Projected college football rankings after Colorado, BYU fall, Penn State escapes
The Big 12 has been delivering chaos one week at a time, so it only stood to reason that the two frontrunners playing in the late-afternoon window, the Colorado Buffaloes and BYU Cougars, would be more of the same. And indeed, that's exactly what we saw.
For the Colorado side of things, they had to go on the road and match up with a Kansas Jayhawks team that had knocked off Iowa State and then handed BYU its first loss in the two weeks prior. With how the Buffs had been playing, the hope was that they could put a stop to it. They could not, however. Kansas ran amok, quite literally, running perfect ball control and limiting Colorado's offense to just 21 points in a 37-21 upset win.
Then there was BYU. While it got quite hectic late and a Hail Mary attempt fell short, the Cougars fell for the second straight week, this time giving Arizona State the inside track to the Big 12 title game after the Sun Devils picked up the 28-23 victory in Tempe.
We weren't just limited to Big 12 chaos, though! Penn State was on the road at Minnesota and trailed at halftime. The Golden Gophers then settle for a late field goal to cut the deficit to 26-25, which proved to be a poor decision by P.J. Fleck as the Nittany Lions were able to convert a fourth down and secure the win, escaping disaster.
So with that combined with Ohio State beating Indiana and Ole Miss being upset by Florida, where are we at with the projected AP Top 25 rankings? Let's take a look.
Projected AP Top 25 college football rankings after Colorado, BYU losses
- Oregon Ducks
- Ohio State Buckeyes
- Texas Longhorns
- Penn State Nittany Lions
- Notre Dame Fighting Irish
- Alabama Crimson Tide
- Georgia Bulldogs
- Tennessee Volunteers
- Indiana Hoosiers
- Miami Hurricanes
- Boise State Broncos
- SMU Mustangs
- Texas A&M Aggies
- Arizona State Sun Devils
- Ole Miss Rebels
- Clemson Tigers
- Army Black Knights
- BYU Cougars
- South Carolina Gamecocks
- Tulane Green Wave
- Iowa State Cyclones
- Colorado Buffaloes
- UNLV Rebels
- Illinois Fighting Illini
- Washington State Cougars
In reality, none of these projections matter all that much for the Big 12. However, it's hard to not see Colorado dropping out of the Top 20 and BYU flirting with that as well. On the flip side, though, it's time for AP Top 25 voters to start showing Arizona State some respect and vault them into the Top 15. Penn State won't be affected but it continues to make the Top 5 ranking look dubious.
As for the Big 12 teams, though, they were already likely playing for one spot in the College Football Playoff handed out to the conference champion. That hasn't changed but it does appear that they will be a bid thief without question with the losses for BYU and Colorado.
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