College football rankings: Week 14 AP Poll Top 25 predictions – Will Ohio State be No. 1?
Oregon losing to Arizona State ends their College Football Playoff hopes and throws a wrinkle into the AP Poll Top 25 for Week 14.
This week had a bit of a different slate as the game of the week took place at noon as Ohio State hosted No. 9 Penn State. The Buckeyes held on for a big win over the Nittany Lions and they may have just done enough to impress both AP voters and the playoff committee.
Will the Buckeyes be the new No. 1? Well, they looked great with Justin Fields, JK Dobbins and Chase Young all having monster games. Fumbled turned into points kept Penn State alive.
The game of the week was over before anyone could even bat an eyelash, but there were some other decent games involving ranked teams in the early slate such as Oklahoma State vs. West Virginia, Iowa vs. Illinois and Minnesota traveled to Northwestern.
The Cowboys held on to a seven-point win over West Virginia despite going into the fourth quarter down 13-10. Iowa struggled a little bit but won a very Kirk Ferentz-like game against Illinois, ending the Illini’s hot streak. Minnesota bounced back from a tough loss to Iowa and beat Northwestern on the road to improve to 10-1 with a shot to make the Big Ten title game in Week 14 with a win over Wisconsin.
The afternoon slate had some more interesting matchups.
Georgia hosted Texas A&M and everyone expected the Bulldogs to run away with a big win, but the Aggies made things interesting and had a chance to win late in the fourth quarter but fell just short. Does Georgia really look like a playoff team? We’ll find out when the Bulldogs face LSU — who dismantled Arkansas on Saturday night — in the SEC title game.
Texas traveled to Baylor looking to get back on track after a heartbreaking loss at Iowa State and it just didn’t happen as the Longhorns only mustered 10 points as the Bears won by two touchdowns. Maybe Baylor is for real after all.
Michigan dominated Indiana after a slow start, Wisconsin overcame a pesky Purdue team in Madison and USC toppled crosstown rival UCLA to knock Chip Kelly and the Bruins from bowl eligibility. The Trojans have a major decision to make this offseason with Clay Helton, but he’s done a great job avoiding a disastrous season.
Oh, and a bunch of SEC teams — Alabama, Auburn — beat up on some weaker non-conference foes.
In the night shift, LSU had its way with Arkansas, Oklahoma wiped the floor with TCU and Arizona State handed Oregon its second loss of the season. The first two games were pretty much decided by the half, but the Ducks struggled mightily against the Sun Devils and dropped from the playoff race, more than likely.
There weren’t a ton of upsets in Week 13, but there could still be a decent shakeup in the rankings.
Week 14 AP Poll Top 25 projections
- Ohio State
- LSU
- Clemson
- Georgia
- Alabama
- Utah
- Oklahoma
- Michigan
- Florida
- Minnesota
- Baylor
- Oregon
- Wisconsin
- Notre Dame
- Penn State
- Auburn
- Cincinnati
- Memphis
- Iowa
- Boise State
- Oklahoma State
- Virginia Tech
- Appalachian State
- Iowa State
- Navy
Did we predict anyone too high or too low? There could be a discussion to be had for anyone in the 20-25 range.
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