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,

Rivals Rundown College Football Top 25 – Week 8

Wisconsin v Ohio StateAfter 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

Oregon Ducks Football vs Cal Bears 2013

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!!!

NCAA Football: Arizona State at Stanford

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 Top 25 – Week 3

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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