College football rankings: Projected Top 25 rankings after Week 15
By Jack Crosby
The final week before bowl season of college football is in the books, and it was a wild one.
As far as shake up in the Top 25 goes, there was one major happening. The second-ranked Ohio State Buckeyes were upset in the Big Ten title game by the Michigan State Spartans, which paved the way for a likely appearance from an SEC team in the BCS National Championship Game once again, as the third-ranked Auburn Tigers were able to upend the Missouri Tigers.
So, with that, here’s how the Top 25 should iron out after the action from Championship Saturday, via CBS Sports:
1. Florida State (1): The Seminoles pounded Duke exactly the way they pounded every single team this season that wasn’t (weirdly) Boston College. Beat Auburn, and they go down as one of the great teams in college football history.
2. Auburn (3): Because scoring 59 points in the SEC Championship Game — but winning by 17 whole points — wasn’t “team of destiny” enough, Auburn just had to go and somehow mind-force Ohio State to lose to Michigan State. Can’t go a week without something face-melting happening.
3. Alabama (4): Since the Tide needed a Duke upset of Florida State, it was already over. But now Alabama’s streak of back-to-back national championships is truly, officially over.
4. Stanford (7): Baylor and Michigan State are one-loss teams with league titles and the Cardinal are a two-loss team with a league title. But after blowout of Arizona State, hard to see voters — who had Bears and Spartans behind South Carolina last week — leapfrogging those teams past the Cardinal.
5. Baylor (9): “The Bears thumped Texas by 20 points to clinch an undefeated home season, 11-1 overall record, and Big 12 championship” is not a sentence anyone ever expected to make sense. Except Art Briles, maybe, which is why it does.
6. Michigan State (10): It’s taken the Spartans a long, long time to earn any real respect in the polls. But after beating Ohio State, they’ll finally get it. Or most of it, anyway.
7. Ohio State (2): This would be a much stiffer drop than most top-3, 10-plus-win teams have suffered this season, but the Buckeyes have never been a favorite of voters, and it’sonly fair they drop behind the Spartans.
8. South Carolina (8): Gamecocks’ win over Missouri didn’t get the to Atlanta … but it might help them stay one spot ahead of the Tigers in the final AP poll of the regular season.
9. Missouri (5): It’s worth repeating: we know it didn’t look like it Saturday, what with the 545 yards rushing allowed (545!?!), but that was a solid Tiger run defense Auburn shredded, ranking second in the SEC in yards per-carry allowed entering the game.
10. Oklahoma (18): A big, big leap for the Sooners, but they have the same record as Oklahoma State and just beat the Cowboys in Stillwater. Is there any way they can be ranked behind them?
11. Oklahoma State (9)
12. Oregon (12)
13. Clemson (13)
14. LSU (14)
15. UCF (16)
16. Arizona State (11)
17. UCLA (17)
18. Louisville (19)
19. Wisconsin (21)
20. Texas A&M (22)
21. Georgia (25)
22. Northern Illinois (16)
23. Fresno State (24)
24. Duke (20)
25. Notre Dame (NR)