The recap of the college football weekend! Grab your WCE shirts for the season here.
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Let’s start with my Top 10, and move into other interesting topics after an unexpectedly interesting Saturday.
My Top 10
- Alabama
- Georgia
- Notre Dame
- Clemson
- Miami
- Wisconsin
- Oklahoma
- TCU
- Washington
- UCF
For the first time all year, it seems like the top 9 are pretty set in stone. 10 could be anyone from Auburn and Ohio St to UCF.
Alabama and Georgia are undoubtedly the top two teams in the country right now, thanks to their undefeated records and the domination of their opponents.
Notre Dame and Clemson are #3 and #4, thanks to their number of good wins. Miami showed that they absolutely belong in the playoff conversation after a dominating win over Virginia Tech, and their game against Notre Dame this week will determine who belongs in the top 4.
Wisconsin remained undefeated, so I’m tossing them up at 6. Oklahoma and TCU will settle the 7th and 8th spot this coming Saturday. Washington still only has one loss, so they’re at 9, even though their strength of schedule has been pretty terrible.
I’m sliding UCF into the top 10 thanks to their undefeated record. Their win at SMU was impressive, if only because other highly ranked teams ended up losing to good, but lower ranked teams.
SEC Power Rankings
- Alabama
- Georgia
- Auburn
- LSU
- Miss St
- Texas A&M
- South Carolina
- Missouri
- Ole Miss
- Kentucky
- Florida
- Arkansas
- Tennessee
- Vanderbilt
Alabama and Georgia both beat 6-2 SEC teams at home 24-10 this weekend, keeping their stranglehold on the SEC. Auburn got a 2 TD win at Texas A&M, basically cementing Kevin Sumlin’s fate in College Station.
LSU put up a good fight at Alabama, while Miss St had trouble putting away UMass this weekend in a 34-23 win. A&M moved to 5-4 on the year, losing at home to Auburn. South Carolina lost at Georgia by 14 in a tight game.
Missouri looks to be improving rapidly, especially considering they’re favored over Tennessee by 10 this weekend. Ole Miss should have beaten Arkansas last week, and they went and beat Kentucky on the road. Kentucky lost to Florida earlier in the year, but is there any doubt that Kentucky would beat Florida right now? I don’t think so. This Florida team is bad, but…
Florida is not as bad as the last 3 teams on this power ranking. Tennessee, Arkansas, and Vanderbilt all got wins over group of 5 teams this weekend, but none of them looked great in the process. Tennessee’s biggest news was that they used up a redshirt on QB Will McBride, which seemed more like a big middle finger to Tennessee from Butch Jones. Arkansas’s comeback from 13 points down in the 4th quarter to Coastal Carolina was definitely better than if they had lost the game… but that was still a putrid performance. Vanderbilt beat Western Kentucky 31-17 to end a 5 game losing streak, but things don’t appear to be any better as the Commodores still have Kentucky, red-hot Missouri, and a crappy, but hungry, Tennessee team in Knoxville left to go.
Best Reddit / Message Board Post of the Weekend
This week’s message board post of the weekend comes from SECRant.com’s Florida board, after the Gators humiliating blowout loss at Missouri…
3 Hot Takes
1. Michigan State and Iowa may have ended the Big 10’s playoff hopes
Yes, there’s still a lot of football left, and the Big 10 still has undefeated Wisconsin, but Iowa’s blasting of Ohio St, and Michigan State’s walk-off field goal to steal a win from James Franklin may have kept the Big 10 from having a participant in the College Football playoff for the first time.
Michigan St has 2 losses, along with Ohio St, Penn St and Michigan. If Michigan wins out (beats Ohio St), Ohio St beats Michigan St this weekend, but Michigan St wins out after that, and Penn St wins out… who goes to the Big 10 Championship game? All 4 teams would have 2 conference losses. Michigan would have lost to Penn St and Michigan St. Ohio St would have lost to Iowa and Michigan. Michigan St would have lost to Ohio St and Northwestern. Penn St would have lost to Michigan St and Ohio St. In that situation, it would come down to the two teams that had the best records in the division – Ohio St and Michigan St. Ohio St would have the head to head win there, so Ohio St, with 3 total losses, would be facing a – probably – undefeated Wisconsin team. And I would think Ohio St would be favored in the game. Not a good situation for the Big 10.
2. Can Alabama overcome more injuries?
In the first game of the season, Alabama lost 2 linebackers to season-ending (supposedly) injuries – Terrell Lewis and Christian Miller. On Saturday, against LSU, they lost Shaun Dion Hamilton, Mack Wilson to season ending injuries. That’s 4 LBs out now. On top of that, Minkah Fitzpatrick, the All-American safety, seemed to pull a hamstring early in the game.
Will these injuries make a huge difference in the run to the college football playoff for Alabama? Saban did say that Christian Miller and Terrell Lewis may end up back before the end of the season, because their rehab is going so well, but who knows what to make of the others. Hamilton is the QB of the defense, and his season ending injury in 2016’s SEC Championship game, along with losing All American safety Eddie Jackson in the Texas A&M game last year, made the Alabama defense a shell of itself heading into the game against Clemson. What will these losses mean as Alabama gets ready to go on the road to a fired up Mississippi State team and an Auburn team that could still get to Atlanta with a win over Georgia and Alabama?
3. How long until conferences are ready to expand the playoff?
Currently, as it sits, we’re looking at the possibility of 2 SEC teams, and independent (Notre Dame), and an ACC team in the College Football Playoff. That leaves out a Big 12 champ, a Big 10 champ, and a Pac 12 champ.
I believe that all of those conference commissioners will believe that their champions could compete for, and possibly win, a national championship against the teams that would be in the playoff – again, as it currently sits. I know there’s still a lot of football left to play.
So how long until the conferences are ready to just bump this thing up to 8 to ensure that they don’t get left out of the mix again? I would imagine that topic would come up soon. It was 2011’s SEC only national championship game that led to the conferences agreeing on a playoff in the first place.
Stock Report
Stock Up
- Miami (FL)
- In the first College Football Playoff ranking last week, Miami – the only undefeated ACC team remaining – came in ranked at #9. Their best win, at that time, was an early season victory over Toledo. But not anymore… their steam rolling of Virginia Tech moved them up to #7 in the AP Poll, and #6 in the Coaches Poll, setting up a monster matchup with #3 Notre Dame this weekend. Mark Richt may have his bunch a year ahead of schedule, and if they beat Notre Dame this weekend, they’ve only got games remaining against Virginia and Pitt before an ACC Championship game against Clemson that will effectively be a playoff game to reach the College Football playoff.
Stock Down
- Kevin Sumlin
- This was not what Aggie fans were expecting in a 2 game homestand coming off a win in Gainesville – 2 blowout losses at home to Mississippi State and Auburn. The Auburn loss stings because it guarantees, at the least, a 4 loss season, but there are still road games at Ole Miss and LSU left on the schedule. Texas A&M has had two straight 8-4 regular seasons, and those were not deemed good enough by A&M’s new athletic director this past offseason. Look for the Aggies to move on from Sumlin after this season, if not before.
Stat of the Week
Week 10’s stat of the week comes from a not-so-important Big 10 game… Minnesota at Michigan. You wouldn’t think much about this game, but this stat will blow your mind.
- Michigan RB Karan Higdon: 16 rushes / 200 yards, 2 TDs
- Michigan RB Chris Evans: 13 rushes / 191 yards, 2 TDs
That’s 29 rushes for 391 yards. That’s a ridiculous 13.48 yards per carry. Just ridiculous.
Underdog Win of the Week
Of course you know what this is going to be…
The line closed, before that game, at Iowa +21. Iowa won by 31. That means there was a 52 point swing in how this game was supposed to go. Don’t know when we’ll ever see anything even remotely close to this again, especially in a Power 5 league.
