Amway College Football Poll 2017: Week 8 Rankings Unveiled for Top 25 Teams

Week 7 of the college football season was supposed to be a humdrum affair. After all, most of the top teams in the nation faced unranked opponents. 

So much for that.

Rather than a forgettable slate of games, Week 7 was perhaps the most memorable of the college football season with four top-10 teams losing in shocking upsets. Below, we'll break down the action and take a look at how those results impacted this week's Amway Coaches Poll.

Rankings

1. Alabama

2. Penn State

3. Georgia

4. TCU

5. Wisconsin

6. Ohio State

7. Miami

8. Clemson

9. Oklahoma

10. USC

11. Oklahoma State

12. Washington

13. South Florida

14. Virginia Tech

15. Michigan

16. Notre Dame

17. N.C. State

18. Washington State

19. Michigan State

20. Central Florida

21. Auburn

22. Stanford

23. West Virginia

24. Texas A&M

25. LSU

Analysis

Christian Petersen/Getty Images

Look out below.

The weekend started with Clemson being upset by Syracuse and Washington State by California on Friday night. Then on Saturday, LSU defeated Auburn and Arizona State shocked Washington. Previously undefeated San Diego State and Navy lost, too.

This week alone left the 2017 season on a far different course than the one traversed in 2016, as Dennis Dodd of CBS Sports noted: 

It was a blindsiding weekend of results. More than a few head coaches were left to put their team's letdowns in perspective. Clemson's Dabo Swinney, for instance, tried to remain positive.

"It wasn't our night tonight. They were better than us," Swinney told the Associated Press. "There's nothing we're going to fix now. We're not going to be 12-0, that's for sure. That's not going to happen. This is going to hurt, but you move forward."

"Every goal is there for this team," he added. "We've got to get better from this, have the type of season we want to have."

It was a perspective more than a few folks shared:

Washington State's Mike Leach, on the other hand, was a bit more...well, gloomy.

"There's no bright spot. We were pathetic," he said, per the AP (via ESPN). "We're a bunch of pathetic front-runners."

Tell us how you really feel, coach.

Washington's Chris Petersen, meanwhile, was ready to dissect how his team not only lost but managed to score seven points against Arizona State.

"I’m anxious to go back and analyze this, we all are, so we can figure out how we can do better," he said, per Adam Jude of the Seattle Times. "We fought hard, we played hard. If we don’t play how we are capable of playing, we will get beat by anybody on our schedule."

Such is the case for many of the contenders in college football. The five teams currently undefeated atop the rankings and in the battle for College Football Playoff berths—Alabama, Penn State, Georgia, TCU and Wisconsin—hardly have easy slates remaining. 

The Crimson Tide still have to play Tennessee, LSU, Mississippi State and Auburn. The Nittany Lions have a brutal stretch coming up, with Michigan, Ohio State and Michigan State in consecutive weeks. The Bulldogs still have to face Florida and Auburn. The Horned Frogs have Texas, Oklahoma and Texas Tech remaining. Tthe Badgers have Michigan to look forward to down the stretch.

Of course, if Week 7 reminded us of anything, it was that upsets can come against the unlikeliest of opponents. Often, the most dangerous matchup is the one you don't expect to be a threat. 

Which is what makes college football so compelling in the first place.