NCAA Football Rankings 2013: Predicting the Top 25 After Week 13
Three highly ranked teams battling other AP Top 25 programs highlighted Week 13 of the 2013 college football season, but underdogs came out firing on Saturday.
National championship hopeful and No. 3 Baylor was overpowered by 11th-ranked Oklahoma State 49-17.
Ninth-ranked Texas A&M was routed by No. 18 LSU, failing to score 40 points in a game for the first time all season and losing 34-10.
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No. 14 UCLA fell behind 19th-ranked Arizona State early, staged a remarkable comeback in the second half but came up short, dropping a 38-33 thriller.
The upset of the day occurred when No. 5 Oregon was shocked by Arizona, suffering a 26-point dismantling on the road.
Overshadowed by the above matchups, eighth-ranked Missouri outlasted No. 24 Ole Miss 24-10.
Overall, five ranked programs came up short on Saturday, including four in the Top 15, so there will be plenty of changes in the newest poll.
Notes: Previous rankings based on Week 13 AP Top 25. This is an AP projection, not BCS.
| Rank (Last week) | Team |
| 1 (1) | Alabama |
| 2 (2) | Florida State |
| 3 (4) | Ohio State |
| 4 (6) | Auburn |
| 5 (7) | Clemson |
| 6 (8) | Missouri |
| 7 (11) | Oklahoma State |
| 8 (10) | Stanford |
| 9 (3) | Baylor |
| 10 (12) | South Carolina |
| 11 (13) | Michigan State |
| 12 (5) | Oregon |
| 13 (18) | LSU |
| 14 (15) | Fresno State |
| 15 (16) | Wisconsin |
| 16 (17) | UCF |
| 17 (19) | Arizona State |
| 18 (9) | Texas A&M |
| 19 (20) | Northern Illinois |
| 20 (21) | Louisville |
| 21 (14) | UCLA |
| 22 (22) | Oklahoma |
| 23 (23) | USC |
| 24 (25) | Duke |
| 25 (NR) | Notre Dame |
Fun Facts
Unsurprisingly, the SEC again leads the projections with six ranked programs. The Pac-12 keeps five in the polls, while the ACC, Big Ten and Big 12 list three schools each.
Oregon will fall out of the Top 10 for the first time since Week 3 of the 2011 season, snapping a streak of 42 consecutive appearances.
Consequent to Auburn moving up to No. 4, the 2013 edition of the Iron Bowl will be the first time since 1971 that both Auburn and Alabama are ranked in the Top Five during the annual meeting.
Fresno State will be ranked 10 times in a season for only the third time in program history and is currently one shy of a school-record 11 appearances in 2001.
Rising: Oklahoma State Cowboys
Many conversations around the nation revolved around how Baylor would jump Ohio State in the next BCS rankings.
Oklahoma State, however, decided the Bears would not do that, but for a widely overlooked reason—the Cowboys absolutely smashed Baylor.
Clint Chelf threw for 370 yards while accounting for four total touchdowns, and Kye Staley tacked on two more scores to propel the 'Pokes to an enormous conference victory.
Oklahoma State earned its 10th win of the year and gets a bye week before hosting rival Oklahoma on Dec. 7.
Falling: Oregon Ducks
A few weeks back, Oregon was handled by Stanford, and its BCS bowl chances took a huge hit. But the Cardinal were upset by USC last Saturday, and the Ducks were gifted another opportunity to win the Pac-12.
For some reason, however, a few Oregon players were not exactly thrilled at the prospects of going to another Rose Bowl.
"We already won a Rose Bowl, so it feels like, 'Whatever?'" said De'Anthony Thomas, according to ESPN.com's Kevin Gemmell.
Well, after Saturday's 26-point beatdown at the hands of the Arizona Wildcats, Oregon doesn't have to worry about heading to Pasadena during bowl season.
The Ducks dropped to 9-2 and will play rival Oregon State on Friday, Nov. 29.
Rising: LSU Tigers
The 2013 campaign has been a roller coaster for the LSU Tigers, and on Saturday, Zach Mettenberger and Co. officially survived the biggest drop.
A week after being dominated by top-ranked Alabama, LSU unleashed its fury on Johnny Manziel and the Texas A&M Aggies.
Paced by Terrence Magee's 149 yards, the Tigers ran for 324 yards on the day, and Mettenberger tossed a pair of touchdowns to wide receiver Jarvis Landry.
Manziel was limited to 278 total yards, and LSU improved to 8-3 on the season.
Falling: UCLA Bruins
UCLA fell behind to Arizona State 35-13 at halftime, and the 22-point deficit was too much for the Bruins to overcome during the second half.
Brett Hundley nearly led UCLA to a second-half comeback, but the Sun Devils survived the furious rally, topping the Bruins 38-33.
UCLA surrendered 460 yards of total offense and allowed Arizona State quarterback Taylor Kelly to complete 20 of 27 passes.
The Bruins needed a win to earn the Pac-12 South Division title, but UCLA fell to 8-3 and must battle rival USC next weekend.
Follow Bleacher Report CFB Writer David Kenyon on Twitter @Kenyon19_BR
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