Alabama almost allowed Florida to take come back and upset them, so where do both teams end up in the college football rankings after this near upset?
The No. 1 team in the college football rankings, the Alabama Crimson Tide, had to figure they might be tested by the No. 11-ranked Florida Gators on the road in The Swamp but it’s hard to imagine they thought the game would play out as it did.
Bryce Young and the Alabama offense jumped out to a 21-3 lead over the Gators and seemed to be on the brink of running away with it. Emory Jones and Florida, however, battened down the hatches and clawed their way back into the game, outscoring the Tide 26-10 from that point on.
Unfortunately, a missed two-point conversion try and a failed desperation play at the last second gave Alabama the win in another thriller between these two SEC titans. But the big question now becomes how far Florida will drop and if anything happens to Alabama the next college football rankings.
We have our projections for what the next poll will look like after this game.
Projected College Football Rankings after Alabama survives Florida
1. Alabama Crimson Tide
2. Georgia Bulldogs
3. Oklahoma Sooners
4. Oregon Ducks
5. Iowa Hawkeyes
6. Clemson Tigers
7. Texas A&M Aggies
8. Cincinnati Bearcats
9. Ohio State Buckeyes
10. Penn State Nittany Lions
11. Florida Gators
For starters, I don’t see any way that any voters can dock Alabama for beating a top-11 team in the country on the road. Even if the Crimson Tide are held to a different gold standard than everyone else, moving them down would be preposterous.
My argument would be that the same is true for Florida and their No. 11 spot, though. Even in losing to Bama, they looked better than Notre Dame, the team ranked immediately behind them right now, has in any game this season. I’m not sure what about their three-game performance would suggest they should leapfrog the Gators.
The only thing that would cause Florida to fall a bit would be if Penn State were to lose to Auburn on Saturday night, at which point it’s hard to move a team into the top 10 after a loss. Still, no one should be penalizing Dan Mullen’s team for this loss, at least not in any meaningful manner.
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