College football rankings 2021: Projected Week 7 AP Top 25 after Alabama, Penn State fall & Oklahoma, Michigan survive
Projecting the AP Top 25 college football rankings for Week 7 after previously No. 1-ranked Alabama fell on the road, as did Penn State.
No one is safe in the 2021 college football season — not even the vaunted Alabama Crimson Tide.
With the way Texas A&M had struggled overt he past two weeks and how dominant Nick Saban’s team had been as the No. 1 team in the AP Top 25 college football rankings, this seemed like an easy W for the Crimson Tide. Instead, they got dealt a handful of haymakers early and, though they fought valiantly to come back, they couldn’t overcome the deficit.
In addition to the top-ranked team in the college football rankings going down, No. 10-ranked BYU and No. 4-ranked Penn State both took tough losses on Saturday, albeit to different levels of foe. And that’s before you get into the seemingly countless number of ranked teams that got a huge scare but ultimately survived in Week 6.
So with the calamity of this season continuing, what are the AP Top 25 college football rankings for Week 7 going to look like? We have our projections.
Projected AP Top 25 college football rankings after Week 6: No. 25-21
25. Clemson Tigers
Look, I don’t necessarily believe that Clemson deserves to get back into the Top 25 college football rankings after the Tigers had another close call against an unranked team last week and then had Saturday off with a bye. With that said, they were the highest team in the others receiving votes last week, so the goodwill their past success has bought them should push them back into the Top 25.
24. BYU Cougars
Even with Jaren Hall returning to action, the BYU quarterback didn’t look 100 percent and it was a tough day at the office for the Cougars. They simply looked out of sorts on both sides of the ball and couldn’t get anything going in the ways they would’ve liked against Boise State. You have to believe they’ll bounce back, though, because this wasn’t the BYU team we’d seen to start the year.
23. Arkansas Razorbacks
Yes, Arkansas is now a two-loss team after falling to Ole Miss on Saturday, their second-straight defeat. However, I’m not going to drop an SEC team that has looked awesome in all but one game (the loss to Georgia) this season because they fell on the road to a ranked conference opponent due to the fact that they went for a two-point conversion to win it at the end and didn’t convert.
22. UTSA Roadrunners
It’s past time to put some respect on the Roadrunners at this point. UTSA moved to 6-0 on the season with another stellar performance from running back Sincere McCormick but also with the passing game producing six touchdowns in a shootout. This team has a firm hold on Conference-USA right now and should be in the conversation for best Group of 5 team outside of Cincinnati.
21. San Diego State Aztecs
It wasn’t necessarily pretty or going to get them any style points — though that may be how the Aztecs like it — but San Diego State thoroughly dominated New Mexico on Saturday night, as they should based on what we’ve seen to this point in the season. This is a terrific defense out in the Mountain West and with an established identity, that could carry them to the top of the conference this season.