The College Football Blog: 2009 Power Rankings (After Week 14)

Power Rankings after Week 14

1. Alabama 13-0 (2nd)
2. Florida 12-1 (1st)
3. TCU 12-0 (4th)
4. Texas 13-0 (3rd)
5. Oregon 10-2 (5th)
6. Cincinnati 12-0 (6th)
7. Boise State 13-0 (7th)
8. LSU 9-3 (8th)
9. Georgia Tech 11-2 (9th)
10. Ohio State 10-2 (10th)
11. Iowa 10-2 (11th)
12. Stanford 8-4 (12th)
13. Oregon State 8-4 (13th)
14. Penn State 10-2 (14th)
15. Pittsburgh 9-3 (15th)

Out: none.

Comments: Even though there is technically one more week of regular season play before the bowl season, this is going to be my final set of power rankings until after the bowls, as I don’t anticipate the Army-Navy game doing anything to shake things up. Although 9 of my top 15 teams were in action last week, there really wasn’t much shake up in my rankings. No team fell out of my top 15 this week.

Obviously Alabama’s beat down of the Gators in the SEC Championship Game had an affect on my top 15. I moved the Tide to the #1 spot and going into the bowls they appear to be the best team in the country. The bowl season is so different from the rest of the year that it really needs to be said that no matter what happens, Alabama was the top team in the country this year. I still think Florida would beat any team other than Bama in a head to head matchup on a neutral field so I only dropped the Gators down to 2nd. TCU and Texas swapped places this week, with the Horns dropping from 3rd to 4th and the Frogs going from #4 to #3. TCU did not play, while Texas won the Big XII Championship, but the Longhorns’ performance was wholly uninspiring. Yes, they have proven that they can win any kind of game (low scoring, high scoring, blowout, nail biter, etc.) but they look more like the best team in an overrated conference than anything else. In my mind, they basically lost to Nebraska on Saturday night, regardless of whether Colt McCoy’s pass hit the ground with 1 second left or not. They had no business being in that position and if the two teams played again I think Texas would win by double digits, but they did not bring their best when they needed to in the conference title game.

From the #5 spot on, everything stayed the same, even though Oregon, Cincinnati, Boise State, Georgia Tech, Oregon State, and Pitt all played last week. I didn’t have reason to move anybody up or down because each team pretty much played the way I expected them to.