Every Tuesday, we rank the SEC and Big Ten teams in one power poll. The order of the SEC teams is based on the Week 8 SDS SEC Power Poll.
Those wanting to bury the Big Ten within the first few weeks of the season were reactionary at the time and now look silly. It’s not the Big Ten championship game this time, but the Ohio State-Michigan State winner is in excellent position to make the College Football Playoff with a relatively easy schedule the rest of the season.
The SEC, though, claims five of our top six and seven of our top 10 in the combined power rankings between the conferences. Nebraska is decent, but the rest of the Big Ten beyond those three teams is average to poor.
COLLEGE FOOTBALL PLAYOFF EPICENTER
Ole Miss handled Alabama and Texas A&M in back-to-back weeks. Now comes LSU and Auburn. Survive this two-week difficulty and the Rebels are unbeaten and ranked no worse than No. 3 entering the Egg Bowl. Mississippi State, meanwhile, should cruise into a Nov. 15 meeting with Alabama at 9-0.
1. Mississippi State
2. Ole Miss
NO ROOM FOR ERROR
That quizzical look you see on everyone’s faces in the greater Athens, Ga., area is lingering confusion each time Bulldogs fans look at the schedule and results. Did this team really lose to that South Carolina team? Each of these programs has at least one marquee game left in the regular season. Either Auburn or Georgia will all but fall out of the College Football Playoff discussion on Nov. 15. All these teams are still in play for now, though.
3. Alabama
4. Auburn
5. Michigan State
6. Georgia
THE NINJAS
Wrote off the Buckeyes after a Sept. 6 loss to Virginia Tech? Led by a handful of dynamic playmakers on offense and a sneaky-good passer in freshman J.T. Barrett, Ohio State is positioned to re-enter the playoff conversation if it can knock off Michigan State on the road Nov. 8. After a mini collapse that had fans predicting LSU could finish last in the SEC West, the Tigers looked like a true threat to the Alabama-Mississippi mafia last weekend. Texas A&M is down right now, but after a bye and a confidence booster, the team could regain that status as well.
7. Ohio State
8. Nebraska
9. LSU
10. Texas A&M
BORING WINNERS
Minnesota and Wisconsin line up a bunch of giant white linemen and run the ball up the gut again and again. (OK, Melvin Gordon bounces outside a fair amount.) Sure, Maryland’s offense doesn’t resemble a typical Big Ten group, and geographically the Terps are in a different region. But the team still has that blah feel when you watch Maryland play. They beat bad teams and lose to good ones.
11. Minnesota
12. Maryland
13. Wisconsin
WILDLY INCONSISTENT
Really, Missouri? One week you lose to Georgia 34-0 at home, the next week you crush Florida by 29 on the road. One week you lose to Indiana at home, the next week you clip South Carolina on the road with a spectacular comeback. If I were Gary Pinkel, rather than lobbying for new facilities and more stadium renovations, I may be bargaining with my athletic director to play more games outside of Missouri. And Arkansas … you do everything but beat Alabama, and then you can’t stay within a mile of Georgia in the first half?
14. Missouri
15. Iowa
16. Arkansas
17. Northwestern
THE DISAPPOINTMENTS
Since when do the Wildcats keep company with Michigan and Penn State? Amend the answer from “never” to “now.” Kentucky may finish the season 6-6 or worse. All of these teams would be lucky to play in better than a mediocre, boring bowl. (Hello Birmingham?) South Carolina and Penn State have performed much worse than some expected. Perhaps James Franklin caught the contagious virus rotting the SEC East right now before heading to Pennsylvania.
18. Michigan
19. Kentucky
20. South Carolina
21. Penn State
BIG TEN WASTELAND
Yes, Florida and Tennessee, it’s a bad thing to fall under this subcategory. There isn’t anything too exciting about any of these teams with the exception of a confounding Indiana. The Hoosiers upset Missouri on the road and Tevin Coleman is leading the NCAA in rushing, yet IU is awful and likely looking for a new coach after the season.
22. Rutgers
23. Florida
24. Purdue
25. Tennessee
26. Indiana
PATHETIC EVEN IN VICTORY
Illinois has lost four out of five. Despite playing Wisconsin within 10, the Fighting Illini (3-4, 0-3) won’t be favored to win a game the rest of the year. Meanwhile, Vanderbilt (2-5, 0-4) has a swing game against FBS newbie Old Dominion to start November. The Commodores may lose that game, though, which would bring the season from embarrassing disaster to total fiasco.
27. Illinois
28. Vanderbilt
An itinerant journalist, Christopher has moved between states 11 times in seven years. Formally an injury-prone Division I 800-meter specialist, he now wanders the Rockies in search of high peaks.
