College football rankings: AP Poll Top 25 prediction in Week 11
By Andrew Olson
Published:
In the lead up to Week 10, the Associated Press Top 25 voters and the College Football Playoff selection committee appeared to engage in a debate regarding undefeated UCF and two-loss SEC teams.
AP voters put UCF at No. 9 and two-loss Florida at No. 13. The committee placed Florida at No. 11 and UCF at No. 12. It would appear the AP got this one right. UCF remains undefeated after Week 10. Florida, meanwhile, lost by three touchdowns at home to unranked Missouri, 38-17.
Look for the voters to do the same with now two-loss LSU. The Tigers lost 29-0 at home to No. 1 Alabama. While UCF’s 52-40 win over a now-5-4 Temple is far from impressive, AP voters will likely still keep the undefeated Knights above a two-loss SEC team. As shown below, there’s a way to ding UCF for a less-than-impressive win and reward West Virginia and Washington State for Power 5 wins in the process.
Once again, the bottom half of the poll is a complete mess. Seven teams ranked in the range of Nos. 11 to 19 lost on Saturday. The AP poll tends to reflect momentum and reward teams for winning in November.
Toward the bottom of the poll, the writers could easily choose to bounce a three-loss team such as Iowa or Utah in favor of two-loss NC State, ranked No. 21 by the committee, but the writers are more likely to stick to their guns. Entering Week 10, NC State was the equivalent of the AP’s No. 41 team if one were to keep ranking the teams in “others receiving votes.” Cincinnati, now 8-1, by comparison, was the No. 30 vote-getter.
- Alabama (9-0) def. No. 4 LSU
- Clemson (9-0) def. Louisville
- Notre Dame (9-0) def. Northwestern
- Michigan (8-1) def. No. 14 Penn State
- Georgia (8-1) def. No. 11 Kentucky
- Oklahoma (8-1) def. Texas Tech
- Ohio State (8-1) def. Nebraska
- West Virginia (7-1) def. No. 15 Texas
- Washington State (8-1) def. Cal
- UCF (8-0) def. Temple
- LSU (7-2) lost to No. 1 Alabama
- Mississippi State (6-3) def. La Tech
- Utah State (7-1) def. Hawaii
- Fresno State (7-1) def. UNLV
- Texas (6-3) lost to No. 12 West Virginia
- Syracuse (7-2) def. Wake Forest
- Boston College (7-2) def. Virginia Tech
- Kentucky (7-2) lost to No. 6 Georgia
- Florida (6-3) lost to Missouri
- Washington (6-3) def. Stanford
- Penn State (6-3) lost to No. 5 Michigan
- Michigan State (6-3) def. Maryland
- Iowa (6-3) lost to Purdue
- Utah (6-3) lost to Arizona State
- Cincinnati (8-1) def. Navy
Predicted to fall out of AP Top 25: No. 17 Houston lost to SMU; No. 23 Virginia lost to Pittsburgh; No. 25 Texas A&M lost to Auburn
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.
