College football rankings: AP Top 25 prediction in Week 10
By Andrew Olson
Published:
Come Tuesday night, all eyes will be on the College Football Playoff selection committee’s rankings. For now, fans will eagerly await the Associated Press Top 25.
AP voters can keep their top 10 mostly the same. The biggest loss of the weekend was No. 6 Texas falling to unranked Oklahoma State 38-35. That will allow No. 7 Georgia to move up after beating No. 9 Florida 36-17 (a somewhat underwhelming reward for a top-10 win compared to other weeks in the season).
The Longhorns and Gators will likely land in the top 15 because the bottom 11 of the poll was hit heavily by losses. Nine teams in the Nos. 15-to-25 range lost this weekend. Many of those teams were suffering a third loss to add insult to injury.
Speaking of third losses, this time last year the AP voters managed to avoid ranking any three-loss teams. This year, it seems simply unavoidable after Saturday. Even after rewarding under-the-radar teams like Utah State and Fresno State, there are still many spots to fill.
With all that in mind, here is a prediction for the new AP Top 25 coming Sunday:
- Alabama (8-0) OFF
- Clemson (8-0) def. FSU
- Notre Dame (8-0) def. Navy
- LSU (7-1) OFF
- Michigan (7-1) OFF
- Georgia (7-1) def. No. 9 Florida
- Oklahoma (7-1) def. Kansas State
- UCF (7-0) OFF
- Ohio State (7-1) OFF
- Kentucky (7-1) def. Missouri
- West Virginia (6-1) def. Baylor
- Washington State (7-1) def. No. 24 Stanford
- Penn State (6-2) def. No. 18 Iowa
- Texas (6-2) lost to Oklahoma State
- Florida (6-2) lost to No. 7 Georgia
- Utah (6-2) def. UCLA
- Houston (7-1) def. No. 21 USF
- Iowa (6-2) lost to No. 17 Penn State
- Utah State (7-1) def. New Mexico
- Fresno State (7-1) def. Hawaii
- Mississippi State (5-3) def. No. 16 Texas A&M
- Virginia (6-2) def. North Carolina
- Michigan State (5-3) def. Purdue
- Washington (6-3) lost to Cal
- Texas A&M (5-3) lost to Mississippi State
Predicted to fall out of AP Top 25: No. 19 Oregon lost to Arizona, No. 20 Wisconsin lost to Northwester; No. 21 USF lost to Houston; No. 22 NC State lost to Syracuse; No. 24 Stanford lost No. 14 Washington State; No. 25 App State lost to Georgia Southern
Andrew writes about sports to fund his love of live music and collection of concert posters. He strongly endorses the Hall of Fame campaigns of Fred Taylor and Andruw Jones.
