AmStat College Football Top 25: Week Seven

I’ve been waiting to write these rankings since about 7:30pm yesterday. The greatest weekend in the history of college football ended with more damage to the top 25 than any other week ever. The College Football Playoff bracket is almost impossible to complete after this carnage, but polls have to be produced and rankings such as mine need to be posted on social media. That’s what we do as sports journalists — pretend we know what we’re talking about when it is clear that none of this stuff can be predicted. Here’s what’s left of the wreckage after what has been dubbed Separation Sunday.

1. 

   Sammie Coates is one of the nation’s best receivers, which explains why he’s become the preferred target of Auburn QB Nick Marshall as the Tigers look to repeat as SEC Champs.

   Auburn Tigers (5-0) – The Tigers blowout win against LSU somehow accomplished a double-edged goal of proving that LSU is bad, but still assuring us that Auburn is playing better ball than anyone in the country. Nick Marshall and his gang of backs and receivers is the most potent force in college football as of today.

2. Ole Miss Rebels (5-0) – I promised a playoff spot to the Rebs if they beat Bama, and here we are. Three years of winning on the recruiting trail has finally translated into Hugh Freeze fielding a national contender. Bo Wallace proved that he could win a ballgame with his arm, and the Ole Miss defense proved that they have another level as well. If anyone isn’t convinced, there’s always next week. The Rebs are at Texas A&M.
3. Mississippi State Bulldogs (5-0) – Dak Prescott is now the Heisman frontrunner in my book. Mississippi State unleashed one of the season’s most dominant performances while humbling Texas A&M. On the strength of Dak’s five touchdown performance, it’s now appropriate to wonder if the Bulldogs can win the SEC. It’s an ascendance that is even more surprising than that of their in-state rival. However, the gauntlet continues next week when they welcome Auburn.
4. Notre Dame Fighting Irish (5-0) – Everett Golson is every bit of the X-factor that we thought he might be. With his penchant for huge plays in big games, why can’t this team beat Florida State and make a march towards the playoff before getting ran off the field by a team like Auburn or Alabama in the semis?
5. Florida State Seminoles (5-0) – With statements being made all over the country, it’s just really hard to impress anybody when you play Wake Forest. A date with Syracuse next week doesn’t give the Noles much to work with either.
6. Baylor Bears (5-0) – I never thought I would see the day when a win over Texas would be absolutely meaningless to Baylor, but that’s where we’re at right now in the Big 12.
7. TCU Horned Frogs (4-0) – Who knows how long the Frogs can stay this high in the rankings, but beating the team that had been the most complete squad in the country up until yesterday has to mean something. The Sooners came to play, and TCU still beat them. They can justify this obscenely high ranking next weekend when they travel to Baylor.
   
8. Oklahoma Sooners (4-1) – The Sooners didn’t play particularly bad, but they ran into a horned buzz-saw named Trevone Boykin. Trevor Knight has proven himself as a big game quarterback, but someone forgot to remind him that TCU was a marquee matchup, because Knight was very ordinary on a day when the Sooners needed more from him.
9. Alabama Crimson Tide (4-1) – At what point does Alabama start recruiting kickers with a bit more fervor? Also, if you take away the bogus fumble return, wasn’t Bama’s offense pretty underwhelming today? Losing Kenyon Drake for the year won’t help matters either. This looks like a team that has more losses in them.
10. Georgia Bulldogs (4-1) – Amidst all the chaos, Todd Gurley and the Dawgs calmly drilled Vanderbilt — as they should have.
11. 

    I’m sure Scooby Wright doesn’t mind losing his face time to another famous Scooby. All that matters is that his team has knocked off Oregon for a second straight year and is undefeated after five games.

    Arizona Wildcats (5-0) – Rich Rodriguez has long been regarded as an offensive mastermind, but it was the swarming defensive scheme that led to Zona’s upset of Oregon. With the Pac-12 being wide open, there’s no reason why this team can’t stay in the conference title conversation until the final weeks of the season.

12. Oregon Ducks (4-1) – The Ducks started all of this mess on Thursday night when they decided to protect Marcus Mariotta like the Secret Service has been protecting the president lately. It has become obvious that Oregon is a one man team, and teams are starting to respond to this by throwing the kitchen sink at Mariotta. The strategy worked for Arizona.
13. Michigan State Spartans (4-1) – Sparty was very impressive for three quarters but almost gave it all away in the fourth quarter against Nebraska. If the Spartans continue to rise in the polls, their inability to close out a team like Nebraska could be frowned upon by the playoff selection committee.
14. Ohio State Buckeyes (4-1) – Don’t look now, but Ohio State is looking like a contender again. Their throttling of Maryland on the road proves that it’s way too early to purchase Sparty’s plane tickets to the Big Ten Championship.
15. Texas A&M Aggies (5-1) – Just when we thought Kevin Sumlin’s system was impenetrable and any schmuck could sling the Aggies to 11 wins, Kenny Trill played like an over-hyped media darling and A&M got blasted.
16. Missouri Tigers (4-1) – Mizzou picked a great week to have a bye. It’s another week that they can go to sleep without having loss in the SEC. We can only wonder where the Tigers would sit if they had beaten lowly Indiana.
17. Oklahoma State Cowboys (4-1) – The Pokes played around with Iowa State for the entire first half and needed the help of an awful call in their favor to take the lead into the half. After the break, they returned to the field looking like a team that is an upset away from competing for their conference title.
18. UCLA Bruins (4-1) – The madness began on Thursday night in the Pac-12, and ended on Sunday morning in the Pac-12 when UCLA failed to contain Utah. The Bruins had seemingly righted the ship last week, but the offensive problems returned against the Utes. Once the offense finally got going late, the defense couldn’t stop the Utah rushing attack. It’s a huge let down for fans on the West Coast, as we were only a week away from seeing Oregon visit the Rose Bowl for a battle of unbeaten teams.
19. 

    Jaelen Strong swooped in front of a crowd of Trojans to steal a game away from USC and catapult the Sun Devils back into the top 25.

    Arizona State Sun Devils (4-1) – Sparky bounced back big time and split their meetings with the LA schools. ASU fell behind early, and could have allowed the rest of their season to spiral out of control. Instead, they rallied back and fought USC to the final seconds, where the Trojans decided to play the worst Hail Mary defense ever.

20. Kansas State Wildcats (4-1) – I resisted for a long time, but K-State’s beat down of Texas Tech was enough for me to pull the trigger on adding the Cats to the ranking. It also helps that Auburn has taken the top spot in the ranking. Remember that it was only a trio of missed field goals that allowed Auburn to escape from Manhattan with a win.
21. Florida Gators (3-1) – The Gators played awful on offense and great on defense. It was a recipe for disaster until Will Muschamp pulled the trigger on replacing Jeff Driskel with true freshman Treon Harris. The agile and quick Harris rallied the Gators for all 10 of the points necessary to beat the Vols, and started a full blown QB controversy in the process.
22. Nebraska Cornhuskers (5-1) – The Heisman campaign of Ameer Abdullah died along the banks of the Red Cedar very early Saturday night. Abdullah was clamped by the Spartan defense, and it took the Huskers three quarters before they could muster any type of offense that didn’t depend on Abdullah breaking a long run. The good news for Nebraska is that Wisconsin also lost, and there matchup is essentially a Big Ten semifinal as long as both teams take care of other business along the way.
23. Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets (5-0) – The Jackets knocked off Miami in ATL and are still without a loss this season. They haven’t seen a legitimate test, but they haven’t slipped up yet. That’s worth something, especially after a week where everyone slipped up. The Ramblin’ Wreck is 5-0 and will be favored in their next five. This team could and SHOULD be 10-0 when they finish the season against Clemson and at Georgia.
24. Utah Utes (4-1) – When the Utes ran away from the Wolverines in the Big House, we chalked it up as a byproduct of Michigan’s tailspin. However, sending UCLA into a tailspin is a much more impressive feat. Much like Mizzou’s puzzling loss to Indiana, Utah’s only blemish is a loss against Washington State. Without that negative result, the Utes could have been major movers in the next two weeks.
25. Kentucky Wildcats (4-1) – The Big Blue Nation doesn’t have to look forward to basketball season just yet. Mark Stoops has a football team that’s worth watching. If not for a blown call at Florida, the Wildcats would be undefeated. Though they didn’t leave the Swamp with a win, they did takeaway the confidence that they needed to compete with anyone in the SEC East (this probably excludes Georgia). Kentucky won’t be ranked at the end of the season, but they deserve the number next to the name after beating a South Carolina team that still had plenty to play for.

A playoff bracket with no Florida State, no Alabama, no Oklahoma, and no Oregon. Yet, there are still THREE teams from the SEC West in the bracket. I can’t make this stuff up…even though I’m the person who makes this stuff up.