The first thing that you’ll notice about our rankings is that we have a new #1. While only a few of the coaches and AP voters felt that Ohio State’s lackluster performance against Northern Illinois warranted a drop out of the #1 spot, a full 12 out of 17 (71%) of our voters felt that the Buckeyes no longer look like the top team in the nation. Our voters have been pretty fluid, though, and Ohio State is still probably the most talented overall, so if they can go back to blowing out teams they’ll probably move back up eventually. Unsurprisingly, Ole Miss made the biggest jump in this week’s rankings after beating Alabama in Tuscaloosa.
LWOS College Football Week 3 Top 25
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Just missed out: Arizona State
Dropped Out: Auburn (22), Missouri (23), Boise State (25)
For the first time this season, the SEC does not have the most teams ranked in our poll. No, that honor would go to the Pac 12, who put six teams in to the SEC’s five. The Big XII also has five teams, as Oklahoma State just snuck into the spot vacated by Boise State, whose resume took a bit of a hit with BYU’s loss. Missouri hasn’t lost a game yet, but after two very lackluster wins in the last two weeks their time being ranked by our voters is over for now.
The Big Ten has the top two teams in the country right now according to our voters, with four overall in the Top 25. Wisconsin moved back in after another good defensive performance while Northwestern keeps on sliding up with their middling offense but dominant defense. There were no Group of 5 teams in the poll this week, though Toledo and Houston each got a bit of support. The two independents of Notre Dame and BYU finish our conference roundup.
I have to give the same warning for the Pac 12 that I gave for the SEC in the beginning of the year. They have a lot of teams, especially from the Pac 12 South, bunched together towards the back of the rankings. As those teams play each other and lose games, it is very likely that some of those teams will drop out eventually.
