The College Football Blog: 2010 Power Rankings (After Week 10)

Power Rankings after Week 10

1. Oregon 9-0 (1st)
2. Ohio State 8-1 (3rd)
3. TCU 10-0 (4th)
4. Auburn 10-0 (5th)
5. LSU 8-1 (13th)
6. Alabama 7-2 (2nd)
7. Boise State 8-0 (6th)
8. Wisconsin 8-1 (7th)
9. Arkansas 7-2 (9th)
10. Stanford 8-1 (15th)
11. Nebraska 8-1 (8th)
12. Iowa 7-2 (11th)
13. Michigan State 9-1 (14th)
14. Oklahoma State 8-1 (NR)
15. South Carolina 6-3 (10th)

Out: Oklahoma (12th).

Explanation: There was quite a bit of movement in the rankings this week. I know a lot of people would be critical of my rankings. But remember, I base the rankings on which team would win a head to head matchup, not necessarily on which has the fewest losses.

#1 Oregon. Oregon stayed in the top spot this week following yet another romp in the Pac-10 (this time it was a 53-16 win over Washington). The Ducks are a fairly solid #1 for me. They have a great offensive scheme, the players run that scheme tremendously well, and they have a lot of talent on that side of the ball. That’s a very dangerous combination. Is their defense great? I don’t really know. But you know what? I don’t really know if it matters anymore. Defenses are clearly behind offenses in today’s college game. There seems to be 5 well known offensive gurus for every 1 defensive genius. And the rules place defenses at such a disadvantage these days that it’s just hard not to allow points. Plus, if you score often, and you score quickly, the other team will have more chances to score against your defense too. Oregon is going to be hard to beat.

#2 Ohio State. Then again, many unstoppable offenses have been stopped by great defenses. Ohio State was off last week and the Buckeyes stayed at #2. Ohio State has a loss, but if they can just figure out how to cover a kickoff they will be a very difficult team to beat. They are one of the few teams in the country with a defense capable of slowing down an offense like Oregon, Auburn, or Boise State (if we must). Granted, the Big Ten is not usually a hotbed of dynamic offenses, but again, scoring is up across the board in college (and pro) football. Ohio State has had a reputation for not being able to stop the more athletic, faster offenses once they get out of the Big Ten, but lately they’ve changed that. Sure, they had a bad run there for a while, getting exposed by Florida, USC, and LSU in 3 high profile games. But they slowed down Texas in the 2008 Fiesta Bowl, they slowed down USC early last season, and in last year’s Rose Bowl they slowed down the very Ducks who rank ahead of them in this list.

#3 TCU. Damn. That was an as whipping. The Horned Frogs went on the road and beat fellow unbeaten Utah 47-7 last Saturday to get to 10-0 on the season. I moved TCU up a spot in my rankings this week from 4th to 3rd. TCU’s defense is for real. The Horned Frogs are for real. I actually had them ranked ahead of Texas going into the bowl games last year, and they appear to be just as good this season if not better. And they are going to finish the regular season 12-0 for a second straight season.

#4 Auburn. Despite a totally inconsequential 62-24 win over an FCS team last week, Auburn moved up a spot from 5th to 4th this week. It’s very unusual for me to have the top SEC team ranked behind a Pac-10 team, a Big Ten team, and a team from the Mountain West. I think the top 4 teams are all really close, but I’m still trying to figure out if Auburn’s defense is good. I want to see Auburn play Bama. I want to see if Bama can out physical them. I’m hoping the Tigers are looking ahead to that game and past my Dawgs. Although let me say that I truly hope that Auburn’s season is not negatively affected by the rumors swirling around about Cameron Newton. If they paid a hundred thousand dollars to the kid, Auburn will be more than paid back by the NCAA. But for now the evidence seems unconvincing. All the story is doing now is taking away from our enjoyment as fans.

#5 LSU. The other Tigers made the biggest move in my rankings this week, climbing 8 spots from 13th to 5th after their stunning (in my opinion) win over Alabama. The Tigers are sloppy, they are lucky, and they still don’t seem to know exactly what they are doing on offense, but they sure do win a lot against some tough competition. I can’t hold the Tennessee game against the Tigers forever. LSU’s defense is legit. They held Auburn to only 24 points on the road, and they beat what I still think is a very good Alabama team last week.

#6 Alabama. Speaking of Bama, they took a fall in my rankings following that loss at LSU, but not as big of a fall as most people would expect. I moved the Tide down 4 spots in my rankings from 2nd to 6th. I know that they’ve lost twice, but again, I’m looking at a head to head matchup on a neutral field, and there still aren’t many teams that I would pick to beat Alabama in that situation.

#7 Boise State. For example, I’m still taking Alabama over Boise State on a neutral field if the game means everything to both teams. That’s my justification for moving the Broncos down a spot this week from 6th to 7th, despite the fact that they absolutely squashed Hawaii last week, 42-7, to remain unbeaten. LSU’s win over Bama really impressed me, but it didn’t really sour me on the Tide that much. Thus, I have to go with the top 3 SEC teams over Boise State.

#8 Wisconsin. I also moved the Badgers down a spot from 8th to 7th for the same reasons, even though they won easily at Purdue to get to 8-1.

#9 Arkansas. The Hogs got a huge win on the road over South Carolina last week, but they stayed at 9th in my rankings for the same reasons. By the way, I love that Bobby Petrino has gotten absolutely hammered by the officiating throughout his career in the SEC to this point. I mean they get screwed on an absolutely brutal call at least once every week. It’s awesome. It’s as if the refs somehow know that they ought to use up all of their horribly blown calls against him, because he deserves nothing better.

#10 Stanford. The other team making a big move up my rankings this week is Stanford, who throttled Arizona to improve to 8-1. I moved the Indians up 5 spots in my rankings from 15th to 10th. I was down on Stanford a few weeks ago after they came off of a bye week and only managed to beat Wazu by 10 points. Since then they have won at Washington and at home against Arizona by a combined score of 83-17.

#11 Nebraska. I still don’t know about Nebraska. They had to stop Iowa State on a 2-pt conversion try in OT last week to avoid falling to the Cyclones for the 2nd year in a row. While they managed to escape against Iowa State this season, I don’t think the Cornhuskers are as good as they were last season. I moved Nebraska down 3 spots this week from 8th to 11th.

#12 Iowa. Speaking of avoiding disaster (for the 2nd year in a row) and not being as good as last year’s team, I moved Iowa down a spot from 11th to 12th this week after they needed a dropped pass in the end zone to avoid losing to Indiana on Saturday. The Hawkeyes need to stop sleeping on the Hoosiers.

#13 Michigan State. The Spartans moved up a spot from 14th to 13th in this week’s rankings. They had a bad game against Iowa two weeks ago, no doubt. But they got back on track with an easy 31-8 win over Minnesota last Saturday.

#14 Oklahoma State. The Cowboys are the only new team in my top 15 this week, and they are a team that I misjudged as badly as any other this season. I thought Oklahoma State would fall off this season and would have to take a year to reload. Not quite. They look like the best team in the Big XII South right now. Okie State hammered fellow Big XII South upstart Baylor on Saturday to get to 8-1 on the year and jump into my power rankings at #14.

#15 South Carolina. I really had to dig deep and think hard about who my #15 team was this week. I ended up going with the Gamecocks, even though their performance at home against Arkansas last week had to be one of the most disappointing of Steve Spurrier’s tenure in Columbia. You couldn’t blame this one on the health of Marcus Lattimore, Arkansas simply nullified him. South Carolina not only lost at home to the Hogs, they got run over, 41-20. Still, it wasn’t enough for me to drop the Gamecocks all the way out of the top 15. They fell 5 spots from 10th to 15th. It came down to South Carolina or Mississippi State and I went with SC, although it was basically a coin flip.

The only team to fall out of the top 15 this week was Oklahoma. They might be the most disappointing team in the country for the second year in a row. They lost for the 2nd time in the last 3 weeks on Saturday night, losing by 14 points on the road against Texas A&M. The Sooners scored only 19 points. Oklahoma had been 12th, but they fell out of my rankings this week, primarily because I’m not sure I’d favor them against anybody on a neutral field right now.