College football rankings: Projected AP Top 25 after Ohio State sneaks by Nebraska, Norte Dame demolishes Navy
By Quinn Everts
The early slate of college football for Week 9 ended up being pretty thrilling, but not necessarily in the games that fans expected. Norte Dame versus Navy was never suspenseful but Ohio State and Nebraska went down to the wire. Meanwhile, Indiana continued to roll and Ole Miss bounced back after dropping last week to LSU. Here's what the AP rankings would look like after a fun early slate and before a lot of the country's top teams take the field later tonight.
- Oregon Ducks
- Georgia Bulldogs
- Penn State Nittany Lions
- Ohio State Buckeyes
- Texas Longhorns
- Miami Hurricanes
- Tennessee Volunteers
- Norte Dame Fighting Irish
- LSU Tigers
- Clemson Tigers
- Iowa State Cyclones
- Indiana Hoosiers
- Boise State Broncos
- BYU Cougars
- Texas A&M Aggies
- Pitt Panthers
- Alabama Crimson Tide
- Ole Miss Rebels
- Kansas State Wildcats
- Illinois Fighting Illini
- Missouri Tigers
- SMU Mustangs
- Army Black Knights
- Vanderbilt Commodores
- Washington State Cougars
Ohio State sneaks by Nebraska 21-17, stays put in top five
These rankings were very close to looking an awful lot different. Ohio State was trailing Nebraska 17-14 in the fourth quarter on Saturday before scoring the game-winning touchdown with just over six minutes remaining. There's no such thing as a bad win, but this was not a convincing win from the Buckeyes, that's for sure. Will Howard was mostly good other than one egregious interception, but the Buckeyes complete inability to run the ball slowed the offense considerably.
Ohio State remains at number four because it did win this game, but this was not the performance you want to see from this team coming off a loss and a bye week. Penn State awaits in Happy Valley next week.
Norte Dame hands Navy first loss of the season in convincing fashion with 51-14 win
You'd think with how much Navy runs the ball, it would know what to do when a team tries to run a lot against it, but that wasn't the case on Saturday! Norte Dame gave Navy a big taste of its own ground-game medicine, running for 265 yards and 4 touchdowns against the Midshipmen.
The Irish jump a few spots in the standings to number 8 with a dominating, no-doubt top 25 win. Navy won't fall too far down the rankings but will probably need a few more convincing wins in the next couple weeks to regain its place in the top 25. Washington State moves in with Navy falling out. We're just going to predict that every week until it actually happens.
Ole Miss beats Oklahoma behind a good day from Jaxson Dart, stays put in top 25
It wasn't a high-scoring affair in Oxford, but Ole Miss does not care — a win was all that mattered coming off a heartbreaker against LSU last weekend, and a win is what they got, beating Oklahoma 26-14. Jaxson Dart threw for 311 yards in the win.
The Rebels will likely be squarely on the College Football Playoff bubble at year's end, and their game against Georgia on November 9 will likely swing the season one way or the other. But for now, the team is happy to stay put at number 18 after stifling Oklahoma.
Indiana gets one game closer to a College Football Playoff berth, jumps into top 12 after beating Washington 31-17
The Hoosiers didn't put 56 on the board like they did last week against Nebraska, but 31 did the trick against Washington. Tayven Jackson started in place on injured quarterback Kurtis Rourke and did just enough to lead Indiana to a win, throwing for 124 yards and a touchdown and rushing for another touchdown.
The Hoosiers defense was the star of the show on Saturday, picking off Huskies quarterback Will Rogers twice, including a 67-yard pick six in the first quarter. Now 8-0, the Hoosiers hop up into the CFP field at number 12 in the rankings.
Pitt, Boise State make leaps after impressive wins on Thursday and Friday
The marquee games on Thursday and Friday featured Pitt and Boise State and each team impressed. The Panthers decimated Syracuse 41-13 on Thursday behind one of the most impressive defensive performances of the season — the Pitt defense forced Kyle McCord to throw 5 interceptions and 3 of them were returned for touchdowns. Three pick-sixes in one game! Pitt hops up to number 16 because of that win.
Boise State wasn't quite as dominant but it pulled out a win on the road against a good UNLV team nonetheless. The Broncos are 6-1 with that sole loss coming against the top-ranked team in the country by three points. That sounds like a College Football Playoff team to us!
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