The college football world continues to keep spinning heading into the Week 12 slate.
Despite having 15 games either postponed or canceled, Week 11 came and went as we creep ever closer to the end of the year. With most teams of note not playing last week due to positive coronavirus tests, the top of the field remains the same. However, it is in the middle where we will find a compelling storyline that will fascinate us. Here are the weekly conference power rankings.
College football conference power rankings entering Week 12
The Pac-12 finds itself in the basement this week of the Group of 5 for two reasons. One, the Pac-12 only has two ranked teams at this point of the season. And two, the second of the two teams may not actually be that good. I mean, the No. 20 USC Trojans nearly lost both of their games this season. They are going to slip up at some point. At least the Pac-12 has a best in No. 11 Oregon.
As long as the Ducks keep winning, the Pac-12 has an outside shot at getting a team into the College Football Playoff. Of course, it has to be them, but it is still good to have a team out on the West Coast that matters this late in the season. Sure, another Pac-12 team could emerge as a playoff “threat”, but the only realistic hope of them getting a team in is by way of the Ducks.
Maybe, just maybe, the Big 12 can still get a team into the College Football Playoff. Of course, it will have to be its best team in the No. 14 Oklahoma State Cowboys, but the Big 12’s slim playoff dreams are still alive, baby! Then again, we know who the Bedlam Series usually goes. Mike Gundy rarely beats the Oklahoma Sooners in Bedlam. Unless it happens this year, the Big 12 is out of it.
The reason the Big 12 is a spot ahead of the Pac-12 in these rankings are we have four ranked teams to dissect this week. Oklahoma State is No. 14, the Iowa State Cyclones are No. 17, Oklahoma is No. 18 and the Texas Longhorns are No. 22. Two of these four teams will be playing each other in a rematch in the Big 12 title bout with certainly a Cotton Bowl berth on the line.
The gap between No. 3 and No. 2 this week is minuscule. Depending on what happens in Week 12, we might see the Big Ten Conference get back into the No. 2 spot. However, it will have to settle for No. 3 this week for the time being. So what does the Big Ten have going for it at this time? It has four ranked teams and three of them are in the top-10, so that is fantastic.
The signature game of the weekend will be the one between the No. 9 Indiana Hoosiers and the No. 3 Ohio State Buckeyes in The Horseshoe. This will be the game that decides the Big Ten East. Conversely, the game between the No. 10 Wisconsin Badgers and the No. 19 Northwestern Wildcats will likely decide the Big Ten West this year. Be thankful we have two great games here.
The ACC still has two teams ranked inside of the top four in the No. 2 Notre Dame Fighting Irish and the No. 4 Clemson Tigers. However, the Miami Hurricanes find themselves just outside of the top 10 at No. 12 this week. While Notre Dame, Clemson and Miami are all either playoff-bound or New Year’s Six bound, the rest of the ACC needs to start to step it up if it wants the top spot.
Again, the North Carolina Tar Heels are the No. 26 team this week, but the ACC needs Mack Brown’s team to get into the top 25 before the end of the season. Four teams might be enough to get the ACC neither the No. 1 ranking, but the fifth team in addition to North Carolina would have to do the trick. Unfortunately, no other team in the ACC received a single AP vote besides those four.
The SEC increased the gap on the ACC this week, despite only having six of its 14 teams play ball in Week 11. Four of the five ranked teams in the SEC did not play last week, but the No. 6 Florida Gators sure did. They look incredible and will likely come out of the SEC East to play the No. 1 Alabama Crimson Tide for a playoff spot. Heck, if Florida wins, then maybe both teams get in?
What helps the SEC have a firm grasp for the top spot is that it has three other teams consistently ranked in the top 25. This week, the Texas A&M Aggies come in at No. 5, the Georgia Bulldogs come in at No. 13 and the Auburn Tigers find themselves at No. 23. While a sixth SEC team being in the top 25 is probably not going to happen, we can at least feel good about these five.
So where could movement be had this week? Really the big thing is what happens in Big Ten country. Indiana will not fall out of the top 25 with a loss to Ohio State, and vice versa if we really want to go there. If Northwestern beats Wisconsin, the Badgers will not fall out either. The Big Ten could surpass the ACC with a great weekend and maybe a fifth team joining the AP Top 25 Poll.
The SEC remains the top dog in the college football conference power rankings once again.
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