Top 25

It's getting tougher to rank the sub top-10 masses. I've used some iffy standards, weighting, and formulaic thought to get here and hopefully after next week things will shake out a little clearer. Let me make this clear right now, though: Losing to a team that is ranked significantly higher than you does not equal dropping in the poll. It's very possible for a team to lose and remain unchanged if that loss was to a better team (UGA). It's also possible to stay relatively high after a loss, even if it's a loss to a lower ranked team (Okl.). We're still early and there's a lot of ball left to be played!


The Big Three: Unchanged

1. Alabama
2. Florida
3. Texas

One-loss, but top tier:

4. Virginia Tech
5. USC
6. Ohio State
7. Nebraska - Thursday night's showdown is the Husker's best chance to shine on a national stage. They also have the most to lose, rank wise, as a loss to the Tigers could drop them about 10 spots.

And then there were three...

8. TCU -
9. Cincinnati -
10. Boise State -

Everybody Else:

11. Miami - Great win over Oklahoma. Harris' rebound after a terrible start was very impressive. This kid's going places!

12. LSU - They beat a slightly better than average UGA team last week, so not much movement here. This week against Florida will begin to answer some questions. The Tigers could, in reality, still move up, even in a loss, if they show some killer instinct.

13. Oklahoma - 2 losses, but a long way to go yet.

14. Oregon - The Ducks keep hanging around...I bet they'd love a shot at Boise in a bowl game.

15. Auburn - Look who's 5-0! Maybe Chizik was a good hire...or at least Malzahn was.

16. Houston - One loss isn't enough to kick the Cougs out of my poll. They still have 2 of the more impressive wins of the season.

17. Oklahoma State - Right in the meaty part of the curve.

18. Iowa - 3 point win over Arkansas State? Mighty close to getting Ferentz'ed...

T-19. Missouri and Kansas - I like these 2 Big-12North teams in this spot. Missouri could gain some real separation with an impressive performance Thursday.

21. Georgia - I know, I know: 2 losses. But, 2 losses to teams ranked well ahead of them and I need the Dawgs here, at least for one more week, to keep my hierarchy of victory in place. You know, UGA>SoCar>Ole Miss.

22. South Carolina - Speaking of...

23. Ole Miss - The Rebs better play like madmen against 'Bama, or this could be it for them in this poll.

24. GA Tech - (sigh)

25. Penn State - I had the Lions much higher, but then I remembered how bad they looked against Iowa 2 weeks ago. And then Iowa barely beat ArkSt...so 25's good for now. I'm not getting burned again by putting too much faith in JoePa this early.

At the Gates:

South Florida
BYU
Notre Dame
Michigan
Stanford
Wisconsin