Projected Top 25 rankings after Week 7

Week 7 in college football, without a doubt, provided us with the most action and surprise from top to bottom. Seven teams, including two in the previous Top 10, went down on Saturday, causing some shake-ups, as well as creating another potential ‘Game of the Century’ next week between two Top 5 ranked teams.

So, how will the polls look in about an hour or so when they’re released? Hopefully, for my sake, a little something like this:

1. Alabama: The Crimson Tide beat yet another lesser team yet again in the Kentucky Wildcats, but they still have not been knocked off the top of the mountain. Until then, they’re numero uno.
2. Oregon: Washington gave the Ducks all they could handle for about three quarters, but they Pac-12’s perennial power ran away with another one, behind another great performance from QB Marcus Mariota
3. Clemson: Tajh Boyd, Sammy Watkins, Dabo Swinney and the rest of the Tigers had to hold off a resilient Boston College squad for the majority of the game, but were ultimately able to escape with a win, setting up a showdown with Florida State next Saturday.
4. Ohio State: The Buckeyes were off this week after their emotional win over Northwestern last week
5. Florida State: The ‘Noles were also off, but because of the shakeup from yesterday, they’ll move into a Top 5 slot, setting up that aforementioned ‘Game of the Century’ against Clemson next week in Death Valley.
6. Texas A&M: Johnny Manziel and the Aggies took another down to the wire in last night’s victory over Ole Miss, but they were impressive enough to warrant the voters to keep shooting them back into contention
7. Louisville: The Cardinals were less than stellar in their win over Rutgers on Thursday night, when they’re in a position where they need to be dominant every week. They lost some style points with voters.
8. LSU: After winning a defensive battle against Florida, the Tigers seem in prime position to stay ahead in the SEC West race.
9. UCLA: QB Brett Hundley and the Bruins dominated Cal, staying the clear frontrunner in the Pac-12 South.
10. Miami: Welcome back to the Top 10, ‘Canes.
11. South Carolina: The Gamecocks looked like the team we all projected coming into the season with their 52-7 win over Arkansas.
12. Baylor: The Bears had their first real scare yesterday in a close win over Kansas State, but overcame the adversity to remain unblemished and in control off the Big 12.
13. Stanford: Previously the fifth-ranked team in the polls, the Cardinal were dropped yesterday by a resurgent Utah program and should drop about this far in the voters’ eyes.
14. Missouri: Well, we all wanted to know if this team is for real, and we found out that they indeed are in their win over Georgia Saturday in Athens. But, with the loss of QB James Franklin, how long will they be in this position?
15. Georgia: A loss to Clemson in the opening week was okay, but the Bulldogs’ second loss of the season yesterday to our previous team is too much to overcome for everyone to instill their full faith into Mark Richt and crew.
16. Oklahoma: The Sooners laid a gigantic egg in the Red River Rivalry against Texas, something no one expected them to do.
17. Texas Tech: Say what you want about the Red Raiders, but they just keep getting things done on the field under first-year head coach Kliff Kingsbury. They narrowly escaped at home against Iowa State yesterday, but wins are all that matters in the end.
18. Fresno State: The Bulldogs had a bye week, which means everyone loses by not being able to see the other-wordly quarterbacking talents of Derek Carr, but you can see them in the rankings as they continue to make their case as a BCS-buster.
19. Oklahoma State: The Cowboys also enjoyed a bye week following their loss to West Virginia, and will return next week in conference play against TCU.
20. Northern Illinois: The lone team from the MAC is still considered one of the top 20 teams in the nation, even though they barely got out of their game with Akron yesterday still unblemished.
21. Virginia Tech: Don’t look now, but the Hokies are in position to make a trip to the ACC Championship Game after they were able to handle Pitt yesterday. After a 6-6 campaign last year, that’s not too shabby for Fran Beamer and company.
22. Washington: The scoreboard didn’t tell the entire tale of the Huskies’ loss to Oregon. They fought for as long as they could and proved once again that they’re not a bad team by any means.
23. Wisconsin: After dropping out of favor after two losses on the year, the Badgers bounced back in a huge way by handing Northwester their second consecutive loss in a dominating fashion in Camp Randall.
24. Auburn: Gus Malzahn started freshman Jeremy Johnson at QB in yesterday’s win over Western Carolina which worked rather well. This isn’t the 2012 version of the Tigers.
25. Florida: After yesterday’s loss to LSU, Florida didn’t exactly do themselves any favors in regards to retaining faith from anyone who considered them a serious contender, based off their defense alone.