NCAA Football Rankings 2015: Top Reaction to Week 13 College Polls and Standings

A mere two weeks remain in college football’s regular season before the postseason is set, with rivalry week ahead followed by conference championship games that will (hopefully) sort out the politics in determining the College Football Playoff participants.

The CFP committee’s weekly poll doesn’t release until Tuesday, but the Associated Press Top 25 and Amway Coaches polls surfaced Sunday.

The AP poll is virtually inconsequential now that the 12-person committee selects the final four and often has contrasting selections, but the AP’s poll is still an interesting gauge with a two-day gap before the meaningful poll.

Here is a look at the AP, Coaches and Bleacher Report Week 13 polls:

There weren’t many surprises considering the on-field results from Week 12, but Iowa jumping three spots to No. 3—surpassing two teams that lost and Notre Dame—proves the voters value that the Hawkeyes remain unbeaten.

Iowa hasn’t reached such a status in over a decade, according to Jon Miller of HawkeyeNation.com:

Clemson, the only other unbeaten, received 55 of the 61 first-place votes in the AP poll, with Alabama receiving the remaining six.

Notre Dame, Oklahoma, Michigan State and Baylor all ascended, as expected, while Ohio State fell six spots to No. 8 after its first loss of the season Saturday to Michigan State.

It’ll be interesting to see if Iowa also jumps Notre Dame in this week's CFP poll, as the Fighting Irish—despite ranking No. 4 the past two weeks—have been speculated to not control their own destiny, as Michael David Smith of Pro Football Talk noted:

The team to keep an eye on is Oklahoma. The Sooners ranked seventh in all three polls after Week 12 and jumped to No. 5 in the two released Sunday. Should they make a similar advance in the CFP rankings, they’ll be the first team on the outside and in favorable position.

The Sooners narrowly edged TCU in Week 12, allowing 16 fourth-quarter points but holding onto a 30-29 win, and the close call, albeit against the No. 15 CFP team, may warrant worry. But Oklahoma can still win the Big 12 with a victory over AP No. 9 Oklahoma State, coming off a loss to Baylor, in this weekend’s finale.

Some already believed the Sooners should be the final team in before they beat TCU on Saturday:

Don’t expect Michigan State to jump Oklahoma, as was the case in Sunday’s polls.

The Spartans control their own destiny regardless by winning out—they’ll play Iowa in the Big Ten Championship Game in a de facto matchup for the playoff should they defeat Penn State this weekend.

The Top Eight in both the Coaches and AP polls remain the same, but each had a different rendition from the CFP final four in two of the three times since the initial rankings released before Week 10.