Wednesday, December 7, 2011

The College Football Blog: 2011 Power Rankings (After Week 14)

Power Rankings after Week 14

1. LSU 13-0 (1st)

2. Alabama 11-1 (2nd)

3. USC 10-2 (3rd)

4. Oklahoma State 11-1 (4th)

5. Oregon 11-2 (5th)

6. Stanford 11-1 (6th)

7. Boise State 11-1 (7th)

8. Wisconsin 11-2 (10th)

9. Michigan State 10-3 (8th)

10. Arkansas 10-2 (11th)

11. Oklahoma 9-3 (9th)

12. Kansas State 10-2 (12th)

13. South Carolina 10-2 (13th)

14. Georgia 10-3 (14th)

15. Baylor 9-3 (NR)

Out: Virginia Tech (15th).

Explanation: It’s been a while since I’ve been able to offer any commentary on my own rankings. Only 1 team fell out of the top 15 following Championship Week. Virginia Tech dropped out from #15. That’s no surprise. #15 teams seem to fall out of the rankings much more often than other teams. More specifically, Virginia Tech should never have been in my power rankings. They had replaced fellow ACC team Clemson the week before following their 38-0 win over UVA. It was a poor choice on my part.

The Hokies drop right back out of the rankings this week, as they got their asses handed to them (again) by Clemson in the ACC Championship last weekend. No ACC team truly belonged among the top 15 this season. Unfortunately it took me 15 editions of the top 15 to figure it out. The Baylor Bears hammered Texas on Saturday night to finish 9-3 and on quite a roll. The Bears move into the rankings this week, taking VT’s spot at #15.

2 teams moved up in my rankings and 2 teams moved down in my rankings this week. No team moved more than 2 places in either direction. Arkansas was idle last week but they moved up a spot from #11 to #10 in this week’s rankings.

Wisconsin made the biggest climb, jumping 2 spots from #10 to #8 following their thrilling victory over Michigan State in the Big Ten Championship. I only moved Michigan State down 1 spot from #8 to #9, as they nearly pulled off a 2-game sweep of the Badgers this season.

The team taking the biggest tumble in my rankings this week was Oklahoma. The Sooners fell 2 spots from #9 to #11. The Sooners got absolutely embarrassed by the red headed stepchildren from Stillwater on Saturday, losing by the shocking score of 44-10.

As always there were dozens of truly strange developments during this college football regular season. The fact that Oklahoma beat FSU, Texas, and A&M and still ended up losing 3 games is one of the more stunning results of the 2011 season.

I really thought I might move Oklahoma down farther in my rankings, as they finished the year going just 3-3 in their final 6 games. With the injuries to Ryan Broyles, Dominique Whaley, and others they are just not the same team they were a couple of months ago. However, I watched them totally outclass Kansas State, 58-17 on the road, on October 29th, so I wasn’t going to move them behind the Wildcats and they ended up settling in at #11.

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