Florida blew out Ole Miss who barely beat Alabama, who blew out Georgia, but it's never that simple.
The AP Top 25
Ohio State retained the #1 spot but lose first-place votes after each pedestrian performance. The first unanimous preseason #1 now has only 38 of the 61 first-place votes after beating Indiana by just seven points.
Michigan State fell from #2 to #4 after looking supremely average against Purdue; now TCU and Baylor are virtually tied at #2.
Four FCS teams have played a tougher schedule so far than TCU has. Nine have had a tougher road than Baylor.
The highest-ranked SEC team is LSU at #7, but it's early to be worried about the SEC missing the playoffs just yet. The picture will clear after the regular season playoff in November: #1 Ohio State vs #4 Michigan State on November 21 and #2 TCU vs #3 Baylor on November 27.
Florida jumped 14 spots for their win over Ole Miss, who fell from #3 to #14. Georgia fell from #8 to #19.
#6 Clemson and #12 Notre Dame have swapped spots after their game. UCLA fell from #7 to #20 after losing at home to Arizona State. Wisconsin dropped out after managing to score just six points against Iowa; now the Hawkeyes are in the Top 25 for the first time in five years, which will surely get Kirk Ferentz the raise and extension he deserves..
#5 Utah, #8 Alabama, #9 Texas A&M and #10 Oklahoma all jumped five spots thanks to four of last week's top nine lost.
AP Ballots
Florida beat the brakes off of Ole Miss, so the undefeated Gators should be ranked above the 4-1 Rebels. But Ed Daigneault has Ole Miss #14 and Florida #23. Ryan Finley has Ole Miss #9 and Florida #21!
Josh Kendall has Texas A&M at #1. Ed Johnson gave Alabama their highest ranking at #2.
Mitch Vingle dropped Alabama further for beating Georgia than he did for losing to Ole Miss.
Four AP voters ranked Alabama lower this week than last week. Three voters dropped us one spot; one dropped us two, but the writer from the Charleston Gazette-Mail had 'Bama higher than any other AP voter last week then dropped the Tide from #5 to #13--eight spots!--after The Washout in Athens. The insanity is illustrated below.
Adam Jude, Brett McMurphy, Doug Lesmerises, Eric Avidon, Steve Batterson and Tom Griffin did not move Alabama up or down after the dominating performance against Georgia.
Voter | Alabama |
Ed Johnson | 2 |
Ed Daigneault | 5 |
Eric Hansen | 5 |
Joey Knight | 5 |
Matt Charboneau | 5 |
Sam McKewon | 5 |
Bob Asmussen | 6 |
Duane Rankin | 6 |
Gary Horowitz | 6 |
Gary Smits | 6 |
Kirk Bohls | 6 |
Pete DiPrimio | 6 |
Rob Long | 6 |
Tom Murphy | 6 |
Brian Howell | 7 |
Jon Wilner | 7 |
Laura Keeley | 7 |
Mike Sorensen | 7 |
Rustin Dodd | 7 |
Ryan Finley | 8 |
David Briggs | 8 |
John Clay | 8 |
Michael Lev | 8 |
Scott Hamilton | 8 |
Adam Zucker | 9 |
Dave Reardon | 9 |
Doug Doughty | 9 |
Jay Binkley | 9 |
Jeff Seidel | 9 |
Josh Kendall | 9 |
Ken Medlin | 9 |
Marc Weiszer | 9 |
Nate Sandell | 9 |
Robert Cessna | 9 |
Robert Gagliardi | 9 |
Scott Wolf | 9 |
Tom D'Angelo | 9 |
Chadd Cripe | 10 |
Matt McCoy | 10 |
Mike Sands | 10 |
Brent Axe | 11 |
Doug Lesmerises | 11 |
Eric Avidon | 11 |
Garland Gillen | 11 |
Jim Dunaway | 11 |
Ross Dellenger | 11 |
Tim Griffin | 11 |
Adam Jude | 12 |
Joel Klatt | 12 |
John Shinn | 12 |
Sam Werner | 12 |
Steve Batterson | 12 |
Jimmy Burch | 13 |
Mitch Vingle | 13 |
Steve Layman | 13 |
Brett McMurphy | 14 |
Jim Polzin | 14 |
Nathan Deen | 14 |
Chris Murray | 15 |
John Adams | 15 |
Keith Sargeant | 15 |
The USA Today Coaches Poll
I'm kinda tired of talking about the Coaches Poll. It's a dumb concept, the ballots aren't public and it means nothing.
The Massey Composite
Alabama is once again the highest-ranked SEC team in the Massey composite.
The Tempo-Free Gridiron Regression Based rankings have Auburn #4 in the country.
Team | AP | Coaches | Average | High | Low |
Alabama Crimson Tide | 8 | 10 | 7.8 | 1 | 32 |
Texas A&M Aggies | 9 | 11 |
7.9 | 1 | 21 |
Florida Gators | 11 | 12 | 9.4 | 1 | 24 |
LSU Tigers | 7 | 5 |
12.4 | 1 | 40 |
Ole Miss Rebels | 14 | 13 | 17.7 | 5 | 31 |
Georgia Bulldogs | 19 | 16 | 22.6 | 3 | 57 |
Mississippi State Bulldogs | 33 | 33 |
33.5 | 14 | 60 |
Missouri Tigers | 37 | 38 | 38.6 | 15 | 64 |
Kentucky Wildcats | 36 |
44.6 | 18 | 78 | |
Tennessee Volunteers | 45.4 | 15 | 83 | ||
Arkansas Razorbacks | 45.8 | 13 | 78 | ||
Auburn Tigers | 47.1 | 4 | 77 | ||
South Carolina Gamecocks | 65.6 | 42 | 86 | ||
Vanderbilt Commodores | 74.4 | 41 | 95 |
Alabama in the Computer Rankings
Alabama is #1 in eight sources, but Vern has us #32.