AP College Football Poll 2014: Official Top-25 Rankings and Week 8 Projections
It’s not every day that the No. 1 team in the country wins by three scores and still falls in the Associated Press Poll, but that is exactly what happened in Week 7 of the college football season.
Florida State handled Syracuse, but Mississippi State was more impressive in a critical victory over Auburn. What’s more, Ole Miss controlled its game against Texas A&M and earned the No. 3 spot in that AP Poll.
Here is a look at the latest AP rankings:
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| 1 | Mississippi State |
| 2 | Florida State |
| 3 | Ole Miss |
| 4 | Baylor |
| 5 | Notre Dame |
| 6 | Auburn |
| 7 | Alabama |
| 8 | Michigan State |
| 9 | Oregon |
| 10 | Georgia |
| 11 | Oklahoma |
| 12 | TCU |
| 13 | Ohio State |
| 14 | Kansas State |
| 15 | Oklahoma State |
| 16 | Arizona |
| 17 | Arizona State |
| 18 | East Carolina |
| 19 | Nebraska |
| 20 | Utah |
| 21 | Texas A&M |
| 22 | USC |
| 23 | Stanford |
| 24 | Clemson |
| 25 | Marshall |
You will read plenty of projections on the biggest games on the Week 8 schedule, like Florida State against Notre Dame, so here is a look at some of the under-the-radar contests that could shape the college football narrative moving forward.
Week 8 Projections
Utah at Oregon State
While all the talk about the Pac-12 this season has centered on Oregon, UCLA, USC, Stanford, Arizona and even Arizona State, Utah has quietly played its way into the conference race.
The Utes turned some heads in nonconference play when it completely controlled the game at Michigan and then surprised the league when they walked into UCLA and picked up a dramatic road game.
Now Utah is ranked, but it needs to deliver at Oregon State. This is the second game in a brutal seven-game stretch where the Utes play UCLA, Oregon State, USC, Arizona State, Oregon, Stanford and Arizona all in a row.
The key here will be the balanced offensive attack of Utah going up against a beatable Oregon State defense. The Utes average 217.8 passing yards and 202.2 rushing yards a game and should have their way against a Beavers defense that gave up a combined 66 points the last two weeks to USC and Colorado.
Oregon State also allowed 30 points to Hawaii and won’t get any breaks in the turnover department from Utah, as Adam Rittenberg of ESPN noted:
Oregon State will score some points, but Utah’s offense is simply too much in this one.
Prediction: Utah 38, Oregon State 28
Baylor at West Virginia
If there was ever a letdown game on the schedule for Baylor, it will be at West Virginia Saturday.
For one, it is almost impossible to expect the Bears to be emotionally ready to go again after their dramatic 21-point comeback against TCU in a top-10 showdown. Baylor is officially in the College Football Playoff discussion, but it has to bring the same intensity every week.
West Virginia is a sneaky team that gave Alabama all it could handle and hung with Oklahoma for four quarters. What’s more, the crowd will be rocking with a top-five opponent in the house and a chance to make an impact in the Big 12 race.
Baylor will get off to a slow start in this one. It is a noon kickoff the week after one of the most important and emotional wins in program history, and it will take a quarter or so to get into the flow.
That alone will keep it close, but the Bears offense will prove to be too much for West Virginia. The Mountaineers are 72nd in the nation in points allowed per game, while Baylor leads the nation in scoring and averages 371 passing yards per game.
It is simply too much to ask of that West Virginia defense to contain the Bears attack for an entire four quarters. This one will be closer than the final score indicates, but Baylor will pick up yet another victory.
Baylor 45, West Virginia 31
Washington at Oregon
Washington and its fans would love nothing more than to knock Oregon out of the College Football Playoff race, and this is the chance.
However, the Huskies’ 5-1 record is a bit misleading, because those victories came against Hawaii, Eastern Washington, Illinois, Georgia State and California. That Eastern Washington game came down to the final moments and finished with a 59-52 score.
If Eastern Washington is putting up 52 points against the Huskies, Marcus Mariota could have himself a day.
Interestingly, Washington coach Chris Petersen and Oregon coach Mark Helfrich were together on Oregon’s staff in 1997. Helfrich discussed their relationship, via Tyson Alger of The Oregonian, "The guy is a lifelong friend of mine and that won't change. I know that's going to make both of our fanbases very unhappy."
Oregon’s fanbase won’t be that unhappy when the Ducks offense carves up Washington’s vulnerable defense.
Oregon has had problems protecting Mariota, but the Huskies are not the team to take advantage of that for an entire four quarters. What’s more, Oregon will be at home, where it rarely ever loses, and still controls its Pac-12 destiny.
This may be a rivalry game, but the Huskies simply don’t have the personnel on defense to contain Oregon’s high-power attack the whole game.
Prediction: Oregon 41, Washington 24
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