The College Football Blog: Power Rankings (After Week 13)

Power Rankings After Week 13

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

-Previous week’s ranking in parenthesis;

Out: LSU (12th);
Next Three In: TCU, Boise State, Mississippi.

Explanation: Well, I finally had to budge. After 4 weeks of having the same 12 teams in my power rankings, a team fell out of my top 12 for the first time since week 9. LSU’s loss at home to Ole Miss, their 4th of the season, forced the issue. This is also the first time since week 9 that no team in my top 12 has more than 2 losses. After making absolutely no changes to my power rankings for the first time all season in week 12, 5 spots in my top 12 had changes this week. Florida played the Citadel for some reason last week and won 70-19 to remain at the top of my rankings for the 4th straight week. Texas was idle last week and thus the Horns stayed in the #2 spot in my rankings for a 4th straight week. Moving into the #3 spot in my power rankings was Oklahoma, who crushed and violated Texas Tech, 66-21, in week 13 in what was the most impressive performance by a team all season. The Sooners jumped 3 spots in my rankings from 6th to 3rd. It would probably shock most people to see that I decided to drop the Red Raiders just 1 spot in my rankings from 3rd to 4th following their humiliating performance in Norman. But the way I see it, the Red Raiders went up against one of the best teams in the country in one of the most difficult places to play in the country and played by far their worst game of the year. That came after they won their first 10 games and right after they played almost flawlessly in their last two games against great opponents. I’m a little concerned about Tech’s confidence but I would still favor them on a neutral field against everybody else. I’m just not going to look solely at their week 13 performance and ignore their first 10 games just because the rest of the country seems to insist on making college football a game of “what have you done for me lately, sucka!!” With Oklahoma making the jump, I dropped both Alabama and USC down a spot. Bama was idle in week 13 and I dropped them 1 spot from 4th to 5th in my top 12. USC was also off last week and I dropped them 1 spot from 5th to 6th in my rankings. The 7, 8, 9, 10, and 11 spots in my power rankings remained the same for the 3rd week in a row. PSU crushed Michigan State and remained 7th in my rankings for the 3rd straight week. Ohio State killed their rivals Michigan to remain 8th in my rankings for the 3rd straight week. Oklahoma State was idle last week and remained 9th in my rankings for the 3rd straight week. Missouri was also idle last week and they remained 10th in my rankings for the 3rd straight week. Georgia was off last week and they remained 11th in my rankings for the 3rd straight week. LSU had held the final spot in my power rankings for the last 4 weeks but I finally had to drop them after their loss to Ole Miss at home. The Tigers had been 11th in my preseason power rankings and they stayed in my top 12 all season until this week. I finally decided to move Utah back into my power rankings after they won convincingly over BYU at home to finish the regular season 12-0. The Utes replaced LSU in the #12 slot in my power rankings. Utah had been ranked 12th in my rankings in week 8 but I dropped them out the next week and they hadn’t been back in until now. TCU and Boise State remained among my next 3 in and the new team in my next 3 in this week was those Ole Miss Rebels.