The Bottom 4: Anti-College Football Playoff Rankings – Will Nebraska or UCLA go winless?
It was another miserable Saturday for these college football programs who make up this week’s anti-College Football Playoff rankings, otherwise known as the Bottom 4.
The past weekend in college football saw some incredible upsets with Texas handing Oklahoma their first loss of the year and hours later, Florida did the same to LSU. Mississippi State rebounded after tough back-to-back losses to knock off then-No. 8 Auburn. Texas A&M needed overtime to knock Kentucky from the ranks of the unbeaten. For the late-night crowd, it was Utah handing Stanford a second straight loss.
As bad as it was for those group of losers, they are all still really good teams with plenty to be excited about as we head into the second half of the season. However, the same can’t be said for a quarter of teams who have put their fans through the ringer and wondering when they’ll be put out of their misery.
That leads us into this week’s anti-College Football power rankings, or simply known as the Bottom 4.
Just like the College Football Playoff rankings pick the four best teams, rather the four best teams from the Power 5, this list will identify the four worst teams from the Power 5 to set up a mythical bracket to play for the ultimate bragging rights of the worst team in college football.
And just like the real playoff rankings where the usual suspects have appeared on the same lists for the last few weeks, there are some holdovers from the first few weeks. Although, there is one newcomer this week, which has been no stranger to these types of lists in recent years.
The Bottom 4: Anti-College Football Playoff Rankings
1. UCLA (O-5): Chip Kelly is still in search of his first win at UCLA. This is the same sentence I’ve typed for the last five weeks. Kelly has already lost more games this year than he did in his first two years at Oregon and he’s in danger of losing more games before November than he did in his four years with the Ducks (7).
The biggest reason UCLA has floundered is an anemic offense that ranks No. 125 out of 130 FBS programs. Ouch. The Bruins did play Washington tough last weekend, albeit in a loss. UCLA is a seven-point underdog this weekend where they’ll travel to take on Cal. If they can’t win this one, they’ll host Arizona in two weeks, which is a winnable game. If they don’t win that, they might go winless, which would have been unthinkable only a few weeks ago.
2. Nebraska (0-5): Another high-profile hire struggling in his first year on the job. Scott Frost was supposed to be the savior and return his alma mater to prominence. It may still happen, and I’m a big believer in the long-term outlook for Frost at Nebraska, but the Huskers are off to the worst start in program history after dropping their fifth game on Saturday vs. Wisconsin. Overall, Nebraska has lost nine straight and 11 of their last 12. The lone win? A one-point win over Purdue.
This year’s Nebraska squad ranks No. 114 in scoring offense and No. 121 in scoring defense. This isn’t your father’s Nebraska that ran the option offense with such precision and efficiency and where the Blackshirts defense made life miserable for opposing offenses. A win is coming soon though and it could come this weekend at Northwestern. The Wildcats are coming off a win over Michigan State but has struggled to play two good games in a row this year. If not this week, they’ll host Minnesota in two weeks. Nebraska is going to win that game. I’ll call it now.
Rutgers (1-5): The Scarlet Knights have a win, but it came against a one-win Texas State team that is one of the worst teams in all of college football. So it’s not exactly a positive for Chris Ash’s team who has the worst offense in the nation. Rutgers averages 16.5 points per game, 1.9 points less than UCLA for the worst among Power 5 teams. Defensively, it’s not a whole lot better where they rank No. 109, allowing 36.3 points per game. Losing by three touchdowns on average is a great way to find yourself on this list of cellar-dwellers and to ensure no one wants to brave the elements to watch you play.
Oregon State (1-4): The Beavers were so close to their second win of the season when they led Washington State, 30-28 in the third quarter. But then, the Oregon State defense allowed 28 unanswered points en route to losing 56-37 and finding themselves on this list for the first time this year. During the game, Oregon State had one sequence of events that resulted in them facing a fourth-and-54. Yes, 4th and 54!
Only Bowling Green and Connecticut have allowed more points per game than the 47 Oregon State allows. The offense isn’t too bad, scoring 31.5 per game, but the defense has made it nearly impossible to win. They host Cal in two weeks after their bye this week that represents the best chance to get another win this year and to avoid going winless in the Pac-12.