College football’s Week 7 was one for the history books, as five of the top seven teams in the AP Top 25 lost on the same day for the first time in the history of the poll. Upsets took out both Nos. 1 and 2 — Georgia and Notre Dame — on the same day for the first time in 14 years.
Saturday was pure chaos. And when the sport gets turned on its head, the poll should follow. But how?
Sifting through the carnage was difficult. I had to figure out how far to drop each team that lost, weighing the relative losses. I also had to rank 25 total teams, which proved quite difficult when you get into the 14-25 range with teams that may be flawed or have a bad loss … but still have some good wins. It’s very messy in the back half of the Top 25.
But the hardest part of voting this week was filling in the top spot. Who should be the No. 1 team in the country now?
I considered Ohio State, BYU and Miami. I know some national pundits immediately assumed after Notre Dame lost that the Hurricanes would simply slide up. But it took two overtimes for them to escape a mediocre Florida State team with a head coach on the hot seat. And what’s Miami’s best win? Over Wake Forest — a team that only jumped into the official Top 25 last week? Even though I rank the Demon Deacons higher than my peers, I’ll acknowledge that there’s not much meat on that bone beyond that result. I’m also not surprised that enough of my peers opted to move Miami up because the two teams above them last week lost, but I really think everyone should be weighing bodies of work now that we’re halfway through the season and some teams have played significantly more challenging schedules than others.
Ohio State has two really good wins — over Indiana, which stayed in my top five, and Iowa, a top-15 outfit in my mind. And both of those victories came on the road. That’s a strong resume, even with the inexplicable fourth-quarter collapse in Austin. But the Texas game ended up being a sticking point for me this week and the reason I didn’t put Ohio State in the top spot. That loss is looking worse by the week as the Longhorns free-fall. The Buckeyes are still easily my top one-loss team, but I couldn’t quite pull the trigger on the top spot for them.
That’s because BYU now owns one of the best wins in the country. I vaulted the Cougars up to the top spot on the strength of the home win over Notre Dame (and the sneaky good win over Arizona early in the season). What we saw on Saturday night was undoubtedly impressive. The BYU offense surprised me; I really didn’t think Bear Bachmeier and co. would have enough offensive firepower to keep pace with the Irish, but BYU gashed the Notre Dame defense with chunk plays for most of the first half. They used trick plays but also just their normal offense to set the tone of this game, while their defense put a ton of pressure on CJ Carr and the Irish offense — which looked completely out of rhythm and scared, at times, to throw the ball into the middle of the field. Yes, Carr had a few spectacular throws late in the comeback bid, and we can all debate the officiating error(s) on the final play of the game. But BYU was also a deserving winner that made quite a statement both for itself and its conference. The Cougars are tough and physical, a force to be reckoned with coupled with a fearless quarterback. BYU coach Kalani Sitake told me in July that he’s not into politicking for College Football Playoff spots.
His team’s play spoke for itself on Saturday night.
Stray thoughts/observations:
- I realized after I submitted my ballot that I probably should have ranked Arizona, especially if I’m using BYU’s win over the Wildcats as a significant feather in their cap. But thankfully my fellow voters nudged Arizona into the official Top 25, so at least they (and the Cougs) are getting their due.
- How about the Big 12 representation? BYU at No. 2, Texas Tech at No. 8, Utah at No. 10, Houston at No. 14, and Arizona at No. 25. Oklahoma State is the first team out after the close loss to Houston. Brett Yormark must be somewhere, nodding approvingly. The league is in great shape to get multiple teams into the College Football Playoff — and to draw tremendous interest in the Big 12 race down the stretch.
- UCLA is the Big Ten’s last unbeaten team, and the Bruins are now a top-10 squad. They check in at No. 9 after a nice win over a much-improved Wisconsin team at the Rose Bowl.
- Using the new rankings, we’ve got two top-20 showdowns scheduled for next Saturday: Houston at Utah and Ole Miss at Texas.