Once again, this college football season delivered amid an afternoon slate that at first glanced appeared to be maybe a little bit of a snooze. There were just two ranked-on-ranked games on the docket, but both of them turned out to be absolute belters. Meanwhile, the SEC decided to go completely off the rails, with both Alabama and Texas enduring scares at South Carolina and Mississippi State, respectively.
The big winners were Vanderbilt and Ole Miss, who hung on for wins against Missouri and Oklahoma, respectively. As for the losers, well, USF fell in a barnburner at Memphis to throw the AAC (and CFP) picture into complete chaos, while ranked Illinois got blasted in a body clock game at Washington.
Where does that leave the college football rankings when the dust settles? Here's how we see the top 25 as things currently stand, at the conclusion of this afternoon's games.
Projected college football rankings after Vanderbilt tops Missouri, Alabama and Texas survive
- Ohio State
- Indiana
- Texas A&M
- Alabama
- Georgia
- Ole Miss
- Oregon
- Vanderbilt
- Georgia Tech
- Miami (FL)
- BYU
- Notre Dame
- Texas Tech
- Virginia
- Tennessee
- Missouri
- South Florida
- Louisville
- Oklahoma
- LSU
- Cincinnati
- Arizona State
- Texas
- USC
- Michigan
How far should Missouri, Oklahoma drop?
Week 9 gave us exactly two ranked-on-ranked matchups, both of which involved one-loss SEC teams: Ole Miss taking on one-loss Oklahoma in Norman, and Vanderbilt looking for a second straight marquee win against Missouri. And in the end, both of them delivered in a big, big way.
The Rebels moved the ball in a way that we haven't seen an offense do against this Sooners defense all season, getting 315 yards through the air from Trinidad Chambliss and 78 on the ground from running back Kewan Lacy. Things got hairy in the second half, as Oklahoma's offense roared to life to turn a 22-10 halftime deficit into an unlikely 26-25 fourth-quarter lead. But Chambliss kept on delivering, putting together two scoring drives while John Mateer came up empty in a 34-26 loss.
In Nashville, meanwhile, the story was much the opposite, as neither Vandy nor Mizzou could get much of any offense going for most of the afternoon. As he's done all year, though, Diego Pavia delivered, putting together a fourth-quarter touchdown drive that proved to be the difference in a 17-10 win that moves the Commodores to 7-1 and very much alive in the SEC title race.
For Vandy and Ole Miss, they keep on keeping on, although there's a ceiling as to how far they can rise given the unbeatens ahead of them and the presence of other one-loss teams like Alabama and Georgia. I think the Dores have done enough to leapfrog ACC teams like Georgia Tech and Miami, though, all the way up to No. 8.
Oklahoma and Missouri are trickier cases. On the one hand, neither of these were bad losses, and both still sit at a very respectable 6-2 in a rugged conference. I don't want to drop them too much, although I think one-loss Texas Tech and UVA likely jump both. I'm a bit more partial to Missouri, just because their second loss (to Alabama) is better than Oklahoma's (to Texas). Both should remain firmly in the top 20, though.
Does Texas still deserve to be ranked?
"Escape" might somehow be underselling what the Longhorns did at Mississippi State on Saturday afternoon. Steve Sarkisian's team looked dead in the water, down 31-14 at the start of the fourth quarter. But the defense finally clamped down, Arch Manning and Ryan Wingo caught fire and a shocking punt-return TD from Ryan Niblett with just minutes remaining forced overtime, where backup QB Matthew Caldwell subbed in for a dazed Manning and threw the game-winning touchdown to Emmett Mosley.
Everybody exhale. Texas fans will no doubt take it; they remain at two losses, still alive for the SEC title game (though the math isn't in their favor) and a potential at-large bid in the College Football Playoff. Really, though, does this team inspire confidence in anyone right now? Their resume starts and ends with a win over Oklahoma, a team with a quarterback playing with one thumb, and the next time they convincingly beat a Power 4 team this year will be the first.
Ultimately, I kept them in the top 25 more by default than anything. At a certain point, you simply run out of quality teams, and nothing USC and Michigan have done tells me they're any more trustworthy than this Texas team right now. Things aren't great in Austin at the moment, though.