College football conference power rankings: Has the ACC surpassed the SEC as the new big dog?

College football did not disappoint with some incredible games from the Week 10 slate.

College football had a few instant classics in Week 10, including the one in overtime in South Bend.

As a shock to most, the No. 4 Notre Dame Fighting Irish were able to stun the No. 1 Clemson Tigers in primetime Saturday night in double overtime. Notre Dame improves to the No. 2 team in the land in the latest AP Top 25 Poll, while Clemson only falls so far down to No. 4. Let’s see how this high-stakes ACC game impacted the weekly conference power rankings ahead of Week 11.

College football conference power rankings through Week 10

Though the Big 12 has four teams ranked in the current top 25, none of which have a realistic chance of getting into the College Football Playoff. Once again, the Big 12’s best shot at getting a team in is the No. 14 Oklahoma State Cowboys. While the No. 17 Iowa State Cyclones and the No. 18 Oklahoma Sooners could win the Big 12, both have a pair of losses already on this season.

The Big 12’s four ranked team this week are the No. 21 Texas Longhorns. Once you get past those four teams, none of the other schools even got a vote in the latest AP Poll. So while the Big 12 has a handful of decent teams at the top of the conference, none of which are serious playoff threats. Maybe Oklahoma State goes undefeated the rest of the way, but do not count on it.

Even though the Pac-12 only has two ranked teams at this point in the season, they both won on Saturday. The No. 11 Oregon Ducks had no problem getting past the Stanford Cardinal, while the No. 20 USC Trojans needed some late, fourth-quarter heroics to send the Arizona State Sun Devils back to Tempe with a loss. Right now, these are the two teams the Pac-12 must put its faith in.

During the opening weekend for the Pac-12, we saw two games get canceled. So we have not seen teams like the California Golden Bears, the Washington Huskies and the Utah Utes who did not even play receive AP votes. Along with Arizona State, six Pac-12 teams received at least one vote this week. Not that it really matters, but it is something the Pac-12 can look to build on.

The good news for the Big Ten is it has four undefeated teams ranked inside of the top 25 heading into Week 11. The bad news is who some of those teams are. While it is great to see the Ohio State Buckeyes in at No. 3, having the Indiana Hoosiers at No. 10 and the Northwestern Wildcats cracking the top 25 at No. 23 further illustrates the chaos that has ensued in the last three weeks.

Though the Wisconsin Badgers come in at No. 13, they have only played one game this year before having to have their two most recent games canceled due to a coronavirus outbreak. It stinks, but it hurts the Big Ten’s chances of having a second dominant team this year. While it has been great to see Indiana and Northwestern flourish, the Big Ten is all about Ohio State in 2020.

One could argue the ACC should be in the top spot after what we saw happen in South Bend on Saturday night. The ACC is the only conference to have two teams in the top four with Notre Dame coming in at No. 2 and Clemson at No. 4. One of those two teams will make the College Football Playoff, possibly both if Clemson wins the rematch in the ACC Championship game in a few weeks.

What is holding the ACC back from the top spot is it only has three ranked teams. While it is cool to see the Miami Hurricanes crack the top 10 at No. 9, not having a fourth or fifth top-25 team hurts the conference’s overall perception. Though the North Carolina Tar Heels and the Wake Forest Demon Deacons received votes this week, close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades.

Not only does the SEC hold onto the top spot in the weekly conference power rankings, but it now has the No. 1 team in the nation. Because of Notre Dame’s home upset of Clemson, the Alabama Crimson Tide went from No. 2 to No. 1 while they were on their bye week. They are joined by the No. 5 Texas A&M Aggies and the No. 6 Florida Gators inside of the top 10 entering Week 11.

The SEC has two other ranked teams in a pair of two-loss squads in the No. 12 Georgia Bulldogs and the No. 24 Auburn Tigers. While no other SEC team received a single vote, it has been the only conference regularly featuring at least four teams in the top 25. More often than not, the SEC has three or four teams ranked inside of the top 10. The ACC was close this week, but no cigar.

So how close was it for the ACC to overtake the SEC for the top spot? Had Auburn not been a top-25 team and North Carolina, who was the first team out of this week’s AP Top 25, been in, the ACC would have gotten the slightest of nods because of what we saw out of Notre Dame in South Bend vs. Clemson. For now, we have a tight race for the top spot between the ACC and the SEC.

It is a critical Saturday in Week 11 for the SEC to maintain its advantage over the contending ACC.

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