BCS National Championship – RIVALS RUNDOWN

Rivals Rundown College Football Top 25 – Week 8

October 15, 2013October 15, 2013 benchwarmer42Leave a comment

After taking a week off and enjoying some music at Austin City Limits, we here at the Rundown have pieced ourselves back together and are ready to get back to some College Football! The Top 6 teams have stayed almost untouched for the first six weeks of the season. Now that both Alabama and Oregon have faced true tests in Texas A&M and Washington and passed, that leaves Louisville as the only untested top 6 team. We will give Louisville some props for avoiding the trap game against Rutgers and while Rutgers is a good team, they are nowhere near A&M or Washington. Other notes… We are still of the opinion that LSU has the best shot of making it to a National Championship game other then Oregon or Alabama at this time, even though we have them ranked at 7. With the showdown between Florida State and Clemson looming, the loser will fall somewhere between LSU and Miami, thus giving everyone a dilemma, does the winner deserve to be 1,2 or 3… That is going to be a huge choice, I think at this time it depends on who the winner is and how they looked. But, it will be tough! It’s too bad Stanford choked on Utah, it hurts the overall street cred of the Pac12 and Washington. Until that we would say that the Winner of Stanford vs Oregon would peg their ticket if they were undefeated and so was Clemson or Florida State but now the Ducks are going to have to be really impressive, not to mention games left against Stanford and Oregon State. (Oregon State is a whole different blog). Even as we sit back and look at our rankings, UCLA and Baylor might be the most underrated teams and we’re not sold on Texas Tech and Auburn but the deserve the rankings for now. Ok, no more rambling, here is our most recent installment of the Rivals Rundown Top 25 Teams, Week 8 Edition!

1	Alabama Crimson Tide
2	Oregon Ducks
3	Clemson Tigers
4	Ohio State Buckeyes
5	Louisville Cardinals
6	Florida State Seminoles
7	LSU Tigers
8	Texas A&M Aggies
9	Baylor Bears
10	UCLA Bruins
11	Miami Hurricans
12	South Carolina Gamecocks
13	Stanford Cardinal
14	Missouri Tigers
15	Virginia Tech Hokies
16	Georgia Bulldogs
17	Washington Huskies
18	Fresno State Bulldogs
19	Texas Tech Red Raiders
20	Northern Ill Huskies
21	Michigan Wolverines
22	Nebraska Huskers
23	Michigan State Spartans
24	Auburn Tigers
25	Oklahoma Sooners

(Stats via Espn.com; Picture via sbnation.com)

College Football Top 25 Week 6

October 1, 2013 benchwarmer42Leave a comment

Welcome everyone to our week 6 Rivals Rundown Top 25 rankings! As you’ll see below we’ll really rank the Top 30 with those that are on the radar here at the Rundown. Normally, here we write this big rant about what happened the previous weekend in College Football, so… Here is our Rivals Rundown Rant! First Oklahoma State, what happened to our Top 10 team!?! Not to mention one of our preseason favorites in the Big 12! Urgh, the sad part is that game had upset written all over it, coaching buddies, an underperforming West Virginia team that no one was talking about, and an Oklahoma State team that clearly was looking past their early Saturday opponent. The pay the ultimate price, dropping from the Top 10 out of the Top 25!!! They will have to fight their way back, there are too many teams, too many teams playing good football for us to give them respect after that loss. Next, South Carolina and UCF, neither team really moved and UCF had their chances but as we often see in upset games, the team that has been tested already in the season finds a way to close (See Fresno State). Moving to our favorite game of the weekend, Arizona State and USC. Now, this was a good game until Arizona State realized that they could out play USC on both sides of the ball, took the energy from the home crowd and stomped on a team that over the last 10 years had crushed Arizona States dreams over rising to the top of the PAC. We will mention, that USC acted way too early to fire Lane, the program doesn’t want to realize or admit that the NCAA sanctions are affecting them. We welcome back the Sun Devils and the Hokies to the Top 25, why? They both proved that they are Top 25 teams, the Sun Devils for Offense and the Hokies for Defense. The only new team to the Top 25 is the Maryland Terrapins. The Game of the week last weekend was Georgia and LSU, both of which moved a little but we still see each of these teams as outside bet for the National Title. Maryland will get their big test this week to see if they belong or if they are pretenders. Other teams to keep your eye on, Iowa, East Carolina and Northern Illinois, we’re still not sure how the stack up next to the rest of our Top teams. So here is our Rivals Rundown Top 25 for Week 6 of the College Football Season! Enjoy, Share and Comment.


Current Rank	Previous Week	Team
1	1	Alabama Crimson Tide,	4-0
2	2	Oregon Ducks,	4-0
3	3	Clemson Tigers	4-0
4	4	Ohio State Buckeyes	5-0
5	5	Louisville Cardinals	4-0
6	9	Georgia Bulldogs	3-1
7	10	Stanford Cardinal	4-0
8	6	Florida State Seminoles	4-0
9	8	LSU Tigers	4-1
10	13	Texas A&M Aggies	4-1
11	15	Baylor Bears	3-0
12	13	UCLA Bruins	3-0
13	14	Miami Hurricanes	4-0
14	17	Oklahoma Sooners	4-0
15	16	Washington Huskies	4-0
16	21	Ole Miss Rebels	3-1
17	18	Fresno State Bulldogs	4-0
18	19	Florida Gators	3-1
19	20	South Carolina	3-1
20	21	Northwestern	4-0
21	Unranked	Arizona State Sun Devils	3-1
22	23	Michigan Wolverines	4-0
23	29	Maryland Terrapins	4-0
24	22	Wisconsin Badgers	2-2
25	Unranked	Virginia Tech Hockies	4-1
Next 5-
26	26	Texas Tech Red Raiders	4-0
27	Unranked	UCF Knights	3-1
28	28	Boise State Broncos	3-2
29	29	Northern Ill Huskies	4-0
30	27	Nebraska Cornhuskers	3-1

Just Outside
	7	Oklahoma State Cowboys	3-1
	Unranked	Iowa Hawkeyes	4-1
	Unranked	East Carolina	3-1
	Unranked	Missouri Tigers	4-0
	26	Michigan State Spartans	3-1
	Unranked	Notre Dame	3-2

Our Week 5 Top 25 Update!!!

September 22, 2013September 22, 2013 benchwarmer42Leave a comment

Here is our Top 25 Ranking for Week 5 of the College Football Season. Week four was a lackluster week of games in college football, which would leave one to believe we’d have little movement in our Top 25 Rankings… it’s kinda true. So our top teams went unchanged but after watching some of the performances by our next 15 we had to do a little housecleaning to make sure that everyone is where they belong. We saw Michigan continue to drop after what was a dominating performance against Notre Dame two weeks ago, while they have won both games since, neither wins have impressed us enough for them to maintain and if it wasn’t for the Notre Dame game, they would be with Maryland and Texas Tech as questionable unbeatens. Speaking of Maryland, if you have followed our blog or rankings, you’ll know that we called this and that we have started the unofficial campaign for CJ Brown’s Heisman candidacy. Other notables, was our Sun Devils getting thumped by what looked like an NFL team in Stanford. The silver lining was that the Devils fought till the end and came within a 4th down of having a chance to pull within 11 points with 4 minutes still left. Either way, they drop out of the top 25, again because of the performance. A top 25 team should be competitive within the rankings, sans Alabama and Oregon (maybe Stanford, we’ll see). Side note, keep you eye on UCF, the Knights might still be one of the better teams that no one is talking about. Also Washington and Baylor could both be considered outside contenders in their respective conferences to win! While we’re sharing random thoughts, how about Utah, they beat their instate Rivals Utah St and BYU to Own the State but a slip vs Oregon St who lost to Eastern Washington, keeps them off of the National Radar and ours. We’ll Utah, let’s see what you can do against the Pac12 South! Big game this week that we are personally stoked about and might get some play, Maryland and Florida State. Check back this week as we will have our Rivals Rundown Rewind and games to look forward to this weekend. Enjoy your NFL Sunday Funday! Update: We missed Texas Tech as the 25th ranked team when we originally published, so we had a couple of moves made to 25-30 and out…

RIVALS RUNDOWN TOP 25 WEEK 5


Current Rank	Previous Week	Team
1	1	Alabama Crimson Tide,	3-0
2	2	Oregon Ducks,	3-0
3	3	Clemson Tigers	3-0
4	4	Ohio State Buckeyes	4-0
5	5	Louisville Cardinals	4-0
6	6	Florida State Seminoles	3-0
7	7	Oklahoma State Cowboys	3-0
8	8	LSU Tigers	4-0
9	9	Georgia Bulldogs	2-1
10	13	Texas A&M Aggies	3-1
11	11	Stanford Cardinal	3-0
12	15	Baylor Bears	3-0
13	13	UCLA Bruins	3-0
14	14	Miami Hurricanes	3-0
15	17	Oklahoma Sooners	3-0
16	16	Washington Huskies	3-0
17	21	Ole Miss Rebels	3-0
18	18	Fresno State Bulldogs	3-0
19	19	Florida Gators	2-1
20	20	South Carolina	2-1
21	25	Northwestern	4-0
22	24	Wisconsin Badgers	3-1
23	12	Michigan Wolverines	4-0
24	Unranked	Notre Dame	3-1
25	30	Texas Tech Red Raiders	4-0
Next 5-
26	28	Boise State Broncos	2-2
27	Unranked	UCF Knights	3-0
28	26	Michigan State Spartans	3-1
29	Unranked	Maryland Terrapins	4-0
30	27	Nebraska Cornhuskers	3-1

Out-
	23	Arizona State Sun Devils	2-1
	29	Northern Ill Huskies	3-0

(stats via espn.com; photo sbnation.com)

Rivals Rundown College Football Top 25 Week 4

September 17, 2013September 17, 2013 benchwarmer42Leave a comment

Week 4 of College Football is now upon us and here at the Rundown we’re feeling pretty good. Not only did our team steal a W and stay in the Top 25. Our Top 25 had little movement, which any week that happens, means we’re doing something right over here. The biggest Loser of Week 3 was Nebraska and that hurts, not only did we post a blog just about how “bullish” we were on the Huskers a couple of weeks back but we had them in our Top 10! Sitting watching the beginning of that game, we were waiting to see what Nebraska’s Defense would do and man did those black uniforms look good! So good that UCLA thought the jersey’s were freshly laid pavement and left tire treads all over ‘em. So Nebraska quickly became our Most Overrated pick, let’s see if they can fight back into our Top 25 or if they falter…Back to the rankings, So Texas A&M might be the first team ever to move up in rankings based off of a loss but the way they played against Alabama, the deserve to be higher, the other big movers are UCLA and Ole Miss. We would like to point out that Arizona State and Wisconsin didn’t move, we had them in and they will both stay in… until this coming Saturday when the Sun Devils square off with our #11 team Stanford Cardinal then they might be the biggest mover. No big match-ups other then that PAC-12 North vs South. Look later this week for a preview of a couple of our favorite games. Also, if you missed our story on CJ Brown go check it out, his stat-line: Passing 15 of 28 for 277 1TD 1INT Rushing 16 for 122 1 TD and put Maryland on our Rivals Rundown Top 25 Radar, still the best player no one is talking about.

Current Rank	Previous Week	Team
1	1	Alabama Crimson Tide	2-0
2	2	Oregon Ducks	3-0
3	3	Clemson Tigers	2-0
4	4	Ohio State Buckeyes	3-0
5	5	Louisville Cardinals	3-0
6	6	Florida State Seminoles	2-0
7	7	Oklahoma State Cowboys	3-0
8	8	LSU Tigers	3-0
9	9	Georgia Bulldogs	1-1
10	13	Texas A&M Aggies	2-1
11	11	Stanford Cardinal	2-0
12	12	Michigan Wolverines	3-0
13	17	UCLA Bruins	2-0
14	14	Miami Hurricanes	2-0
15	15	Baylor Bears	2-0
16	16	Washington Huskies	2-0
18	18	Oklahoma Sooners	3-0
19	19	Fresno State Bulldogs	2-0
20	20	Florida Gators	1-1
21	21	South Carolina	2-1
22	27	Ole Miss Rebels	3-0
23	23	Arizona State Sun Devils	2-0
24	24	Wisconsin Badgers	2-1
25	25	Northwestern	3-0

Next 5-
26	28	Michigan State Spartans	3-0
27	10	Nebraska Cornhuskers	2-1
28	30	Boise State Broncos	2-1
29	27	Northern Ill Huskies	2-0
30	Unranked	Texas Tech Red Raiders	3-0

Out-
		TCU Horned Frogs	1-2

(image latimes.com, stats ESPN.com)

Rivals Rundown Top 25 – Week 3

September 9, 2013September 9, 2013 benchwarmer42Leave a comment

Week 2 of the College Football Season is now in the books and with it a couple of our 25 teams, well for now. It’s hard to imagine that one loss could end your season or at least your ranking in our Top 25 but in the cases of USC, Texas, and Cincinnati, that’s exactly what we think happened. The worst of the three by far is USC, there is no way a team with that much talent should have such a bad offense, they could pathetic not being able to move the ball against what will prove to be a week Washington State team. Anyways, here we go with our Week 3 Top 25 teams of College Football. Come back later in the week when we will do our rewind and see how this Top 25 came together.

Current Rank	Previous Week	Team
1	1	Alabama Crimson Tide
2	2	Oregon Ducks
3	3	Clemson Tigers
4	4	Ohio State Buckeyes
5	5	Louisville Cardinals
6	6	Florida State Seminoles
7	7	Oklahoma State Cowboys
8	9	LSU Tigers
9	12	Georgia Bulldogs
10	11	Nebraska Cornhuskers
11	13	Stanford Cardinal
12	20	Michigan Wolverines
13	18	Texas A&M Aggies
14	29	Miami Hurricanes
15	16	Baylor Bears
16	17	Washington Huskies
17	26	UCLA Bruins
18	15	Oklahoma Sooners
19	19	Fresno State Bulldogs
20	14	Florida Gators
21	8	South Carolina
22	22	TCU Horned Frogs
23	23	Arizona State Sun Devils
24	30	Wisconsin Badgers
25	21	Northwestern
NEXT 5-
26	27	Northern Ill Huskies
27	Unranked	Ole Miss Rebels
28	Unranked	Michigan State Spartans
29	Unranked	BYU Cougars
30	Unranked	Boise State Broncos