Thursday, October 18, 2012

The College Football Blog: 2012 Power Rankings (After Week 7)



Power Rankings After Week 7

1. Alabama 6-0 (1st)
2. Oregon 6-0 (2nd)
3. South Carolina 6-1 (3rd)
4. Florida 6-0 (4th)
5. Kansas State 6-0 (7th)
6. Oklahoma 4-1 (13th)
7. LSU 6-1 (9th)
8. Notre Dame 6-0 (6th)
9. West Virginia 5-1 (5th)
10. Florida State 6-1 (12th)
11. USC 5-1 (11th)
12. Georgia 5-1 (14th)
13. Texas Tech 5-1 (NR)
14. Ohio State 7-0 (10th)
15. Texas 4-2 (8th)

Out: Clemson (15th).

Comments: There was plenty of change in my rankings this week, although it wasn’t quite as drastic as might have been expected. My power rankings have stabilized in a way, as basically the same teams remain ranked from week-to-week. But as one would expect, there’s been plenty of shuffling within the top 15. The main difference this week was that there wasn’t much movement at all near the top. 

For a third straight week I switched out only 1 spot in the top 15. After holding down the final spot in my rankings for 3straight weeks, Clemson dropped out of the rankings this week despite being idle. Texas Tech was the only new team in my rankings this week. They debut at #13 after destroying West Virginia on Saturday. 

Overall, 10 of the 15 spots in my rankings changed this week, with 5 teams moving up in the rankings and 5 teams moving down. Of the 4 teams moving down in the rankings while still remaining in the top 15, all 4 fell at least 2 places. All 5 of the teams moving up in my rankings climbed at least 2 spots. 

Oklahoma made the biggest move up my rankings this week, climbing 7 spots from #13 to #6 following their blowout victory over Texas. 

Not coincidentally, Texas took the biggest fall in my rankings this week, dropping 7 spots from #8 to #15.

Somewhat surprisingly my top 4 remained exactly the same this week. Alabama is #1 for a seventh consecutive week, while Oregon is in the #2 spot for the fourth week in a row. 

Despite losing their first game of the season, South Carolina held on at #3. The reason for this is that I just don’t why I should move down a team losing by 2 points to LSU on the road, in a night game, a week after winning a game against a rival that was ranked in the top 5 (and doing it convincingly). 

Plus, we’ll learn more about South Carolina this week when they take on Florida in the Swamp. Speaking of the Gators, Florida remained at #4 this week despite a less than impressive win over Vandy on Saturday.

There are a few other elements to this week’s power rankings that deserve mention. 

Notre Dame moved down 2 spots from #6 to #8 despite surviving against a good Stanford team to get to 6-0 on the year. There were two main reasons for this. First of all, Kansas State and Oklahoma look like better teams at the moment and thus I moved them in front of ND. Also, Notre Dame needed a lot of help to get that victory. They benefited from huge penalties late in the game while on offense which allowed them to tie the game up in the first place. They eventually won in overtime when Stepfan Taylor was incorrectly ruled to have been stopped short of breaking the plane of the end zone on 4th and goal. 

Ohio State also took a fall in my rankings this week despite winning to remain undefeated on the year. Ohio State has moved in-and-out and up-and-down my rankings all season, and that trend continued this week, as I dropped the Buckeyes 4 spots in my rankings from #10 to #14. Ohio State fell behind Indiana in the first half and was never quite able to put the Hoosiers away until they recovered an onside kick with a minute to play. They held on to win 52-49 but it was hardly the sort of performance you would expect from the #10 team. 

This is a typical Indiana team, which is to say really weak. This Indiana team lost by 2 points at home to Ball State earlier in the year and only managed to beat Indiana State by 7. Yet the Hoosiers put up 481 yards, 26 first downs, and 49 points on the Buckeyes. 

This wasn’t a fluky, turnover laden affair either. Ohio State had the game’s only turnover and they had a time of possession edge of almost 14 minutes. Ohio State committed 10 penalties for 91 yards and Indiana averaged 5.4 yards per attempt on the ground. The Buckeyes even benefited from a blocked punt for a touchdown, yet still only won by 3 points. 

Finally, West Virginia was obliterated by previously unranked Texas Tech this past Saturday, yet I only moved them down 4 spots in my power rankings from #5 to #9. The Mountaineers were certainly put in their place by Texas Tech, but you figured they’d have a bad game at some point. We’ll find out a lot about them this weekend when they host Kansas State.

No comments: