College Football Rankings 2016: Week 7 Polls, Schedule and Standings Predictions
The College Football Playoff picture is coming into focus, the top contenders are emerging and the season's storylines are starting to write themselves.
But there's a whole lot of football left to be played—and quite a few excellent matchups in Week 7.
Below, we'll break down this week's latest polls, the top games on the schedule and preview two of the biggest matchups on tap.
.jpg?w=256 "Ohio State Team Doctor")
Polls
Schedule
| Friday, Oct. 14 | 7 p.m. | Duke at Louisville | Louisville |
| Saturday, Oct. 15 | 12 p.m. | Kansas State at Oklahoma | Oklahoma |
| Saturday, Oct. 15 | 12 p.m. | West Virginia at Texas Tech | West Virginia |
| Saturday, Oct. 15 | 12 p.m. | NC State at Clemson | Clemson |
| Saturday, Oct. 15 | 3:30 p.m. | Wake Forest at Florida State | Florida State |
| Saturday, Oct. 15 | 3:30 p.m. | Kansas at Baylor | Baylor |
| Saturday, Oct. 15 | 3:30 p.m. | Nebraska at Indiana | Nebraska |
| Saturday, Oct. 15 | 3:30 p.m. | North Carolina at Miami | Miami |
| Saturday, Oct. 15 | 3:30 p.m. | Alabama at Tennessee | Alabama |
| Saturday, Oct. 15 | 3:45 p.m. | Virginia Tech at Syracuse | Virginia Tech |
| Saturday, Oct. 15 | 4 p.m. | Utah at Oregon State | Utah |
| Saturday, Oct. 15 | 4 p.m. | Missouri at Florida | Florida |
| Saturday, Oct. 15 | 7 p.m. | Ole Miss at Arkansas | Ole Miss |
| Saturday, Oct. 15 | 7 p.m. | Tulsa at Houston | Tulsa |
| Saturday, Oct. 15 | 7:30 p.m. | Stanford at Notre Dame | Stanford |
| Saturday, Oct. 15 | 8 p.m. | Ohio State at Wisconsin | Ohio State |
| Saturday, Oct. 15 | 10:15 p.m. | Colorado State at Boise State | Boise State |
Analysis
There are two games in particular that everyone will be anticipating on Saturday: Alabama traveling to Knoxville to face Tennessee and Wisconsin hosting Ohio State in prime time.
The former will have huge SEC implications. Alabama is not only looking to remain undefeated and atop the college football rankings, but it also has undefeated Texas A&M nipping at its heels in the SEC West. A loss would leave Alabama trailing the Aggies before a matchup against them in two weeks.
It would also leave the Crimson Tide in catch-up mode to reach this season's College Football Playoff.
A loss for Tennessee, meanwhile, would leave Florida—and not the Volunteers—in the driver's seat in the SEC East.
If there was a year that Tennessee might pull off the upset, this is it. The Volunteers are incredibly talented and nearly pulled off an epic comeback against Texas A&M, while Alabama has given up 400 or more passing yards to opposing offenses twice this season.
"Definitely disappointing," cornerback Marlon Humphrey said of the defense's performance against Arkansas, per Michael Casagrande of AL.com. "Definitely disappointed with our secondary. We have to play a lot better. We got the win, but it's never a good thing to see that many yards passing."
While Alabama's defense has been vulnerable to good offenses, the team is employing a no-huddle, zone-read offense that doesn't resemble head coach Nick Saban's ground-and-pound rushing attacks of the past. Now, led by dual-threat quarterback Jalen Hurts, the Crimson Tide are chewing up yards and putting up points on the board, fast.
And no defense has been able to slow them down yet. Tennessee, at home, will give it a shot. But it's hard to bet against Alabama after 18 straight wins.
Wisconsin will have an equally difficult task shutting down a wildly talented Ohio State team. And Ohio State has its own dual-threat in J.T. Barrett, who has thrown for 981 yards, 15 touchdowns and just three interceptions and rushed for another 342 yards and four scores.
The Badgers will be coming off a bye week, so they'll be rested and fresh off two weeks to prepare for head coach Urban Meyer's charges. But they'll have to find a way to run the ball on the Buckeyes, which is something no team has had success doing just yet, as Bill Landis of Cleveland.com wrote:
"The defense also kept up its run of not allowing a rushing touchdown. That's pretty remarkable. You'd think by now that they would have allowed at least one.
Indiana seemed like a prime candidate for that with a couple of big running backs and a good offensive line. Instead they allowed two passing touchdowns, one on just a complete coverage blunder by Malik Hooker, and gave up just two sustained drives all game.
And this was a good test. Indiana is clearly improved.
Against a Wisconsin team that is 95th in passing offense, and 78th in rushing offense, the Buckeyes go into that important game knowing that no team has really been able to crack them yet.
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The Badgers are better than Indiana. It seems less likely that they are better than the Buckeyes. But anything can happen in college football, and Madison most certainly will be rocking.
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.jpg?w=480 "Ohio State Team Doctor")
