by Sean Szymczak
As the tradition goes, a “bad” weekend of college football delivered one of the biggest upsets of the season. Oklahoma fell to Kansas for the first time since 1997.
But the Sooners weren’t the only top-10 teams to struggle in week 9, as Ohio State, Penn State, and Washington all struggled to pull out wins.
Oregon made perhaps the statement of the season, demolishing Utah on the road.
I feel there is a solidified top 16 teams this week. I like putting the trio of “good not great Pac-12 teams who can’t create separation from each other” right after those top 16. Then, it gets real messy. I feel good about the teams I have ranked 20-25, but not necessarily the order. You can arrange them however you’d like.
Kansas State, USC, Miami, Fresno State, and Toledo all have cases to be included in this week’s top 25, but didn’t quite make it.
The Floor Slap’s Week 10 Top 25
- Michigan (8-0)
- The more information comes out about the sign-stealing scandal, the more I doubt that they will have an opportunity to finish the season. I mean, they might have opposing team’s practice footage on hand. But until all the facts come out, we can only judge this team for the product we’ve seen on the field.
- Florida State (8-0)
- The Seminoles’ early-season struggles with BC and Clemson haven’t exactly aged like wine. But they’ve beaten Syracuse, Duke, and Wake Forest by an average margin of 27 points over the past three weeks. They are continuing to improve and Jordan Travis is right in the thick of the Heisman.
- Ohio State (8-0)
- The defense continues to be elite and the return of Treveyon Henderson is a game-changer for this offense (assuming he can stay healthy the rest of the season). But Kyle McCord has seemed to plateau, still making some bad throws and being inconsistent with his accuracy. McCord needs to be better.
- Georgia (8-0)
- They still have not played a team that is even sniffing our Top 25 and have looked shaky in all but two outings. But with games against Missouri, Ole Miss, and Tennessee in the next three weeks, the Bulldogs will have a chance to reclaim their #1 spot.
- Washington (8-0)
- Getting bailed out against the refs vs ASU and struggling with Stanford (both of whom have a 2-6 record) is not the follow-up we were hoping for from their exhilarating win over Oregon. That win still holds a ton of merit, but the Huskies were outgained by ASU & Stanford. They need to clean things up if they want to stay undefeated.
- Oregon (7-1)
- The Ducks’ 35-6 demolition at Utah was one of the season’s most impressive victories. Bo Nix might be my Heisman favorite.
- Texas (7-1)
- Maalik Murphy was shaky in place of the injured Ewers, but the Longhorn defense stepped up in decisive win over BYU. This week they host Kansas State – maybe their last true test before the Big 12 title.
- Alabama (7-1)
- Oklahoma (7-1)
- The Sooners will have to win out and knock off Texas again if they want to reach the CFP. But I think they need a more consistent pass rush and someone to step up in place of WR Andrel Anthony, who was lost for the season against Texas. But at the end of the day, no one behind them has a win even close as good as their win over the Longhorns.
- Penn State (7-1)
- A letdown was to be expected after last week’s matchup, but playing Indiana into the 4th quarter is hard to defend. The offense looked just as anemic – until their game-clinching 57-yard TD throw.
- Notre Dame (7-2)
- The Irish did to Pitt was Louisville should have done a couple weeks ago.
- Ole Miss (7-1)
- The Rebels haven’t necessarily been impressive in any single game this season, but they keep winning games.
- LSU (6-2)
- Their offense can hang with anyone, but their defense still has major question marks. They travel to Tuscaloosa this week where a win would throw a major wrench into the SEC West race.
- Missouri (7-1)
- Fresh off a bye, Missouri has their eyes on upsetting Georgia this weekend.
- Louisville (7-1)
- Their shutout against Duke makes the defense’s performance against Pitt a couple weeks ago even more head-scratching.
- Air Force (8-0)
- Oregon State (6-2)
- Losing to Arizona hurts, but the Beavers still have wins over Utah and UCLA. They are the Pac-12’s third-best team. With games against Oregon and Washington to end the season, Oregon State has a great chance to end up in the Pac-12 title game.
- Utah (6-2)
- You kinda need to be able to throw the ball in order to win in major college football. One can only speculate how dangerous this team would be if Cam Rising was healthy.
- UCLA (6-2)
- Kansas (6-2)
- These 6 teams (#’s 20-25) can really be ordered however you’d like. I mean, how do you make sense of Kansas beating Oklahoma but losing to OK State last week and to Texas by 26 earlier in the season?
- Tennessee (6-2)
- I don’t feel good about having Tennessee in my rankings, as their narrow win over Kentucky is by far their most impressive of the season. I don’t buy them as a legitimate SEC East contender.
- James Madison (8-0)
- Tulane (7-1)
- Liberty (8-0)
- Nearly three quarters of the way through the season, every single undefeated team should be ranked.
- Oklahoma State (6-2)
- I get Kansas State has been a different team since the QB change, but Oklahoma State has the head-to-head win over KSU.
Just Missed Out: Kansas State, USC, Miami, Fresno State, Toledo
Dropped from Rankings: Duke (19), North Carolina (23), USC (24)
New to Rankings: Kansas (20), Tennessee (21), Oklahoma State (25)
Ranked Teams by Conference:
SEC: 6
Pac-12: 5
Big 12: 4
Big Ten: 3
ACC: 2
Other: 5 (Notre Dame, Air Force, James Madison, Tulane, Liberty)