College football conference power rankings: Week 9
While Week 8 of the 2016 college football regular season looked weak on paper, it provided plenty of excitement.
Saturday’s biggest result came in Happy Valley, where Penn State shocked then-No. 2 Ohio State in a 24-21 thriller. The loss may not damage Ohio State’s College Football Playoff chances that much in the long run, but it changes the complexion of the top four for now.
Heavily favored Alabama tallied yet another defensive touchdown to pull away from Texas A&M 33-14 in the only top ten matchup of the day. The Crimson Tide have the No. 1 spot in the polls locked down, although a trip to LSU in two weeks is suddenly looking very tough.
Michigan moved to No. 2 in the AP Poll and Washington jumped up to No. 4 after both destroyed overmatched opponents. Clemson is ranked third ahead of a huge trip to Florida State next week, the last major regular season hurdle on the Tigers’ schedule.
With the major upset and other results on Saturday, the gap between the SEC and the rest of the Power Five conferences has widened. Here’s how the Power Five stacks up heading up into Week 9.
5. Big 12
The Big 12 still has some work to do to get out of the fifth spot, but having two undefeated teams at this point in the season is impressive nonetheless.
West Virginia was never really challenged by TCU in a strong 34-10 win to continue its undefeated run. The Mountaineers are now ranked in the top ten and playing well enough on the defensive end to beat anybody else in the conference.
No. 8 Baylor, which had the day off on Saturday, is the other playoff hope in the conference. The only marginally good win on the year for Baylor is Oklahoma State, and we probably still won’t know how good the Bears are after next week’s matchup at struggling Texas.
Despite the two losses to knock it out of playoff contention, No. 16 Oklahoma remains the conference favorite after winning something resembling a game of football 66-59 against Texas Tech. Oklahoma will need better play from the secondary but has the offense to take down West Virginia or Baylor, while the Red Raiders have been one of the most disappointing teams in the Big 12 at 3-4.
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Things drop off quickly after the top three, as the Big-12 has the worst depth of any Power Five. Charlie Strong’s job is in serious jeopardy after Texas’ loss to Kansas State, while the Horned Frogs have also failed to meet lofty preseason expectations.