The College Football Blog: Power Rankings (After Week 11)

Power Rankings After Week 11

1. Florida 8-1 (1st)
2. Texas 9-1 (2nd)
3. Texas Tech 10-0 (6th)
4. Alabama 10-0 (4th)
5. USC 8-1 (5th)
6. Oklahoma 9-1 (7th)
7. Penn State 9-1 (3rd)
8. Ohio State 8-2 (10th)
9. Oklahoma State 8-2 (8th)
10. Missouri 8-2 (11th)
11. Georgia 8-2 (9th)
12. LSU 6-3 (12th)

-Previous week’s ranking in parenthesis;

Out: none;
Next Three In: TCU, Utah, Boise State.

Explanation: For the second week in a row, no team fell out of my power rankings, despite some significant things happening in week 11. Florida remained my top team for a second consecutive week after their 5th straight SEC blowout win, this one at Vandy, 42-14. Texas held down the #2 spot in my rankings for a 2nd consecutive week following their ho-hum 45-21 win over Baylor at home. After that there was some movement. Obviously, Penn State had to vacate the #3 spot in my rankings following their choke job at Iowa, 24-23. They finally proved to be just like every other Big Ten National Championship contender from the last 6 or 7 years. I moved the Nittany Lions down 4 spots to 7th in my rankings. The team I was most impressed with in week 11 was Texas Tech, who followed up the biggest win in their history with an easy, 56-20 win over Oklahoma State. I moved the Red Raiders up 3 spots in my rankings from 6th to 3rd. My number 4 and 5 spots stayed the same this week after Alabama and USC came away with hard fought wins over LSU and Cal respectively. I have to say that I wasn’t all that impressed with either team, as Bama needed overtime to win at LSU, 27-21, and USC did not put Cal away at home until very late, eventually winning, 17-3. Bama remained in the #4 spot in my power rankings for a second straight week, while USC stayed at #5 for the 5th straight week. I bumped Oklahoma up a spot from 7th to 6th in my power rankings following their solid 66-28 win at A&M in week 11. There was a lot of movement in the bottom third of my top 12, though no team fell out of the rankings. I moved Ohio State up 2 spots from 10th to 8th in my rankings after their 45-10 smashing of a decent Northwestern team on the road in week 11. Though I was fairly disappointed in Oklahoma State’s effort on the road against Texas Tech last week, I only dropped the Cowboys down 1 spot in my ratings from 8th to 9th. Missouri had been ranked 11th in my top 12 but I moved the Tigers up 1 spot to 10th this week after their ho-hum win over KSU at home, 41-24. I moved Georgia down 2 spots this week from 9th to 11th following their underwhelming, 42-38, win at Kentucky in week 11. I was actually quite impressed with LSU’s effort against Alabama last week, despite the fact that they wound up losing at home, 27-21, in overtime. Still, I thought their defense played one of its better games all season, and they nearly pulled off a huge upset over a much better team. Thus, for the first time this year, there is a 3-loss team in my top 12. I continued to keep all non-BCS conference teams out of my top 12. Boise State held serve with a 49-14 win over Utah State at home, but I’d still take any of the teams in my top 12 over the Broncos in a head to head matchup on a neutral field. The other two teams in my next 3 in remained the same, with TCU my favorite of those 3 teams, even though they lost to Utah in week 1. Utah had to come from behind to win 13-10 at home, and they would have lost had TCU’s kicker not missed a pair of short field goals late in the game. I think the Horned Frogs would beat the Utes on a neutral field. Anyway, TCU, Utah, and Boise State remained my “next 3 in”, ranked in that order.