AP Poll Week 7 Top 25 winners and losers: Ohio State, Georgia tied at No. 3; Penn State cracks top 10

Ohio State keeps moving up the AP Poll as the Buckeyes are tied with Georgia at No. 3. Let’s take a look at the winners and losers of the Week 7 Top 25.

Week 6 featured three matchups between AP Top 25 teams. In those games, two of the three higher-ranked teams lost to their lower-ranked opponents. Three of Vegas’s favorites lost outright. Three Top 25 teams fell to unranked teams.

All of this is to say, none of this makes sense and college football is the best.

We did get a little bit of clarity, though. We know Oregon is the only chance the Pac-12 has at making the playoff, but their chances took a hit when Auburn fell to Florida. Speaking of Florida, they finally pulled off a decent win against a good team.

The Big Ten is very clearly Ohio State’s conference. The Buckeyes dominated Michigan State and Iowa proved that a Top 10 ranking will be way too high for them. The Hawkeyes can comfortably settle into a low 20’s position. And what is going on with Michigan? The Wolverines need an offense more than Paul Finebaum needs a new shtick.

The biggest miracle worker in the country, though, is and always will be Les Miles. His Jayhawks somehow someway found a way to beat the spread against Oklahoma. The Sooners are unstoppable by teams not named Alabama or Clemson. That Kansas found a way to not lose by less than 33 points is absolutely incredible.

Let’s peep that Week 7 AP Top 25 Poll

Week 7 AP Top 25 Poll

1. Alabama
2. Clemson
3. Georgia
4. Ohio State
5. LSU
6. Oklahoma
7. Florida
8. Wisconsin
9. Notre Dame
10. Penn State
11. Texas
12. Auburn
13. Oregon
14. Boise State
15. Utah
16. Michigan
17. Iowa
18. Arizona State
19. Wake Forest
20. Virginia
21. SMU
22. Baylor
23. Memphis
24. Texas A&M
25. Cincinnati

Winners

No. 7 Florida (previously No. 10) — Goodness. It didn’t look like the Gators had this game in them. That defense is beastly and the offense effective enough. Dan Mullen is among the sharpest offensive minds in the game, so they should be in good shape once they get his system rolling. They still don’t look good enough to take down Georgia, though.

No. 22 Baylor (previously unranked) — Welcome back, Baylor Bears, although you’re lucky to still have a team. Much like Michigan State, they’re mostly here because they’ve won enough and play in a Power Five. We don’t need to do this, except math dictates that a list of 25 teams have at least 25 teams. They probably won’t stay here once they play Texas and Oklahoma. The Matt Rhule deserves credit for pulling this team off of the scrap heap.

No. 23 Memphis (previously unranked) — This week’s American challenger to SMU’s conference run. They’ve beaten up on weaklings like Southern, University of South Alabama, and Ole Miss. Right now the Tigers are eyeing an early November meeting with SMU. Let’s hope both teams come in healthy and rolling. There will be plenty of points to go around.

No. 25 Cincinnati (previously unranked) —

Bigger than the Bearcats win is their social media game. Somebody owes the Knights an apology. These people have families that aren’t going to talk to them anymore! Twitter gets a bad rap. This is the content we love.

Losers

No. 17 Iowa (previously No. 14) — There should be a rule that caps the highest Iowa can rise in the polls. They get somewhere in the mid-teens, meet an actual, real-deal program, and then lose. Death, taxes, Hawkeyes losing to a good team (if we’re being generous to Michigan). They’re just a soundly constructed team. Nothing more. Nothing less.

Washington (previously No. 15) — Pick an identity, please. One week Jacob Eason looks like a first round draft pick. The next he loses to Stanford. Stanford! Please, please, just be entertaining when you play Oregon. The Pac 12 is so much better when the Huskies are good.

UCF (previously No. 18) — What’s left to say, other than Disney is closed. Children are sad. There is no joy left in Orlando. Maybe next year with McKenzie Milton healthy or another year of development for Dillon Gabriel. Who knows. But UCF has buried any argument that a Group of Five team should be anywhere near the Playoffs.

Oklahoma State (previously No. 21) — This one is tough loss for mullet aficionados the world over. Despite looking like a team you need to take seriously the past few weeks, the Cowboys laid an egg against a lackluster Texas Tech squad. The Big 12 is just Oklahoma, Texas, and chaff.

Michigan State (previously No. 25) — We don’t need to keep putting Big Ten teams into the Top 25. The four we have are enough. And that’s really only because we have to have at least 25 teams in the poll. We knew Michigan State wouldn’t beat Ohio State, but we had to have a No. 25 team. So here they were.

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