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 9 SDS SEC Power Poll.
The SEC and Big Ten are in the same stadium, but while the SEC is stomping around the field, the Big Ten is tailgating in the parking lot.
Michigan State is the lone team that can break into the top six, while the Big Ten does claim four of the top 10 in our combined power rankings.
ONE IS NOT SO LONELY
I fully expect the Bulldogs to take the No. 1 overall spot in the inaugural College Football Playoff poll later tonight. The two unbeatens in the power conferences include Florida State, the defending national champions, and Mississippi State. Just like we all expected, right? Go ahead and gloat, clanga.
1. Mississippi State
THE POTENT CHASE PACK
As Ole Miss learned last week, the top of the heap is a fickle thing in college football. Led by the state of Alabama, a quartet of one-loss, Top 10 teams present a heck of a chase pack for Mississippi State. The Tide get a crack at the Bulldogs at home in a few weeks as well. But will one of these teams fall off of MSU’s hip pocket in the meantime?
2. Alabama
3. Auburn
4. Georgia
5. Michigan State
STILL RELEVANT NATIONALLY
The Rebels’ perfect season fell apart in — where else — Death Valley. The Buckeyes nearly blew the momentum they’ve built since an early-season loss to Virginia Tech, but clubbed Penn State in double overtime. Nebraska could roll into the Big Ten championship game as a one-loss team, a silent assassin in the College Football Playoff race, but the Cornhuskers schedule may cost the team even under those circumstances.
6. Ole Miss
7. Ohio State
8. Nebraska
CAPABLE OF FINISHING WITH A RESPECTABLE SEASON
All four of these teams suffered major letdowns in the middle of the season, but are talented enough to recover and finish strong — perhaps in the Top 20. LSU proved that this week with a win against No. 3 Ole Miss. Wisconsin also looked powerful, crushing Maryland, 52-7. Texas A&M has a chance to regain confidence this week against Louisiana-Monroe.
9. LSU
10. Wisconsin
11. Texas A&M
12. Iowa
BORING AND PREDICTABLE
Every workplace has them: dependable people with low ceilings. The kind of workers on whom one can count to execute the job, but they aren’t rolling out the Sistine Chapel. These teams have a physical identity, solid defenses and want to run the football. They can’t take down a top-ranked team, but they’ll mostly handle business against bottom-half SEC and Big Ten foes.
13. Kentucky
14. Arkansas
15. Minnesota
WILDLY UNPREDICTABLE
Missouri has beaten South Carolina and Florida mostly with smoke and mirrors, and the Tigers didn’t need their voodoo act to take out Vandy at home. Even if the offense fails to throw for 30 yards, the team can win. Or it can lose at home to Indiana. From the same cloth, Northwestern beat Wisconsin and crushed Penn State, but also lost to Northern Illinois, Minnesota and Cal.
16. Missouri
17. Northwestern
NOT SO OBVIOUSLY BAD
Playing at home, the Nittany Lions came close to knocking off a Top 20 team this weekend. But if not for comeback wins against UCF and Rutgers where Penn State assumed the lead in the final two minutes, James Franklin’s new team would be 2-5 right now with a near-certain loss at Michigan State left on the schedule and in danger of missing out on the bowl eligibility gift from the NCAA. That sort of sums up this grouping of teams. The record at the end of the season may be decent, even bowl-worthy. But these are still semi-bad teams.
18. South Carolina
19. Penn State
20. Maryland
21. Rutgers
22. Florida
OBVIOUSLY BAD TEAMS
Michigan is the most interesting name here. But Tennessee could be the best example. It’s not that the Vols are light years away from others in the SEC. But as we saw against Ole Miss and Alabama, they have close to no chance to beat a Top 10 team unless everything plays out perfectly. Yet UT, just like the others on this list, can play competitive football against any team for at least a portion of a game. Still, these are some obvious losers in 2014.
23. Michigan
24. Indiana
25. Tennessee
26. Purdue
27. Illinois
ONE IS THE LONELIEST NUMBER
Previously, Vanderbilt shared this space with Illinois. But the Fighting Illini reared up and beat Minnesota on Saturday and now belong in an entirely different category of teams that have won at least one conference game. But hey, the Commodores stand a great chance of earning a third victory this weekend against Old Dominion.
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.
