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)

Rivals Rundown Top 25 – Week 3

 cropped-rivalsrundown-red-black-1-2.jpg

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

Rivals Rundown 2013 College Football Preseason Top 30 Teams

bcs-champion-odds-2014-1024x581

 

Welcome to our inaugural Rivals Rundown Preseason Top 30 Teams!!!  We are excited to present this the morning of the 2013 College Football Season.  We have published our Top 5 teams for all of the BCS Conferences and this is the culmination of all that research.  This is not our prediction of how the season will end, this is where we rank the teams as of today.  Throughout the season we will visit our Top 30 and adjust as we see fit.  Sometimes the whole thing might get flipped upside down but that’s College Football.  Here is our Rivals Rundown 2013 College Football Preseason Top 30!!!

1. Alabama Crimson Tide
2. Oregon Ducks
3. Ohio State Buckeyes
4. Georgia Bulldogs
5. Clemson Tigers
6. Louisville Cardinals
7. Texas Longhorns
8. Nebraska Cornhuskers
9. Florida State Seminoles
10. Oklahoma State Cowboys
11. South Carolina Gamecocks
12. LSU Tigers
13. USC Trojans
14. Stanford Cardinal
15. Florida Gators
16. Texas A&M Aggies
17. Oregon State Beavers
18. TCU Horned Frogs
19. Boise State Broncos
20. Oklahoma Sooners
21. Michigan Wolverines
22. Northwestern Wildcats
23. Arizona State Sun Devils
24. Fresno State Bulldogs
25. Notre Dame Fighting Irish
26. Baylor Bears
27. Washington Huskies
28. Northern Illinois Huskies
29 Miami Hurricanes
30. Ohio Bobcats

2013 @SECSportsUpdate Football Preseason Top 5* Rundown!

SEC_new_logo

2013 SEC Football Top 5* Teams Preview

So the saying goes that you save the best for last, so here we are on our last preview of the 2013 college football preseason and we find ourselves in the SouthEastern Conference where the BCS Trophy has now reigned for the past seven seasons.  It’s a streak that has been over-talked about but not and can’t be overstated.  In the modern era of college athletics it’s difficult to believe that one conference could completely dominate the landscape and it seems that 2013 will continue the streak and even more impressive, Alabama is on the verge of four titles in six years…yeah, let that soak in…Alabama with Nick Saban is setting the standard for modern day college football champions.  Sometimes it’s hard to recognize when we are living during the greatest era of something and right now, if Alabama wins it’s forth title in six season and if Saban gets to 100 wins before he gets to 20 losses, that is domination and that is something that others will have a hard time to replicate.  Now to clarify that last point, Saban is currently 68-13, over the last five years he is 66-6!  On that current pace he could hit 100 before 20 but that is still a couple of years away.  So here is our 2013 SEC Top5(maybe6 or7) Rundown:

 

1.  Alabama Crimson Tide 11-1 (West Champions) (Conference Champions)

So after that whole rant about how dominant the SEC has has been and how impressive Alabama’s streak has been, here’s the problem: last year Alabama schedule was less then impressive.  If you take out the three toughest games of the regular season, Michigan, LSU and Texas A&M, the combine record of the Crimson Tide’s opponents was 43-67, that’s nine teams…let that sink in for a moment.  This year the schedule doesn’t change much, they have an opening day game against Virginia Tech, then like last year they have A&M and LSU, if Bama survives those three games they will play in the SEC title game again with an appearance in the final BCS game on the line.  We like LSU to upset Alabama or a trap game on the road to Mississippi State as the only chances for a loss on the schedule.  If LSU had Alabama’s schedule we would be picking them to play for the National Championship but they don’t and so we are taking the Tide to appear once again an in the SEC TItle game but we aren’t ready yet to say they’ll play for a National Title, that prediction is still to come…

 

2.  Georgia Bulldogs 11-1 (East Champions)

Georgia will return with what we believe will be the best offense in the SEC, the question of if they can run the table or overcome Alabama in the title game will be if a young but talented defense can overcome an early and very tough schedule to help Georgia go into the Worlds Largest Cocktail party with only one loss.  If that happens, which we think it will, Georgia will return to the SEC Title game and this time they will be ready to dethrone Alabama.  Disclaimer: We will say this, we picked Alabama to win the conference again, but if this part of the prediction comes true and it’s Georgia vs Alabama we will take Georgia this time.  Which should mean that we should have Georgia as the number one team…but we can’t unseat Alabama, Georgia will have to do it.

 

3. South Carolina Gamecocks 10-2

This is going to be a repeat of last year for the Gamecocks, meaning if South Carolina can get past two teams that could also find themselves in this position in Georgia and Florida they could be undefeated going into a season finally against Clemson.  Last year, they fell pretty hard against Florida after coming off of a loss to LSU this year we like them against Florida but think Georgia will take a win away from the Gamecocks, also if Clemson can be in a position to play for a National Championship when they meet, we like Clemson.  The schedule is easy enough and with a little luck South Carolina could be playing in the SEC Title game but this year we think it’s Georgia’s game to play in.

 

4.  LSU Tigers 9-3

This is why the SEC is still the best conference is the nation, no other number four team in our conference Rundowns compare to the talent of LSU.  LSU was seconds and a couple of scores away from playing in the SEC title game and maybe a National Championship.  This year LSU has the toughest schedule of our top 4 teams in the SEC, they have a tough opening day road game against TCU, they also face Georgia, Florida, Alabama and Texas A&M.  This is the only reason we don’t have LSU higher, we like everything about the team and think that they have what it takes to win a SEC title but the offense and defense will have to improve with losing some key pieces thus leading us to think that LSU will be in the National Championship talk next year after these players have another year of experience under their belt.

 

5.  Texas A&M Aggies 9-3

Before all of the distractions that came in the offseason and before the half-game suspension imposed on Manziel we would’ve taken Texas A&M at 10-2 but now with all of that behind us we are looking at A&M not only to lose to Alabama and LSU but we think they might have a mental “loss” in there too and drop them to this position.  On the field with Manziel leading the offense, the Aggies will have a chance to win any game, other the Alabama (they want blood).  On the other side of the ball, the Aggies have some big holes to fill and that is not a good thing in the SEC.  Look for the Aggies to take a step back in their second year of SEC play but it will be a small step and if Manziel returns next year look for A&M to be in the hunt for a National Championship

 

6.  Florida Gators 9-3

We can’t say enough about the depth of the top 6 teams in the SEC, having Florida ranked as the sixth team in a conference is unreal.  This team at one point last year was thought as the number one team in the country.  For the 2013 campaign, like Texas A&M, (without the off field distractions) Florida will take a small step back as they gain some experience on both sides of the ball.  The defense in Florida was one of the best, top 10 in both points allowed and rushing yards allowed, that’s impressive when playing in the SEC.  This season the defense will need to catch up and while that’s occurring they will need to rely on the offense that ranked last year as on of the more average in the country.  All the top teams in the SEC can beat each other on any given Saturday, Florida in 2013 will be in it but we don’t see them playing for a conference title.