College Football Top 25 Rankings
SteemSports Presenter:@thesportsguy
SteemSports Editor:@scottybuckets
It was another busy Saturday in the world of college football where we had the first big upset of the season, a few other surprising games and some more movement throughout the 25 with 3 new teams jumping into this week's poll. Atop the rankings it was easy work for the # 1 Crimson Tide as they demolished Ole Miss 62-7. Alabama stays comfortably atop the rankings and are followed once again by Clemson and Ohio State. OSU got past TCU 40-28, in a game where they got all they could handle from the Horned Frogs, but were able to pull away down the stretch.
The first big upset of the season took place in Madison where the # 4 Badgers fell at home to BYU, 24-21, when fifth-year senior kicker Rafael Gaglione was unable to connect on a late 41-yd FG that would have tied the game in the closing seconds. It snapped one of the nation's all-time longest home winning streaks against non-conference opponents. The last time Wisconsin had lost at home to a non-conference team was the all the way back in 2003 when they fell to UNLV in Madison. It was a lackluster performance on both sides of the ball, and special teams as the Badgers looked lethargic throughout the game. The surprising loss dropped Bucky 13 spots and all the way down to # 17 ahead of their Big Ten opener this weekend at Iowa. The big upset win propelled BYU into the rankings at # 25.
LSU was the big catalyst of the week as they took advantage of the Badgers' loss and take over the # 4 spot, shooting up 9 spots after eking out a 22-21 victory @ Auburn in a battle of the Tigers. LSU now has a neutral field win over Miami FL and a victory over Auburn at Jordan-Hare Stadium. That is by far the most impressive resume out of anyone to this early point in the season. The Tigers have put themselves in great position to start the season. Auburn didn't drop too far after the narrow defeat, dropping 4 spots to just outside the top 10 at # 11.
Behind LSU, the Oklahoma Sooners stay put at # 5, as they had to claw their way to a 37-27 difficult road victory at Iowa State. # 6 Georgia had no problem routing Middle Tennessee at home 49-7. Mississippi State also clobbered UL-Lafayette 56-10, to move up a spot to # 8. Virginia Tech was one of a trio of teams in the poll that had games canceled due to the extreme weather in the Carolinas. Virginia Tech, UCF, and West Virginia all had games canceled, and all moved up slightly in this week's poll thanks to other teams stumbling.
The Hokies moved up from 8 to 7, UCF moved up 2 spots to # 12, and West Virginia moved up a spot to # 16. Penn State and Stanford round out the top 10 at 9 and 10, respectively after both got easy expected victories. Behind UCF, is Oregon, up two spots to 13, followed by another of the big movers of the week, the Oklahoma State Cowboys, who are up 5 spots to # 14 after a huge non-conference win over then # 11 Boise State, 44-21. Washington is also up a spot to 15.
Miami FL stayed put at #18, and behind them are the Iowa Hawkeyes at 19, Notre Dame at 20, and Michigan at 21, all up three spots respectively. TCU dropped just one spot to # 22 after a good showing against OSU at AT&T Stadium in Texas. Behind the Horned Frogs, it's 3 newcomers to the top 25, as Michigan State was off and managed to slide back into the rankings at 23. The Kentucky Wildcats are in the poll for the first time in a long, long time after taking care of lowly Murray State. The strength for UK is their victory in the Swamp over Florida two weeks ago. As previously mentioned, BYU rounds out the top 25 at # 25 after their massive upset of Wisconsin.
TOP 25
1 ALABAMA (3-0)
2 CLEMSON (3-0)
3 OHIO ST. (3-0)
4 LSU (3-0)
5 OKLAHOMA (3-0)
6 GEORGIA (3-0)
7 VIRGINIA TECH (2-0)
8 MISSISSIPPI ST. (3-0)
9 PENN ST. (3-0)
10 STANFORD (3-0)
11 AUBURN (2-1)
12 UCF (2-0)
13 OREGON (3-0)
14 OKLAHOMA ST. (3-0)
15 WASHINGTON (2-1)
16 WEST VIRGINIA (2-0)
17 WISCONSIN (2-1)
18 MIAMI FL (2-1)
19 IOWA (3-0)
20 NOTRE DAME (3-0)
21 MICHIGAN (2-1)
22 TCU (2-1)
23 MICHIGAN ST. (1-1)
24 KENTUCKY (3-0)
25 BYU (2-1)
While the Spartans, Wildcats, and Cougars all slid into the top 25 this week, there are several teams right behind them that just barely fell short of making the rankings this week. Cal, Colorado, NC St., Boston College, and Syracuse would be next. Shout-out to Syracuse who defeated Florida State for the first time since the 1960s, as they dominated the Seminoles 30-7 and are off to a 3-0 start.
Also keep an eye on Duke, the Texas Longhorns, who thrashed previously # 20 ranked USC 37-14, and North Texas who made a big, big splash in the college football world by going to Arkansas and routing the Razorbacks 44-17 in their own yard. Included in that route was a fake fair-catch punt return for a TD that completely fooled Arkansas and was one of the highlight-reel moments of the weekend.
Looking ahead to this week, there is a big battle in the state Florida on Friday night, but it doesn't involve the teams you may think - Florida Atlantic (2-1) visits # 12 UCF (2-0) in a game that could have major implications on the "group of 5" pick for a "New Year's Six" bowl game. # 17 Wisconsin visits # 19 Iowa in the Big TEN opener for both squads, in what should be a very good game that will likely go a long way in determining the representive from the West Division in the Big Ten Title game at the end of the season. Georgia is at Missouri and Texas A&M is at # 1 Alabama in a couple of interesting SEC matchups. TCU visits Texas in a big early season showdown in the Big 12. One other big game from the SEC pits 8 Mississippi State at 25 Kentucky, and lastly, look for a very good football game to finish off the Saturday slate from out west where # 10 Stanford visits # 13 Oregon in a big Pac 12 showdown. There are plenty of big-time matchups ahead of us, enjoy of all the action once again and good luck!
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