College football rankings: AP Top 25 prediction in Week 9
By Andrew Olson
Published:
In Week 8, ranked-on-ranked action was limited, but an unranked team, Purdue, stepped up to the plate to provide the biggest story of Saturday.
The Boilermakers’ 49-20 upset of No. 2 Ohio State will shake up the top 10, so lets start with the big question:
Where will Ohio State land?
The Associated Press Top 25 voters are often hesitant to drastically drop or raise a team after one game. It is obvious, though, that OSU will drop below at the very least Clemson (7-0), Notre Dame (7-0), LSU (7-1) and Michigan (7-1).
The question then becomes where Ohio State belongs in respect to Texas (6-1), Georgia (6-1) and Oklahoma (6-1). The Sooners beat TCU 52-27 on Saturday, and recency bias will likely elevate OU above the rest. Georgia and Texas entered the day at Nos. 7 and 8 and were on byes. Voters will likely see the appeal of not punishing the Longhorns or Bulldogs for being on a bye and put Ohio State at No. 9.
Sorting out the rest
- Washington State is now 6-1 with a win over No. 12 Oregon. The Cougars deserve a top-15 ranking and should pass a Kentucky team that beat Vanderbilt only 14-7 at home.
- Adios, MSU – times two. Mississippi State and Michigan State will drop out after picking up loss No. 3. That opens up two spots, which will likely go to Stanford and Utah after their notable wins over conference opponents.
- It’s tough to gauge exactly how voters will handle teams like No. 16 NC State and No. 20 Cincinnati suffering their first losses, but it seems like both can remain in the Top 25 since there are so many two-loss teams ranked. We shall see.
Here is the predicted AP Top 25 after Week 8:
- Alabama (8-0) def. Tennessee
- Clemson (7-0) def. No. 16 NC State
- Notre Dame (7-0) OFF
- LSU (7-1) def. No. 22 Mississippi State
- Michigan (7-1) def. No. 24 Michigan State
- Texas (6-1) OFF
- Oklahoma (6-1) def. TCU
- Georgia (6-1) OFF
- Ohio State (7-1) lost to Purdue
- UCF (7-0) def. East Carolina
- Florida (6-1) OFF
- West Virginia (5-1) OFF
- Washington State (6-1) def. No. 12 Oregon
- Kentucky (6-1) def. Vanderbilt
- Washington (6-2) def. Colorado
- Texas A&M (5-2) OFF
- Penn State (5-2) def. Indiana
- Iowa (6-1) def. Maryland
- Oregon (5-2) lost to No. 25 WSU
- USF (7-0) def. UConn
- Wisconsin (5-2) def. Illinois
- Stanford (5-2) def. Arizona State
- NC State (5-1) lost to No. 2 Clemson
- Utah (5-2) def. USC
- Cincinnati (6-1) lost to Temple
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.
