College football rankings: Conference power rankings entering Week 11
By Nick Villano
Michigan State and Wake Forest’s losses have the playoff rankings changing, and they also had an impact on the college football conference power rankings.
It took one week of the College Football Playoff Rankings for one of the top four teams to get upset, knocking them out of the rankings immediately. Michigan State’s comeback effort against Purdue was for naught.
It wasn’t the only major upset of the weekend. North Carolina finally got a major win, but it was at the expense of the ACC’s only remaining undefeated team and its only chance at making the College Football Playoff (although a very outside chance at that). Wake Forest lost a barn burner, and now they try to define their own season. So, how does this all impact the college football power rankings? Seven ranked teams lost to unranked teams last week. Time to try and figure out the rankings.
Where do the conferences rank after a wild week of college football?
5. ACC
Wake Forest losing officially knocks them out of contention for the College Football Playoff. Clemson was basically penciled into the Playoff at the beginning of the season, but the season after Trevor Lawrence is turning out much worse than anyone could have imagined. They did score 13 points in the 4th quarter against Louisville to come out with a win, but it’s one of the few that are coming this season. Pitt got a huge win on the road against Duke, and they will stay ranked this week. The same goes for NC State, which will get a nice bump after taking care of Florida State on the road. However, this is still the worst Power 5 conference in the country.
4. Pac-12
Oregon avoided the improbable, getting out of Seattle, Washington with a win despite being down 9-3 after the first quarter. They scored in every quarter and used a consistent offense to stay in the College Football Playoff. They were the surprise of the Playoff committee’s first rankings, and they didn’t disappoint in the first week as a team fighting for a national championship. Elsewhere in the league, Utah just destroyed Stanford on Friday night. Arizona finally got its first win of the season against Cal. Oregon State’s unfortunate slide continues, as they lost again this week. USC might not even be bowl eligible when it’s all said and done. They lost again to Arizona State.