NCAA Football Rankings 2014: Hits and Misses from Week 13
There weren't any upsets among the teams fighting for a playoff spot, save for Ole Miss' shutout loss to Arkansas. However, Ohio State and Florida State were two of the teams that avoided a massive letdown.
How do the Sunday afternoon polls look as a result? There's not a ton of change at the top, which should be expected. After that, it's anyone's guess.
As is customary every Sunday, The Associated Press and USA Today released their new Top 25 polls. Though neither of these polls is taken into consideration with the playoff selection committee, they may provide a glimpse into where teams stand.
You can also check out the latest Bleacher Report Top 25 for comparison.
Which teams were appropriately ranked in the latest Top 25 polls? Which ones weren't? The answers are in the following slides.
Miss: UCLA
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Ranking Last Week: Coaches, No. 12; AP, No. 11; CFP: No. 9
Current Coaches Poll: No. 10
Current AP Poll: No. 9
Current B/R Poll: No. 9 (tie)
I'll be the first to admit it: UCLA wasn't impressive through the first half of the season. Sure, the Bruins had wins, but they also had a hard time moving the ball consistently and had numerous protection issues up front.
However, quietly, the Bruins have licked their wounds, improved and turned into one of the better teams in the country. A 38-20 win over USC gives UCLA five victories in a row, and the team's only two losses are to Utah and Oregon.
More than anything, UCLA held USC's high-powered offense to just 13 points Saturday. That's no easy task, with the likes of Nelson Agholor, Juju Smith and Buck Allen at the wide receiver and running back spots, respectively.
UCLA now has a clear path to the Pac-12 Championship Game as long as it beats Stanford next week. Beat Oregon and, as Ralph Russo of The Associated Press points out, who knows what could happen. The Bruins could have a case for a playoff spot.
Right now, given the way this team is playing, how it's not the highest-ranked two-loss team is perplexing.
Hit: Arizona
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Ranking Last Week: Coaches, No. 13; AP, No. 15; CFP: No. 15
Current Coaches Poll: No. 12
Current AP Poll: No. 12
Current B/R Poll: No. 13
It's time to recognize that Arizona is a good team that still has a chance to win the Pac-12 South. The Wildcats' latest victory, their third in a row, came in a 42-10 rout over Utah.
Arizona is now 9-2, with a win over Oregon, and would clinch the South division with a victory over Arizona State and a UCLA loss to Stanford. The Wildcats' only two losses came by a combined 12 points to USC and the Bruins. That's a solid resume, and this team doesn't look like a fluke, either. It looks like a team that could actually win 10 or more games.
Are the Cats a Top 10 team? Maybe. Bruce Feldman of Fox Sports thinks so. But this team is definitely Top 15 with a chance to move into the Top 10 at season's end.
Miss: Alabama
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Ranking Last Week: Coaches, No. 2; AP, No. 2; CFP: No. 1
Current Coaches Poll: No. 1
Current AP Poll: No. 2
Current B/R Poll: No. 1
This is strictly a criticism of the coaches polls and its methods. To be clear, if there are people out there who actually believe the Tide are the No. 1 team in the country, that's fine.
But in the coaches poll, Alabama moved up from No. 2 to No. 1 this week...after beating Western Carolina 48-14. Meanwhile, previously No. 1 Florida State moved down one spot to No. 2 after needing a late-game field goal to beat Boston College 20-17.
It's one thing if there are voters who simply don't believe Florida State is the No. 1 team in the country. It's another thing entirely to think that a blowout win over an FCS team somehow tells us anything more about Alabama than barely beating Boston College tells us about Florida State.
This is a joke.
.jpg?w=256 "Ohio State Team Doctor")
Hit: Ole Miss
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Ranking Last Week: Coaches, No. 8; AP, No. 8; CFP: No. 8
Current Coaches Poll: No. 19
Current AP Poll: No. 18
Current B/R Poll: No. 18
Things are unraveling fast for Ole Miss, a team that just a month ago had hopes of an undefeated season and a playoff appearance. After an ugly 30-0 loss to Arkansas, those dreams are long gone.
Injuries have played a role in the Rebels' fall. Linebacker Denzel Nkemdiche (ankle) and receiver Laquon Treadwell (leg) have been knocked out by season-ending injuries, and both sides of the ball have suffered as a result.
Granted, it's been a mixed bag over the past month. Playing a night game at LSU is never easy, the Auburn loss could have easily been a win had it not been for Treadwell's injury and fumble in the end zone and Arkansas is cruising like few teams in the country right now.
Still, that's amounted to three losses in four games. There's a case to made that there are 20 to 25 teams playing better than Ole Miss is right now, but plummeting out of the Top 10 and into the lower part of the Top 25 polls is enough.
Miss: Colorado State
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Ranking Last Week: Coaches, No. 23; AP, No. 22; CFP: NR
Current Coaches Poll: No. 21
Current AP Poll: No. 21
Current B/R Poll: No. 24
Which team grabs the Group of Five spot in a major bowl likely comes down to a Mountain West team, since the selection committee refuses to acknowledge Marshall. That means the conversation shifts to Colorado State and Boise State.
In some ways, it's a similar conversation to the TCU-Baylor debate. Does the head-to-head matter more or the body of work? Boise State has the head-to-head win (37-24), but it has one more overall loss (Ole Miss and Air Force).
The nonconference schedules each feature one solid opponent; the difference is that the Rams beat Boston College and the Broncos fell to Ole Miss. Is that one more win by Colorado State better than the head-to-head result? The coaches poll seems to think so.
Of course, this could all be rectified in earnest if Boise State wins out and thus wins the Mountain West. By season's end, the body of work will look differently.
Hit: Ohio State
6 of 6
Ranking Last Week: Coaches, No. 7; AP, No. 7; CFP: No.6
Current Coaches Poll: No. 7
Current AP Poll: No. 7
Current B/R Poll: No. 7
Ohio State's 42-27 win over Indiana didn't do the game justice; it was far closer than the final box score indicated. The Buckeyes didn't truly pull away until the fourth quarter.
Slow starts and subpar games have happened to every team this season. Florida State survives on a weekly basis, while Alabama, TCU and Mississippi State have all had to pull some ugly games out of their collective rears. It happens, and it happened to the Buckeyes in Week 13.
“We noticed it in warm ups, the atmosphere wasn’t the same," safety Tyvis Powell said, via Patrick Maks of ElevenWarriors.com. "It was kind of dead for the football team, so we addressed the issue in the locker room before we went out on the field, but it still seemed like nobody got it."
However, Ohio State remains where it did a week ago. With Mississippi State's easy win over Vanderbilt and Baylor winning by three touchdowns against Oklahoma State, there's no real reason to change things up in the second tier of the playoff conversation.
Even a regular blowout over Indiana may not have changed much.
Ben Kercheval is a lead writer for college football.
.jpg?w=480 "Ohio State Team Doctor")
