College Football Rankings: Projected Week 7 AP Top 25
On the heels of the marquee matchups of last week, we should've known that a relatively tame Week 6 slate in college football would ultimately wreak havoc on the AP Top 25 college football rankings. The Texas Longhorns and Penn State Nittany Lions both lost to reeling unranked teams on the road, the Miami Hurricanes added another statement win to their credit by beating rival Florida State on the road, Alabama dispatched Vanderbilt to avenge last year's loss, and now we have the unkind task of projecting what AP voters are going to do when they submit their Top 25 ballots for Sunday's rankings.
Without question, though, there shouldn't be an inkling of Texas and Arch Manning in the AP Top 25 after this week. They've played two Power Four teams this season and have now lost to both of them. While Penn State is in a similar boat, they at least looked passable and took Oregon to the limit last week. The Longhorns don't even have that working in their favor at this point. If Texas is still ranked after this week, that's a travesty — but I think that the AP voters will ultimately do the right thing and leave them on the outside looking in.
But where will the rest of the chips fall for the next AP Top 25 college football rankings? We're trying our best to weed through the chaos and give you the best projections for the next AP vote that comes out on Sunday for Week 7.
Dropped out of rankings: Texas Longhorns (9), Iowa State Cyclones (14)
No. 25-21
25. Florida State Seminoles
Florida State losing for the second straight week might knock them out of the AP Top 25, but I think they ultimately just barely hang on to a spot in the rankings after fighting back late to make the final score in their loss to Miami look a bit more respectable. FSU is not necessarily all the way back in the way that we thought could be possible when they came out of the shoot upsetting Alabama, but that's still a big win to their credit, and they still have the goods to have a say in the ACC title race despite two losses in the conference already.
24. Penn State Nittany Lions
I bet there’s a good portion of Happy Valley that would give up just about anything for a prototypical James Franklin 10-2 season now. Going on the road and getting beat by UCLA is unforgivable and, frankly, I wouldn’t have Penn State in the AP Top 25 if I was a voter. However, this feels like your frustrating voting week wherein Texas gets the penalty it deserves but the Nittany Lions are lazily left on enough ballots to still sneak in. There is precisely no reason to have faith in this team after the past two weeks, though.
23. South Florida Bulls
South Florida continues to make its claim as the possible favorite to represent the Group of Five in the College Football Playoff. Not only did Alex Golesh's Bulls go out and just pour it on Charlotte on Friday night to continue to earn style points, but the big win over Florida started to look better again after the Gators upset Texas. It's going to be an absolute war atop the American this season with Memphis and maybe even North Texas and Tulane, but few teams have shown the ceiling that USF has to this point.
22. Cincinnati Bearcats
Shouts to Cincinnati, man. I’ll be the first to admit that I thought Scott Satterfield was as good as fired coming into this season, even though I like Brendan Sorsby at quarterback. But after a convincing win over Iowa State (they were favored, so we can’t call it a full-blown upset), you have to believe that the Bearcats are a viable threat in the Big 12 this season. They are cooking on the offensive side of the ball and, perhaps more importantly, they might be one of the more underrated P4 teams in the trenches.
21. Vanderbilt Commodores
I’ll admit, there’s a chance that some of the AP voters unfairly penalize Vanderbilt for the loss to Alabama, perhaps even because they didn’t care for Diego Pavia’s antics before and after Saturday’s game. However, the Commodores aren’t catching anyone by surprise now, and they were still able to take the Crimson Tide to the wire far more so than the final tally shows. This is a team that has clearly shown it’s one of the 25 best in the country week in and week out, and anyone not giving them that credit after this week isn’t being serious.
No. 20-16
20. Arizona State Sun Devils
Kenny Dillingham and Arizona State surged back into the Top 25 last week with a win over TCU before a week off. Much to their assured delight, the chaos of Week 6 allowed them to vault up a few more spots and inside the Top 20 now. What will be a ton of fun, and quite revealing for the Sun Devils, will be the return to action next week as they have to go on the road to Rice-Eccles for a date with a still dangerous Utah team.
19. Virginia Cavaliers
If nothing else, Tony Elliott has Virginia ready to win in overtime. We saw that last week with the upset win over Florida State in double-OT, and then again this week as the Cavaliers went on the road (as underdogs again, it should be said) and took down Louisville. Chandler Morris and the Wahoos aren’t perfect by any stretch, but this explosive offense and an obvious won’t-quit mentality makes them dangerous continually in an obvious down year for the ACC as a whole.
18. BYU Cougars
If you aren’t caught up on your Bear Bachmeier lore, you need to start reading up. The 47-wearing quarterback and his BYU Cougars pushed to 5-0 on Friday night with a win over West Virginia that was even more dominant than the 38-24 final score after a late Mountaineers score. This offense is one of the most fun and dynamic in the country and, if the defense can hold up as conference play heats up, the Cougs have a legitimate shot at a Big 12 title.
17. Illinois Fighting Illini
Looking at the lines coming into Saturday, it was a bit head-turning to see Illinois barely favored by more than a touchdown at Purdue. However, that’s as clear of a trap spot as you’ll find with Ohio State next on the schedule for the Illini, and they covered with ease behind a big performance from Luke Altmyer and Hank Beatty offensively. I worry about the Illini defense against Ohio State’s offense, to be sure, but still don’t underestimate the quality of Bret Bielema’s group.
16. Notre Dame Fighting Irish
Beating Boise State as handily as Notre Dame did on Saturday would’ve been far more impressive had it happened a year ago. There’s a chance that the Broncos took a much, much larger step back from last season than anyone realized, but the Fighting Irish do deserve a share of credit for making it look like light work to dispatch the Group of Five darlings in Week 6. They’ll have another seemingly soft matchup at home with NC State next week before their next big test as USC rolls into South Bend in two weeks’ time.
No. 15-11
15. Michigan Wolverines
Anyone calling Michigan’s win over Wisconsin overly impressive is straight-up lying to you. Having said that, the Wolverines continue to march on and take care of the main objective, which is adding another notch to the win column in every game that’s put before them. Bryce Underwood still needs to show a bit more consistency, especially as a passer, but with Justice Haynes and a defense that appears to keep improving, Michigan is going to be in just about every game they play this season.
14. Missouri Tigers
There might not be an undefeated team in the country that’s getting less shine than Missouri through the first month and a half of the season. What makes that even wilder is the fact that, while Eli Drinkwitz and QB Beau Pribula do have some cupcake wins, they also have notched big wins over two good teams in Kansas and South Carolina to this point. But if the Tigers really want to make the country take notice, taking down Alabama in Columbia next week would be a great way to go about that.
13. Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets
There might not be a better time in the world to regroup than after narrowly escaping an upset loss to Wake Forest, which is the situation Georgia Tech was in entering their off week. The good news is that the rest of the ACC continues to look quite awful outside of the elite teams in the conference, and the Yellow Jackets have as good of a chance as any program to make their way to Charlotte. Having said that, they need to tighten things up on defense, it seems, as they’ve allowed at least 20 points to every FBS team they’ve played this season.
12. Tennessee Volunteers
After being in a battle with Mississippi State with thousands upon thousands of cowbells flooding their eardrums last week, Tennessee was able to get a brief respite with an off week before they welcome Arkansas to town next week. The Vols continue to look like Joey Aguilar can more than adequately compete in a shootout with anyone, but for Tennessee to reach its ceiling, we need to see the defense start to look more like what we saw last season.
11. LSU Tigers
Getting a week off might be the biggest thing that LSU needed at this point, and that’s probably regardless of what happened last week against Ole Miss. Yes, the loss made a bye week even more important to start to iron out some kinks. However, as we’ve seen the Tigers defense finally find its form after years in the wilderness, Garrett Nussmeier and the offense have stumbled, due in no small part to the QB’s injury. If he can take the week to get healthier, though, I firmly believe Brian Kelly’s team will remain a factor this season.
No. 10-9
10. Texas Tech Red Raiders
Whether or not Joey McGuire knew this would be the case going into the season or not, the fact of the matter is that Texas Tech was staring down another big test this week as they went on the road to face shocking undefeated Houston. Behren Morton returned to action, though, and the Red Raiders continued to separate themselves from the rest of the Big 12, at least for now, with a statement win on the road, winning 35-11 over the Cougars.
The big question with Texas Tech after their aggressive recruiting and transfer hauls was how this group would ultimately coalesce this season. As it turns out, that’s no longer a question. Everything seems to be clicking with a high-caliber offense but, perhaps more importantly, a newfound identity and talent level in the trenches. It’s been centuries (hyperbole) since we’ve seen the Red Raiders legitimately bully teams on the lines of scrimmage, but that’s what this group specifically is capable of.
9. Georgia Bulldogs
No doubt about it, the loss to Alabama a week ago and Georgia’s 33-game home winning streak coming to a close certainly still stung coming into Saturday. However, if there was one thing that fans were hopeful for, it would be that Kirby Smart would use that loss ultimately as motivation to get even more out of the Dawgs moving forward. And in a matchup, albeit in Athens, with a Kentucky team that has given UGA fits under Mark Stoops in recent years, it was impressive to see the Bulldogs come out and just thoroughly handle business.
Particularly with how well Alabama played coming out of last week’s game, there is no reason to believe that Georgia isn’t still a highly viable College Football Playoff contender and that they can’t beat most teams in the country on any given night if they play their game. Gunner Stockton continues to grow and we’re starting to see signs of the defense playing up to its potential, even if that needs to be more consistent still. But on the whole, this was a win over the Wildcats that lends credence to the idea that Georgia’s loss last week was merely a stumbling block and not an indication of a team on the decline.
No. 8-7
8. Alabama Crimson Tide
It’s honestly a bit funny how you can think about Alabama coming out of this week. On the one hand, you have to like that this team exorcized some of the demons of last season by taking down Vanderbilt in a heavyweight fight on Saturday afternoon, trading big blows and ultimately landing the biggest haymakers to secure the win. On the other hand, the way this Crimson Tide team got worked in Week 1 by Florida State continues to look more and more head-scratching.
For what it’s worth, I still maintain that Alabama is a good but flawed football team. Ty Simpson has proven me quite wrong this season, but I’m still not convinced that this Crimson Tide defense is as dominant as we thought it could be coming into the season. However, winning a game against a team like Vandy in Week 6 does seem to alleviate some concerns that this would be a repeat of the hot-and-cold Bama team that fans grew frustrated with throughout last season.
7. Indiana Hoosiers
College football fans would be hard-pressed to find two games more different in back-to-back weeks than what Indiana did before having an off day in Week 6. They put the complete and total work on Illinois to assert their position as a viable College Football Playoff contender, only to come back the next week and get drug into the mud against Iowa. The good news for Curt Cignetti’s Hoosiers, of course, is that they emerged from both unscathed.
More importantly, the optimistic view about Indiana would be that they knew they could put the car in relative cruise control and still get past the Hawkeyes, and needed to ultimately rest up going into the bye before going on the road to face Oregon. There’s still no reason not to believe in Fernando Mendoza and Company at this point with the ceiling that they’ve showcased, and they could conceivably give the Ducks all they could handle.
No. 6-5
6. Texas A&M Aggies
Mike Elko most definitely couldn’t afford to have his Texas A&M team, even at Kyle Field in front of the 12th Man, show up on Saturday night and underestimate Mississippi State. Yes, the Bulldogs were coming off their first loss in another tough game with Tennessee a week ago, but Jeff Lebby has the Bulldogs playing inspired football on both sides of the ball. And if the Aggies had come into this Week 6 matchup taking them lightly, they would’ve been danger of getting clipped.
That didn’t happen, though. While it was a dogfight early for A&M, they continued to take body blows and deal them back out until Mississippi State finally broke under the weight of playmakers like Mario Craver, Rueben Owens II, Kevin Concepcion, and so on. That allowed the Aggies to pull away, and this team continues to keep trending toward being one of the most underrated teams in college football, even for a group that’s knocking on the door of the Top 5.
5. Oklahoma Sooners
The fact that Oklahoma put the work on Kent State really doesn’t mean all that much at this point. The Golden Flashes are one of the worst teams in college football — and have been for some time — which simply allowed the Sooners to overwhelm them with their athletes on both sides of the ball. However, you have to imagine that a healthy John Mateer leading this offense would’ve put OU to even more than a 44-0 victory on Saturday.
Unfortunately, the bigger news coming out of this week is that Mateer won’t be able to go next week for the Red River showdown with Texas. Of course, given what the Longhorns just did on the road at Florida, perhaps they shouldn’t be all that worried about their biggest rivalry matchup. With the way that matchup tends to unfold, though, it does lend itself to giving plenty of Sooners fans sleepless nights knowing that they’re banking on Michael Hawkins Jr. rather than Mateer.
No. 4-3
4. Ole Miss Rebels
If you don’t think that Ole Miss is for real this season, I don’t know what to tell you. They put the work on Tulane, which was impressive enough to take them seriously in my eyes, and then followed that up with a gritty win over LSU last week that vaulted them into the Top 5. The switch to Trinidad Chambliss at quarterback has ignited the offense once again under Lane Kiffin, but that’s not the secret sauce that is really driving the Rebels.
After all of this program’s defensive losses, largely to the NFL, from last year’s team, extreme regression from that side of the ball was expected. That, however, hasn’t happened. This unit is playing their tails off under Pete Golding right now, and they’ll have one more tune-up against a middling Washington State team before a huge showdown in Athens with the Georgia Bulldogs, one that has massive ramifications for the SEC title race.
3. Miami Hurricanes
You honestly just have to tip your cap to Miami at this point. It’s felt like every week has been a new reason to doubt Mario Cristobal’s Hurricanes, and he’s pushed Carson Beck and his team to provide a reason why that’s not the case. First it was facing Notre Dame in the opener for a big game, then it was upset-minded South Florida, then it was rival Florida, and now it’s a complete lambasting of rival Florida State in their first true road game of the year. It’s been nothing short of exceptional to this point from this team — even if they took their foot off the gas too soon on Saturday at Doak Campbell.
For as good as Beck, Malachi Toney, and this Miami offense have been, we might legitimately be looking at the best defense in the country led by Rueben Bain Jr. Even when Florida State got upset by Virginia a week ago, the offense was still humming. That wasn’t the case after the opening script for the Noles on Saturday, even in Tallahassee. Miami might now be the only team from the ACC that feels seriously like a CFP contender, but that might be enough as there should be legitimate national title hopes brewing in Miami Gardens.
No. 2-1
2. Oregon Ducks
Coming off the nail-biter overtime win over Penn State last week, Oregon has to be thankful for the week off (especially after what we just saw happen to the Nittany Lions in the aftermath of that game). But the Ducks certainly look the part of not just a team that’s better than PSU, but that could legitimately compete for a Big Ten and National Championship this season.
Dante Moore has been a revelation at quarterback this season, particularly with the immense skill position talent and offensive line around him. I’d actually contend that the former 5-star recruit is the best quarterback that the Ducks have had since Dan Lanning took over, or at least the most talented. The tests won’t stop, however, as Oregon is set to welcome a red-hot Indiana team to Eugene in Week 7 with College GameDay in the house.
1. Ohio State Buckeyes
Julian Sayin and the Ohio State passing offense woke up in maybe the biggest way we’ve seen to date against Power Four competition on Saturday night with Minnesota making the visit to Columbus. With the first play of the fourth quarter, a touchdown pass to Jeremiah Smith, Sayin hit over 325 yards passing on the night with three scores through the air. With the Buckeyes defense thwarting the Golden Gophers from the first drive on, that was more than enough.
Especially with Texas faltering to the level that they have, one could argue that Ohio State still hasn’t played the highest level of competition to this point. They’ve played good teams, without question, and handled their business. However, their showdown with Illinois next week will provide maybe the most clarity yet as to just what the ceiling is for the Buckeyes in their plight to go back-to-back as national champions.