NCAA Football Rankings: Predicting the Top 25 After Week 8
Week 8 looked like a boring slate on paper with only one matchup between ranked teams and College GameDay shipping off to James Madison for what turned out to be a fun FCS shootout.
But as the college football world moved into the later slots Saturday, the schedule proved us all wrong, as Virginia Tech blog the Key Play eloquently—and loudly—put it on Twitter:
.jpg?w=256 "Ohio State Team Doctor")
This crazy, wonderful sport gave fans a big-time upset of a Top 10 team that ended on a blocked field goal return, a lopsided loss for a Top 5 team, a historic blowout for a storied program and a few close calls for some of those teams with the all-important numbers beside their names.
That chaos on what was supposed to be a rather dreary day of action will undoubtedly shake some things up in the Top 25.
So, as always at this time of the weekend, here's a projection of how the pollsters in the Associated Press will sort through Week 8's insanity, along with three highlighted risers and fallers.
| 1. Ohio State | 1 | 8-0 | Won 49-7 at Rutgers |
| 2. Baylor | 2 | 7-0 | Won 45-27 vs. Iowa State |
| 3. Clemson | 6 | 7-0 | Won 58-0 at Miami |
| 4. TCU | 4 | 7-0 | BYE WEEK |
| 5. LSU | 5 | 7-0 | Won 48-20 vs. Western Kentucky |
| 6. Michigan State | 7 | 8-0 | Won 52-26 vs. Indiana |
| 7. Stanford | 10 | 6-1 | Won 31-14 vs. Washington |
| 8. Alabama | 8 | 7-1 | Won 19-14 vs. Tennessee |
| 9. Notre Dame | 11 | 6-1 | BYE WEEK |
| 10. Iowa | 12 | 7-0 | BYE WEEK |
| 11. Utah | 3 | 6-1 | Lost 42-24 at USC |
| 12. Florida | 13 | 6-1 | BYE WEEK |
| 13. Oklahoma State | 14 | 7-0 | Won 58-10 vs. Kansas |
| 14. Oklahoma | 17 | 6-1 | Won 63-27 vs. Texas Tech |
| 15. Florida State | 9 | 6-1 | Lost 22-16 at Georgia Tech |
| 16. Michigan | 15 | 5-2 | BYE WEEK |
| 17. Memphis | 18 | 7-0 | Won 66-42 at Tulsa |
| 18. Toledo | 19 | 7-0 | Won 51-35 at UMass |
| 19. Houston | 21 | 7-0 | Won 59-10 at UCF |
| 20. Ole Miss | 24 | 6-2 | Won 23-3 vs. No. 15 Texas A&M |
| 21. Temple | 22 | 7-0 | Won 24-14 at East Carolina |
| 22. Duke | 23 | 6-1 | Won 45-43 (4OT) at Virginia Tech |
| 23. Pittsburgh | 25 | 6-1 | Won 23-20 at Syracuse |
| 24. UCLA | NR | 5-2 | Won 40-24 vs. No. 20 Cal |
| 25. Texas A&M | 15 | 5-2 | Lost 23-3 at No. 24 Ole Miss |
Moving up
Clemson
There's routing a team. There's demoralizing a team. There's ripping the heart out of a team.
And then, somehow, there's what Clemson did to Miami Saturday away from home. The Tigers handed the Hurricanes their worst loss in school history—a 58-0 result in which Clemson outgained Miami by 421 yards.
"While national polls don’t typically jump teams from No. 6 to No. 1 without some serious fallout above the squad in question, Clemson is showing why it deserves, at the very least, some No. 1 votes and clear consideration for one of four College Football Playoff spots," Bleacher Report's Greg Wallace wrote Saturday.
A No. 1 jump is almost impossible, sure, but there's no real reason the Tigers shouldn't take advantage of No. 3's loss, No. 4's bye week and an average nonconference win for No. 5 in the AP poll. Clemson had the most eye-popping final score of Saturday, and the pollsters will most likely give one of the surest bets in the playoff race a rankings bump to match.
Stanford
Beside Clemson, is there any other team playing better football right now than Stanford?
The Cardinal followed up their 21-point victory over UCLA last week with a solid victory at home over Washington. The Huskies never threatened after Stanford opened up a 17-0 halftime lead, and Christian McCaffrey continued his hot streak with 300 all-purpose yards and two touchdowns.
Stanford has now won six straight games by multiple scores, and its victories over the Los Angeles schools look even better after this week's action. With the offense clicking and the defense putting up its best performance of the season against any team not named UCF, the Cardinal could be in store for another bump.
One-loss Alabama didn't blow many people away with its tight home win over Tennessee. My prediction: Stanford jumps the Crimson Tide in addition to receiving the standard bumps from two Top 10 teams falling.
Ole Miss
Even without all-world defensive tackle Robert Nkemdiche, Ole Miss handcuffed a high-powered Texas A&M offense at home Saturday in a 23-3 victory.
The Rebels were far from impressive on offense—they turned it over four times—but they still managed to keep the Aggies to just three points. A&M starting quarterback Kyle Allen went 12-of-34 through the air and went 1-of-18 with an interception during one stretch of action.
Ole Miss' bounceback win over a higher-ranked opponent will have it moving up in the polls after hanging in there following last week's loss at still-undefeated Memphis. But how far should the Rebels climb?
With No. 20 Cal losing at UCLA, Temple needing another second-half surge to stay undefeated and the ACC combo of Duke and Pittsburgh pulling out extra-tight wins, this projection has Ole Miss leaping to the spot formerly owned by the Golden Bears. A 20-point win over a ranked team should have some considerable weight.
Moving down
Utah
Utah entered the Coliseum Saturday as the surprising underdog to USC, a team that had lost three of its last four games and was under an interim head coach.
But the experts in Las Vegas were proved right yet again as the Trojans handled the Utes by a score of 42-24. Quarterback Travis Wilson regressed with four interceptions, and USC held running back Devontae Booker to 62 rushing yards and zero scores.
"We didn't expect to get punched in the mouth like that," Utah linebacker Gionni Paul said, per ESPN. "I forgot what it feels like to lose. I'm so used to winning. It's a bad feeling. A lot of guys in the locker room didn't like that, so I don't think we are going to lose anymore."
In defense of Paul, Utah has a favorable schedule from here on out and still has control in the Pac-12 South race. But the Utes didn't play like a playoff contender Saturday night, so they're destined to fall out of the Top 10 and into a mix of undefeated surprises and fellow one-loss squads.
Florida State
The Seminoles hadn't lost an ACC game in more than three calendar years, and their streak-snapping loss to Georgia Tech was as memorable as it was heartbreaking for those in garnet and gold.
Georgia Tech, which had lost five straight games heading into Saturday night, blocked a Roberto Aguayo field goal and ran it back 78 yards as time expired to win 22-16 in Atlanta.
While the spotlight will be on FSU's special teams, the main issue with Jimbo Fisher's team against GT was offense. With star running back Dalvin Cook visibly banged-up, Florida State only put up one touchdown on the Yellow Jackets and was held scoreless in the entire second half. The Seminoles' only touchdown drive of the night went for two yards.
Georgia Tech had an ugly-looking record, but its defeats came to teams that had a combined four losses heading into Week 8. Florida State falls to No. 15 here—just ahead of two-loss Michigan and the run of undefeated programs in the Group of Five conferences.
Texas A&M
Texas A&M is flat-out reeling after its second straight loss in the SEC West, a 20-point defeat to Ole Miss. If it weren't for the likes of Myles Garrett and Armani Watts on John Chavis' much-improved Aggie defense, this one could've been extremely ugly.
"We got whipped," head coach Kevin Sumlin said, per Brandon Wheeland of the Dallas Morning News. "Offensively we couldn't move the ball. Turnovers, penalties, couldn't get off the field enough on defense in the first half. The opportunities we had, we weren't able to stay on the field and move the football."
The Aggies put up just 192 yards on the Rebels, which is by far their lowest output since last season's 59-0 embarrassment at Alabama. In an even stranger twist, quarterback Kyle Allen was benched for third-stringer Jake Hubenak instead of highly touted true freshman Kyler Murray.
While things are looking low for the Aggies, a drop from a spot as high as No. 15 to one completely out of the Top 25 is pretty rare. Earlier this season, Texas A&M beat top Week 8 vote-getter (not in the Top 25) Mississippi State—which a victorious UCLA team jumped here last week—and there isn't another can't-miss team on the verge. I predict Texas A&M gets the Ole Miss treatment and stays in the polls this week.
Justin Ferguson is a college football writer at Bleacher Report. You can follow him on Twitter @JFergusonBR.
.jpg?w=480 "Ohio State Team Doctor")
