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.
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