Top 25 College Football Rankings

After a week of complete upheaval in College Football, we return to normalcy or something like it.  We can’t call it normal in College Football when the State of Mississippi is running the house.  As always, we don’t look at the rankings from the week below, this is based on where the teams are now, meaning, who cares if a team like University of Arizona was ranked 10th and loses.  We’re not ranking them 17th just because.  So here is are Week 8 rankings:

1.  Mississippi State

2.  Florida State

3.  Ole Miss

4.  Baylor

5.  Oregon

6.  Notre Dame

7.  TCU

8.  Auburn

9.   Oklahoma

10.  Alabama

11.  Georgia

12.  Michigan State

13.  Ohio State

14.  Nebraska

15.  Oklahoma State

16.  Kansas State

17.  Stanford

18.  Arizona State

19. Arizona

20. East Carolina

21.  Marshall

22.  USC

23.  Kentucky

24.  Utah

25.  Washington

Just outside: Virginia, Minnesota, LSU, Texas A&M, Iowa, Rutgers, Oregon State,

College Football Top 25: The Eye Test; Week 7 Edition or (How 24 Hours of College Football Blew my Mind)

It’s a weekend that will live in College Football infamy forever.  The weekend that 5 of the top 8 teams in the country fell in defeat.  Let that really sink in for a minute…  Now here is the questions, is that because of an absurd amount of upsets or did all the pundits get it wrong?  I’m going to say, both!  I know, that was a stretch but here’s why:  

First, we have tons and tons of games as compared to the NFL, this leads to too many unknowns for even the most avid fan.  Everyone is guessing on how good a team is based on what information they have been presented.  The problem, we try to take the previous year, the program’s history, the coach’s history, the history of the two teams playing, etc. etc…  This puts us in a position where College Football is all guessing until we see each team play each other, which doesn’t happen all the time, so then we’re back to where we started which is, the Eye Test.  

Our First Top 25 Ranking for College Football of 2014 will be based on the Eye Test, we’re going forward based on what we can tell from what we’ve watched and what we think.  Here is our “Eye Test” Top 25 or the Rundown:

1.  Florida State
2.  Mississippi State
3.  Auburn
4.  Baylor
5.  Ole Miss
6.  Notre Dame
7.  TCU
8.  Alabama
9.  Oklahoma
10.  Michigan St
11.  Arizona
12.  Oregon
13.  Texas A&M
14.  
Georgia
15.  Ohio St.
16.  Oklahoma St.
17.  Kansas St.
18.  Georgia Tech
19.  Arizona St.
20.  Stanford
21.  Virginia
22.  East Carolina
23.  Nebraska
24.  Utah
25.  USC

Just Outside:  Marshall, BYU, Washington, Louisville, Wisconsin, Oregon St., Rutgers, West Virginia, 

College Football Week 9 Power Rankings

APTOPIX_BCS_Championship_Football_0d41fIf this is your first time checking out our rankings here at the Rundown, there are a couple of things that you need to know.  The first thing is that we have a West Coast and Pac12 biased.  Yep, that’s right we are in Pac12 Country and watch a lot of late night College Football on Saturday Night’s  (Sometimes we even watch Hawaii).  Now, the second thing you should know about our rankings is that we don’t care about where teams might have been ranked the week before, every week we wipe the slate, look at the teams across College Football and we rank based off of what’s in front of us.  Why is this important?  It becomes relavent when a team like Virginia Tech loses to Duke or Stanford loses to Utah, in some polls voters don’t want to move someone out or down too far because that is accepting the fact that they were wrong the week before, us, we don’t give a @#%#$^.  So, with the side notes out of the way, we present to you our Week 9 College Football Rankings…

1.  Alabama 8-0
“To be the best, you’ve got to beat the best.”
When we sat down to put together this weeks edition, we really honestly thought that Florida State should be here based off of the body of work but looking back at each teams wins, losses, and the overall performance in all games…’Bama is still #1.

2.  Oregon 8-0
We know, we know… I just said that I was going to rank Florida State #1, well not just yet.  Remember when I said we are biased, yep that’s right!  Oregon is the second best team, now with the games coming up, this will be settled within the next week.

3.  Florida State 7-0
The SEC is the best conference, then the PAC 12, then the ACC right?  Well we think that it’s actually a tie between the ACC and BigXII, the reason all comes down to the Duke upset of Virginia Tech, it to some street creed away from the ACC’s depth.  Back to Florida State, if they Miami, they will jump Oregon until the Ducks face off with Stanford after their bye week.

4.  Ohio State 8-0
The Buckeye’s have an easy schedule, it’s not all their fault that, oh wait yes, yes it is.  Scheduling Buffalo and Florida A&M is not going to help your National Title hopes in a year that the Big Ten as a conference is down.  The Buckeye’s however have a better chance then the top three teams of going undefeated in the regular season.  With a light challenge from Indiana and Michigan left, a back to back perfect regular season is in the sights, now let’s see how they close.

5.  Baylor 7-0
The Bears have done what was needed for them to be here, they are putting up impressive and shocking numbers.  They made it to the bye week perfect and now have a breather before the schedule turns and they face a gauntlet of Big XII teams.  We ‘ll talk more then…

6.  Miami 7-0
The Hurricanes return to a National Title Game rests with the Florida State match-up.  If they win they stay in the conversation, a loss and they will drop based off of a weak ACC schedule.  We’ll also watch for a let down against a tough Virginia Tech defense.

7.  Clemson 7-1
We look at who Clemson beat and lost and they deserve to still be ranked the highest of the one loss teams.  They beat Georgia before Georgia suffered for a ton a injuries and even though they got destroyed by the Seminoles, they have still only loss to the #3 team in our rankings.

8.  Stanford 7-1
The Cardinal will see if they can steal our dream of a ‘Bama vs Oregon National Championship and also become the best one loss team in the country.  We think that Oregon will win this time and Stanford will drop to a top 15ish team.

9.  Missouri 7-1
Laces Out!!!

10.  Auburn 7-1
We have no faith in this team but their one loss is to a solid LSU team and puts them a in the top 10…for now.

11.  Oklahoma 7-1
Another team that is hard to read and with a little luck and an extra week to prepare for Baylor, The Sooners could find themselves moving in the right direction.

12.  Texas A&M 6-2
With a nice break in the schedule right now, the Aggies are retooling and getting ready for the final stretch after they see if they can beat the spread on UTEP.

13.  LSU 7-2
Can’t wait to see what happens when the square-off against ‘Bama.

14.  Texas Tech 7-1
The Red Raiders showed they could play to the last minute against the best, now with a big stage game behind them, let’s see if they can put the finishing touches on what could be a special season.

15.  South Carolina 6-2
Still hangin tough…

And the Rest…

16.  UCLA 5-2
They have lost only to Stanford and Oregon, we’ll see if it breaks them like it did Washington or if the rise back to win to Pac 12 South

17.  Fresno State 7-0
We have proof of one thing, if Carr and the Bulldogs are in games late, they have the ability to win and they believe they will win no matter what.  Carr should be in the Heisman talk based on his performances winning games for his team.

18.  UCF 6-1
Only loss to South Carolina and a nice win against a team we had going undefeated, we’re not going to discount them and no way rank them below Louisville, that’s just disrespectful.

19.  Oklahoma State 6-1
After one trip-up let’s see how the Cowboys finish the season…

20.  Louisville 7-1
Here’s the thing, Louisville has enough talent that we serious believe they could compete in a bowl against anyone but the question is: with BCS in question, can the Cardinals keep focus and finish out the year.

21.  Northern Ill. 8-0
Not sure if we’re buying the Huskies as a top team but we respect what they’ve done so far.

23.  Michigan State 7-1
Could this be the year the Spartans finally break through?

24.  Notre Dame 5-2
Since the loss to Michigan, Notre Dame has become a better team.  Now what for the Golden Domers?

25.  Arizona State 5-2
The Pac 12 South should come down to UCLA and the Devils, can ASU win on the road and close out the season?

Just outside:

Wisconsin, Michigan, Oregon State, BYU, Texas,

2013 Preseason Consensus from Stassen.com

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So now that the majority of preseason magazines for the upcoming 2013 season of College Football have been released, it’s time to start looking at the numbers and then taking a look at each team.  We’ll be using websites like these, preseason.stassen.com, to give us a broad look at all of the rankings from the major magazines.  We’ll also look at the websites out there and their rankings for conference  and overall wins.  My next post will be the odds from Vegas for the over/under win totals for all of the FBS Teams.

National Top 25

Rank Team Total
Points
Lindy Athlon TSN Phil
Steele
USA
Today
1 Alabama 150 1 1 1 1 1
2 Ohio State 142 2 2 5 2 2
3 Oregon 130 4 3 8 5 5
4 Stanford 129 3 7 2 11 3
5 Georgia 120 6 4 12 9 4
6 Texas A&M 114 5 9 7 13 7
7 South Carolina 113 9 5 3 14 11
8 Clemson 110 7 6 9 15 8
9 Louisville 105 10 10 11 7 12
10 Notre Dame 99 14 8 10 10 14
11 Florida 98 12 13 4 18 10
12 Oklahoma State 95 11 16 6 8 19
13 Florida State 89 13 15 18 3 17
14 Texas 88 18 18 14 4 13
15 Louisiana State 84 8 12 16 17 18
16 Boise State 75 17 11 15 6
17 Michigan 73 16 14 13 24 15
18 Nebraska 67 21 21 21 16 9
19 Oklahoma 64 15 17 19 19 21
20 Texas Christian 45 22 20 21 16
21 Southern Cal 31 25 6
22 Wisconsin 30 19 24 20
23 Fresno State 27 22 22 22
24 Baylor 26 19 17
25 Miami-Florida 22 24 22 25

Others receiving votes:

Rank Team Total
Points
Lindy Athlon TSN Phil
Steele
USA
Today
26t Michigan State 19 20 23
26t UCLA 19 23 20
26t Virginia Tech 19 12
29 Northwestern 18 24 20
30 Oregon State 14 25 23
31t Arizona State 8 23
31t Northern Illinois 8 23
33 Kansas State 7 24
34t Mississippi 6 25
34t Tulsa 6 25
36 unranked 0

Conference predictions

AAC (former Big East)

Rank Team Total
Points
Lindy Athlon TSN Phil
Steele
USA
Today
1 Louisville 5 1 1 1 1 1
2 Rutgers 15 2 3 2
3 Cincinnati 15½ 3 2 3 3
4 Central Florida 17½ 4 4 5 2
5 Houston 30½ 5 7 10 4
6 Connecticut 31½ 6 6 4 7
7 Southern Methodist 33½ 7 8 6 7
8 South Florida 34 8 5 7 8 6
9 Memphis 46 9 9 9 9 10
10 Temple 46½ 10 10 8 10

Notes:

  • Phil Steele predicted a tie between Rutgers and Southern Methodist for 5th-6th place in the AAC.
  • USA Today predicted a tie between Central Florida and Rutgers for 2nd-3rd place in the AAC.
  • USA Today predicted a tie between Cincinnati and Houston for 4th-5th place in the AAC.
  • USA Today predicted a tie between Connecticut and Temple for 8th-9th place in the AAC.

Atlantic Coast

Rank Team Total
Points
Lindy Athlon TSN Phil
Steele
USA
Today
Atlantic
1 Clemson 6 1 1 1 2 1
2 Florida State 9 2 2 2 1 2
3 N.C. State 18 4 4 3 4 3
4 Maryland 19 3 3 4 4 5
5 Wake Forest 27 7 5 6 4 5
6 Syracuse 29 6 6 5 7 5
7 Boston College 32 5 7 7 6 7
Coastal
1 Miami-Florida 1 1 1 2
2 Virginia Tech 11½ 3 2 4 1
3 Georgia Tech 15½ 2 3 3 4
4 North Carolina 16½ 4 4 2 3
5 Pittsburgh 26½ 5 5 5 6
6 Virginia 29½ 6 6 6 6
7 Duke 34 7 7 7 6 7

Notes:

  • Phil Steele predicted a three-way tie between Maryland, N.C. State, and Wake Forest, for 3rd-5th place in the ACC Atlantic division.
  • Phil Steele predicted a tie between Georgia Tech and North Carolina for 3rd-4th place in the ACC Coastal division.
  • Phil Steele predicted a three-way tie between Duke, Pittsburgh, and Virginia, for 5th-7th place in the ACC Coastal division.
  • USA Today predicted a three-way tie between Maryland, Syracuse, and Wake Forest, for 4th-6th place in the ACC Atlantic division.
  • USA Today predicted a tie between Miami-Florida and Virginia Tech for 1st-2nd place in the ACC Coastal division.
  • USA Today predicted a tie between Pittsburgh and Virginia for 5th-6th place in the ACC Coastal division.

Big Ten

Rank Team Total
Points
Lindy Athlon TSN Phil
Steele
USA
Today
Leaders
1 Ohio State 5 1 1 1 1 1
2 Wisconsin 10 2 2 2 2 2
3 Penn State 15 3 3 3 3 3
4 Indiana 21 4 4 5 4 4
5 Purdue 24½ 5 5 4 5
6 Illinois 29½ 6 6 6 6
Legends
1 Michigan 1 1 1 2
2 Nebraska 3 2 2 1
3 Michigan State 15½ 2 4 4 4
4 Northwestern 16½ 4 3 3 3
5 Iowa 27 5 6 6 5 5
6 Minnesota 28 6 5 5 6 6

Notes:

  • Lindy’s swapped Purdue/Illinois and Iowa/Minnesota in their division predictions — they had Iowa/Monnesota in Leaders and Purdue/Illinois in Legends. Since they predicted each pair of teams 5th/6th (in the wrong division), I counted that as a prediciton of 5th/6th in the proper one.
  • Phil Steele predicted a tie between Michigan State and Nebraska for 1st-2nd place in the Big Ten Legends division.
  • Phil Steele predicted a tie between Michigan and Northwestern for 3rd-4th place in the Big Ten Legends division.
  • USA Today predicted a tie between Illinois and Purdue for 5th-6th place in the Big Ten Leaders division.

Big XII

Rank Team Total
Points
Lindy Athlon TSN Phil
Steele
USA
Today
1 Oklahoma State 8 1 1 1 2 3
2 Texas 10 3 3 2 1 1
3 Oklahoma 13 2 2 3 3 3
4 Texas Christian 22 5 4 6 4 3
5 Baylor 25½ 4 6 4 5
6 Kansas State 27 6 5 5 6 5
7 Texas Tech 37 8 7 7 7 8
8 West Virginia 40½ 9 8 9 8
9 Iowa State 43 7 9 8
10 Kansas 49 10 10 10

Notes:

  • Phil Steele predicted a tie between Iowa State and Kansas for 9th-10th place in the Big XII.
  • USA Today predicted a tie between Baylor and West Virginia for 6th-7th place in the Big XII.
  • USA Today predicted a tie between Iowa State and Kansas for 9th-10th place in the Big XII.

Conference USA

Rank Team Total
Points
Lindy Athlon TSN Phil
Steele
USA
Today
East
1 East Carolina 1 2 1 2
2 Marshall 3 1 3 1
3 Middle Tennessee 16 2 3 2 5 4
4 Southern Miss 20½ 5 5 4 3
5 UAB 22 4 4 5
6 Florida Atlantic 30 6 6 6
7 Florida Int’l 34½ 7 7 7 7
West
1 Tulsa 5 1 1 1 1 1
2 Rice 10 2 2 2 2 2
3 Louisiana Tech 18 4 3 3
4 Texas-El Paso 23 3 4 4 6 6
5 North Texas 24 5 6 5
6 Tulane 25 6 5 6 3 5
7 UTSA 35 7 7 7 7 7

Notes:

  • Phil Steele predicted a tie between Southern Mississippi and UAB for 3rd-4th place in CUSA East.
  • Phil Steele predicted a tie between Florida Atlantic and Florida International for 6th-7th place in CUSA East.
  • Phil Steele predicted a tie between Louisiana Tech and North Texas for 4th-5th place in CUSA West.
  • USA Today predicted a tie between East Carolina and Marshall for 1st-2nd place in CUSA East.
  • USA Today predicted a tie between Florida Atlantic and UAB for 5th-6th place in CUSA East.
  • USA Today predicted a tie between Louisiana Tech and North Texas for 3rd-4th place in CUSA West.

Mid-American

Rank Team Total
Points
Lindy Athlon TSN Phil
Steele
USA
Today
East
1 Bowling Green 8 3 1 1 1 2
2 Ohio 9 1 2 3 2 1
3 Buffalo 16 2 4 4 3 3
4 Kent State 18 4 3 2 4 5
5 Miami-Ohio 25 6 5 5 5 4
6t Akron 32 7 6 7 6 6
6t Massachusetts 32 5 7 6 7 7
West
1 Northern Illinois 5 1 1 1 1 1
2 Toledo 12 3 3 2 2 2
3 Ball State 13 2 2 3 3 3
4 Western Michigan 21 4 4 5 4 4
5 Central Michigan 24 5 5 4 5 5
6 Eastern Michigan 30 6 6 6 6 6

Mountain West

Rank Team Total
Points
Lindy Athlon TSN Phil
Steele
USA
Today
West
1 Fresno State 5 1 1 1 1 1
2 San Diego State 12 3 3 2 2 2
3 San Jose State 14½ 2 2 3 3
4 Nevada 19 4 4 4 4 3
5 Nevada-Las Vegas 27 5 5 5 6 6
6 Hawaii 27½ 6 6 6 5
Mountain
1 Boise State 5 1 1 1 1 1
2 Utah State 10 2 2 2 2 2
3 Air Force 15½ 3 3 3 3
4 Wyoming 22½ 4 4 4 5
5 Colorado State 24 5 5 5
6 New Mexico 28 6 6 6 6 4

Notes:

  • Phil Steele predicted a tie between Air Force and Colorado State for 3rd-4th place in the MWC Mountain division.
  • USA Today predicted a tie between Hawai’i and San Jose State for 4th-5th place in the MWC West division.
  • USA Today predicted a tie between Colorado State and Wyoming for 5th-6th place in the MWC Mountain division.

Pacific 12

Rank Team Total
Points
Lindy Athlon TSN Phil
Steele
USA
Today
North
1t Oregon 2 1 2 1
1t Stanford 1 2 1 2
3 Oregon State 16½ 4 3 3 3
4 Washington 18½ 3 4 4 4
5 California 27 5 5 5 6 6
6 Washington State 28 6 6 6 5 5
South
1 UCLA 9 1 3 1 3 1
2 Arizona State 10½ 3 1 2 2
3 Southern Cal 11½ 2 2 4 1
4 Arizona 19½ 4 4 3 4
5 Utah 24½ 5 5 5 5
6 Colorado 30 6 6 6 6 6

Notes:

  • USA Today predicted a tie between Oregon and Stanford for 1st-2nd place in the PAC 12 North.
  • USA Today predicted a tie between Oregon State and Washington for 3rd-4th place in the PAC 12 North.
  • USA Today predicted a tie between Arizona State and Southern Cal for 2nd-3rd place in the PAC 12 South.
  • USA Today predicted a tie between Arizona and Utah for 4th-5th place in the PAC 12 South.

Southeastern

Rank Team Total
Points
Lindy Athlon TSN Phil
Steele
USA
Today
East
1 Georgia 7 1 1 3 1 1
2 South Carolina 10 2 2 1
3 Florida 13 3 3 2
4 Vanderbilt 21½ 4 4 4 4
5 Tennessee 24½ 5 5 5 4
6 Missouri 29 6 6 6
7 Kentucky 35 7 7 7 7 7
West
1 Alabama 5 1 1 1 1 1
2 Texas A&M 10½ 2 2 2 2
3 Louisiana State 14½ 3 3 3 3
4 Mississippi 20½ 4 4 4 4
5 Mississippi State 28 5 5 7
6 Arkansas 29½ 6 7 5 5
7 Auburn 32 7 6 6

Notes:

  • Phil Steele predicted a tie between Florida and South Carolina for 2nd-3rd place in the SEC East.
  • Phil Steele predicted a tie between Missouri and Vanderbilt for 5th-6th place in the SEC East.
  • Phil Steele predicted a tie between Louisiana State and Texas A&M for 2nd-3rd place in the SEC West.
  • Phil Steele predicted a tie between Auburn and Mississippi State for 6th-7th place in the SEC West.
  • USA Today predicted a tie between Florida and South Carolina for 2nd-3rd place in the SEC East.
  • USA Today predicted a tie between Missouri and Tenneessee for 5th-6th place in the SEC East.
  • USA Today predicted a tie between Mississippi and Mississippi State for 4th-5th place in the SEC West.
  • USA Today predicted a tie between Arkansas and Auburn for 6th-7th place in the SEC West.

Sun Belt

Rank Team Total
Points
Lindy Athlon TSN Phil
Steele
USA
Today
1 Louisiana-Lafay. 8 3 1 2 1 1
2t Louisiana-Monroe 13½ 1 2 3 3
2t Western Kentucky 13½ 4 3 1 3
4 Arkansas State 17½ 2 4 4 3
5 Troy 22½ 5 5 5 5
6 Texas State 30 6 6 6 6 6
7 South Alabama 35 7 7 7 7 7
8 Georgia State 40 8 8 8 8 8

Notes:

  • Phil Steele predicted a three-way tie between Arkansas State, Louisiana-Monroe, and Western Kentucky, for 2nd-4th place in the Sun Belt.
  • USA Today predicted a tie between Troy and Western Kentucky for 2nd-3rd place in the Sun Belt.
  • USA Today predicted a tie between Arkansas State and Louisiana-Monroe for 4th-5th place in the Sun Belt.