1) Mississippi Rebels (5-0, 3-0, +504) - One of the persistent things of this week's power rankings is going to be that I am glad that I don't bet money on college football games. Two weeks after going 8 for 9 in my picks, I probably went 1 for 9 this week. Mississippi, in particular, has been a bad pattern for me, as I picked against them against Tulane, and then again against LSU. Instead, the Rebels and their quarterback Trinidad Chambliss lit up what I thought was a pretty good Tiger defense for 314 passing yards and 484 total yards in a 24-19 victory.
One of the disadvantages of my ranking system is that it has a tendency to over-weigh early season wins. Mississippi is the benefactor of this system this season, as their wins against Arkansas, Tulane, and LSU have given them approximately a game and a half lead over the next group of teams (i.e., Texas A&M, Miami, Ohio State). This means that the Rebels will probably have to lose not once but twice before they significantly drop in these rankings. And maybe that will happen, but not for a while. They do have back-to-back road games against Georgia and Oklahoma in October. But do I dare pick against them in those games? I'm not so sure anymore.
2) Texas A&M Aggies (4-0, 1-0, +342) - Do I believe that Texas A&M is actually the second best team in the country? No, not really. But these rankings shouldn't be about what I believe, they should be about what I know, and I know that the Aggies are 4-0 with an SEC win, a win over a Power 5 team in Notre Dame, and 0 wins against FCS teams, and for now that's good enough to be my No. 2 team. Their four wins are against No. 31 Auburn (+148), No. 40 Notre Dame (+106), No. 51 Utah State (+58), and No. 64 UTSA (+4). Now, maybe they haven't looked particularly good at times against all (or any) of these opponents. But beauty is in the eye of the beholder, is it not?
3) Miami Hurricanes (4-0, 0-0, +330) - The Hurricanes were on a bye this week. Unfortunately for them, their opponents next weekend, Florida State, lost 46-38 in overtime to the Virginia Cavaliers, thus taking a little bit of a shine off of their showdown. On the other hand, FSU's loss should make Miami's path to the ACC Championship a little easier. If the Hurricanes can win next week in Tallahassee, then they will have the tie-breaker over Florida State in the conference standings, and should be the presumed favorite to at least play in the conference championship game in Charlotte.
4) Iowa State (5-0, 2-0, +326)
5) Ohio State Buckeyes (4-0, 1-0, +320) - So I'm not going to say that I went so far as to pick the Washington Huskies to upset Ohio State in Seattle on Saturday, but I definitely thought it would be closer than 24-6. Washington was one of my sleeper picks to contend in the Big Ten, but they Dawgs shat the bed against the Buckeyes. I knew Washington was in trouble even when they were up 3-0 in the first half, because they had had a 1st and Goal at the Ohio State 2-yard line, and then went:
That is how you lose a football game, especially as an underdog.
Meanwhile, Ohio State's run defense is elite. Washington only gained 61 yards on 30 rushing attempts, for 2 yards per carry. This is a week after the Ohio Bobcats gained 68 yards rushing against the Buckeyes on 34 carries for ... 2 yards per carry. Next week they host the Minnesota Golden Gophers, who beat Rutgers 31-28 in a game in which they rushed 17 times for 38 yards, for 2.2 yards per carry. This will be ugly.
6) Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets (5-0, 2-0, +315) - Sometimes, it's better to be lucky than good, and it seems like the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets are out to prove that every week. They rallied from down 20-3 against Wake Forest, and needed a failed 2-point conversion to win 30-29 in overtime, one of a record six different overtime games over the weekend. Georgia Tech now has 3 wins by one score or less, and all three of those wins have come down to the last minute. But let me tell you this right now: Clean, Old-Fashioned Hate is going to have playoff implications this year, and it just might be for the team you least suspect.
7) Vanderbilt Commodores (5-0, 2-0, +295) - Nerd Alert! Nerd Alert! The Vanderbilt Commodores have improved to 5-0 for the first time since 2008 behind the stellar play of quarterback Diego Pavia, who has completed 76.4% percent of his passes and thrown for 13 touchdowns and rushed for 2 more so far this season. Vanderbilt defeated Utah State 55-35, and have scored 245 total points through their first five games, the most by any SEC team since 1933.
Trap game next week for the Commodores at Alabama.
And, for what it's worth, here is Utah State's schedule so far this year:
8) Oklahoma (4-0, 1-0, +292)
9) Arizona State (4-1, 2-0, +274)
10) Indiana Hoosiers (5-0, 2-0, +261) - I don't know what to make of the Indiana Hoosiers. They're a mystery. One week, they look like the best team in the country as they dismantle a top-10 opponent at home. The next, they struggle on the road, and escape with a 20-15 win against the Iowa Hawkeyes, who are once again the most Iowa-y of all football teams. Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza has been having a great season, but had his toughest outing yet, throwing his first interception of the year, and completing "only" 56 percent of his passes for "only" 233 yards and 2 touchdowns. But Indiana and coach Curt Cignetti got the job done, and now get a bye week before a road game at Oregon.
11) LSU Tigers (4-1, 1-1, +237) - The team that I might have been the most wrong about this season - and I wasn't alone - was the LSU Tigers, who suffered their first loss of the season, 24-19 at Mississippi. As I mentioned above, the Rebels were able to light up LSU's vaunted defense. However, more concerning is LSU's seeming ineptitude on offense. Against Mississippi, the Tigers rushed for 59 yards, and were 2 for 11 on their third down conversions. Against Florida, LSU rushed for 96 yards, and against Clemson they rushed for 108 yards. Things are not trending in the right direction. However, for the time being, LSU still benefits from being a one-loss team in the SEC. They get a bye week next week to try to get things right before they host a similarly one dimensional South Carolina Gamecocks.
12) Oregon Ducks (5-0, 2-0, +227) - I went to Oregon this weekend for my mother's 71st birthday, and so was, ironically, not able to watch most of the Oregon-Penn State game. I watched most of the first half with my family before we went out for dinner, and then we returned with about two minutes left in regulation. And when Penn State scored a touchdown to tie the game with 30 seconds left, I was certain that we had gotten back just in time to watch Oregon choke the game away. However, the Ducks rallied, with quarterback Dante "The Inferno" Moore running 3 yards to convert on 4th and 1, and throwing to Gary Bryant Jr. for a 25-yard touchdown to put Oregon up 30-24 in the second overtime. And on the next play from scrimmage, Penn State quarterback Drew Allar threw an interception into the leaping arms of Dillon Thieneman to seal the victory, and my whole family went berserk in our living room.
This was one of the few games that I picked correctly, because I'm an Oregon fan. And even though the final score reflects what most people thought - that the game was a toss-up, or a slight edge to Penn State - the box score shows that Oregon was considerably better, outgaining the Nittany Lions 424 to 276, and winning the time of possession 33:52 to 26:08. Oregon now gets a bye week before they host another top 10 team in Indiana.
13) Alabama Crimson Tide (3-1, 1-0, +226)
14) Missouri (5-0, 1-0, +224)
15) Houston (4-0, 1-0, +216)
16) Tulane (4-1, 1-0, +201)
17) Texas Tech (4-0, 1-0, +197)
18) Tennessee (4-1, 1-1, +191)
19) Memphis (5-0, 1-0, +188)
20) Duke (3-2, 2-0, +188)
21) South Florida (3-1, 0-0, +183)
22) Utah (4-1, 1-1, +180)
23) Louisville (4-0, 1-0, +175)
24) Louisiana Tech (4-1, 3-0, +174)
25) North Texas (5-0, 1-0, +172)
