coming up, there’s a chance this team could be bowl eligible and in the top 25 by late October.