NCAA Football Rankings 2015: Top Reaction to Week 8 College Polls and Standings

When the season started, not many could have predicted how much things would have changed by Week 8 in the AP Top 25 poll.

With the typical crop of SEC, Pac-12 and Big 12 teams dominating the tops of the polls in the preseason and early stretches of the year, the season was shaping up to be just like the ones that preceded it, with plenty of intrigue among the Power Five conferences while the Group of Five tussled for the smallest bit of attention.

But as the leaves turned and the weather got colder and colder, the season started to shift as well, moving away from the traditional powers to a new-look Top 25 that would have seemed like a joke less than a year ago.

Perhaps the story of the season so far has been the ascent of the American Athletic Conference, who is finally represented with gusto in the AP Top 25 with three teams ranked:

Ranking	Team	Record	Points
1	Ohio State	7-0	1,428
2	Baylor	6-0	1,416
3	Utah	6-0	1,362
4	TCU	7-0	1,338
5	LSU	6-0	1,306
6	Clemson	6-0	1,252
7	Michigan State	7-0	1,202
8	Alabama	6-1	1,133
9	Florida State	6-0	1,041
10	Stanford	5-1	917
11	Notre Dame	6-1	898
12	Iowa	7-0	820
13	Florida	6-1	785
14	Oklahoma State	6-0	735
15	Texas A&M	5-1	614
15	Michigan	5-2	614
17	Oklahoma	5-1	565
18	Memphis	6-0	554
19	Toledo	6-0	346
20	California	5-1	337
21	Houston	6-0	318
22	Temple	6-0	217
23	Duke	5-1	211
24	Mississippi	5-2	158
25	Pittsburgh	5-1	73

Since conference realignment spelled the end of the Big East, which proceeded to transform to the AAC, things haven’t been great for the once-proud conference, forced to add a number of teams to stay relevant in the larger scheme of football.

Of those teams, three are now ranked, with Memphis joining the rankings at No. 18, Houston up to No. 21 and Temple—a one-time Big East team before being removed from the conference—ranked for the first time since 1979 at No. 22, per Stewart Mandel of Sports Illustrated:

The rise of the American in recent weeks has seen the battle for the top Group of Five ranking heat up, with Toledo no longer in the pole position for the New Year’s Six Bowl that is associated with the honor and Memphis taking over its spot.

Other teams are also benefiting from the most recent rankings, with No. 11 Notre Dame finding itself with back-to-back ranked games against Temple and No. 25 Pittsburgh, teams who not many expected to be ranked at this point in the year, as Pete Sampson of Irish Illustrated noted:

At the other end of the polls, the top teams held to form, with Ohio State maintaining its every weaker grip on No. 1, while teams like LSU, Baylor and TCU close the gap for the top spot.

One of the teams chasing the Buckeyes has been arguably the biggest surprise of the year: the No. 3 Utah Utes. With impressive wins against Michigan and Oregon, Utah has gone from unranked before the year to the Top Three with a playoff spot likely if the Utes can finish the year undefeated.

Perhaps the most impressive part of Utah’s season so far, though, is doing so against one of the toughest schedules in the country, as Matthew Piper of the Salt Lake Tribune pointed out:

"

Of teams in the coaches top 25, only No. 17 Michigan and No. 19 Cal have faced opposition with a higher win % than Utah's opponents: 65.5%

— Matthew Piper (@matthew_piper) October 18, 2015"

Heading into the year, the Pac-12 was expected to be one of the top two conferences in the country, with some even claiming it had dethroned the mighty SEC for the top overall spot.

But even with Utah climbing the polls rapidly and Stanford ranked No. 10, the Pac-12 has seen the Top 25 teams from its conference dwindle as the season has gone along, according to RedditCFB:

While Utah has climbed the rankings, the team it defeated in the first week of the season, Michigan, had seen a similar uptick in performance in its first season under Jim Harbaugh.

The Wolverines went into Week 7 with one loss on their resume and a chance to jump into the top 10 with a win against rivals Michigan State, who were undefeated and ranked No. 7 before the game. Then this happened:

It was one of the craziest plays in college football’s long history and meant the Spartans are on track for a possible undefeated battle with the Buckeyes in a few weeks, but it was heartbreaking for Michigan, who was the better team throughout.

Perhaps because of the craziness of the finish, or because they outplayed Michigan State, the Wolverines were not punished too harshly for the defeat, only falling from No. 12 to No. 15, per Michigan Football’s official Twitter account:

The season is in its second half, and separation is starting to develop between the top teams and the rest of the pack. And without the high-profile matchups of Week 7, this coming weekend could prove to be a different kind of test.

Keeping focused on winning and avoiding the upset, and the teams that look ahead to bigger matchups in Week 9 or beyond could be caught off guard in what has been a season of surprise results and upsets.