The College Football Playoff selection committee will unveil rankings on Tuesday night, but the Associated Press Top 25 voters will stick to their usual schedule and share a new poll Sunday.
While the AP poll is independent of the CFP committee’s rankings, the media perception tends to influence public perception and the committee’s views.
When it comes to the top of the poll, which gets almost all of the attention, the voters have little shuffling to do. The top five will almost certainly stay the same while some teams will move up a spot or two thanks to losses by No. 6 Texas and No. 9 Florida.
The bottom half of the poll is getting a huge shakeup after nine teams ranked in the range of Nos. 15-to-25 lost on Saturday. Voters will either have to reluctantly rank three-loss teams or elevate under-the-radar teams like Utah State and Fresno State. Look for a mix of both to fill out the poll – some Power 5 name-brand schools and lesser-watched squads with stronger records to help fill out the spots.
It’s admittedly difficult to predict how voters will handle such a situation. Entering Saturday, no one would have expected a team like Houston to go from “others receiving votes” to No. 17, but it was just that kind of weeks with so many ranked teams suffering bad losses.
- 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
Saturday Down South reports and comments on the news around the Southeastern Conference as well as larger college football topics.
