College Football Rankings: Who Is Overrated in the Week 12 Coaches and AP Polls?
College Football Rankings have been released for Week 12 and as always, there's plenty of movement in the polls.
There was a Big 12 upset with Iowa losing last night and a near upset with No. 1-ranked Oregon almost losing to Cal, 15-13.
So now that the coaches and media members have given their votes, we're sorting through the teams and trying to figure who doesn't deserve to be ranked as high as they are.
Here are 10 teams that are overrated on the AP and coaches' polls.
10. Texas A&M Aggies
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The Aggies needed to rally from behind in the second half of their road game against Baylor.
As a result, they shot up six spots in the coaches' polls from No. 25 last week to No. 19 this Sunday. And they're up to No. 18 on the AP polls.
This makes Texas A&M the second best 7-3 team in the country, after South Carolina. The Big 12 has many solid opponents, but the Aggies have only been able to take down one ranked opponent this year, the Oklahoma Sooners.
Do they really deserve to jump up that much in the rankings? They're overrated because they're getting too many votes on the polls.
Iowa, expected to fall back after losing to unranked Northwestern, still has two wins against ranked opponents this year.
Mississippi State also has a claim to be ranked higher at 7-3 because they have played a much tougher schedule and all three of those losses came against very good SEC teams, Auburn, LSU and Alabama.
9. USC Trojans
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Credit goes to the Trojans for taking down a top-ranked Pac-10 opponent in the Arizona Wildcats, 24-21.
But are they really the third best 7-3 team in the country, ranked all the way at No. 20 on the AP polls?
USC was unranked last week and had a big win on Saturday, however, Mississippi State has a stronger claim to be ranked above them.
Mississippi State's three losses this year came against top-ranked SEC opponents, while the Trojans lost to Oregon and Stanford but also fell to a weak Washington squad.
8. Nevada Wolfpack
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Here we go again, the Wolfpack continue to get votes.
Saturday night, Nevada barely escaped with a victory against WAC rival Fresno State 35-34.
After being ranked No. 21 on last week's coaches' polls the Wolfpack shot up three spots to No. 18 in the standings.
They do have a 9-1 record but they play out of the WAC. There are 7-3 teams in college football that deserve to be ranked higher than Nevada.
How about the SEC's Mississippi State? Big Ten's Iowa? Or, even the Mountain West's San Diego State?
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7. Miami (Fla.) Hurricanes
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The Miami Hurricanes suddenly found themselves ranked No. 21 on the coaches' polls.
Apparently two straight wins against against unranked Maryland and Georgia Tech in their last two games have earned their respect from coaches.
But that doesn't make sense. This team has yet to win a game against a ranked foe. Two of their three losses came against Ohio State and Florida State, which was ranked at the time they played each other.
They also have a loss against a 4-4 Virginia Cavaliers team.
The Hurricanes have hardly been impressive this season and yet they've somewhat managed to win votes. That is the definition of overrated.
6. Alabama Crimson Tide
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They are the defending national champions and play out of the tough SEC conference.
But they sit ranked No. 10 on the AP poll as the only team in the Top 10 with two losses. Alabama is simply getting too much love.
There are other teams with better records that deserve the Top 10 spot over the Tide. Oklahoma State with a 9-1 record has played in an extremely competitive Big 12 conference and even has a victory over the top-ranked Nebraska Cornhuskers under their belt.
While the Michigan State Spartans have rolled through their Big Ten schedule with a 9-1 record, including a convincing win over the Wisconsin Badgers, which is a Top 6 team on the AP polls.
5. Virginia Tech Hokies
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According to the media, the Hokies are the third best 8-2 team in the entire country, ranked No. 14 on the media polls.
Really? They're only behind two other 8-2 teams, both of which play out of the SEC—Alabama and Arkansas.
Virginia Tech is streaking with eight straight wins since dropping their first two games to start the season, but ranking them above two Big 12 teams—Oklahoma and Missouri?
Those two Big 12 teams have had a much tougher time playing through their conference than the Hokies. Missouri and Oklahoma deserve to be ranked above Virginia Tech.
Otherwise, VaTech just looks overrated.
4. LSU Tigers
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At first glance of this Sunday's coaches' polls, there is no change when it comes to LSU and Wisconsin.
LSU is still ranked at No. 6, while Wisconsin is still ranked No. 5 on their polls. But wait, the Tigers seems to have closed the gap on the Badgers in this week's voting.
Last week, the Badgers had a 34-point lead over the Tigers in coaches votes. This week, that gap was narrowed to 22 points.
LSU defeated a cupcake, while the Badgers demolished a Big Ten rival in Indiana by scoring 83 points.
More votes for LSU makes them overrated on the coaches' polls; there's no other way to explain it.
3. Utah Utes
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Falling to beat a tough Top 5 ranked Mountain West Conference rival was a big blow last week, and the Utes deserved to drop back in the standings.
They started Saturday's game ranked No. 15 on both the media and coaches' polls with an 8-1 record. Then something unexpected happened—the Utes continued reeling and lost for the second week in a row.
This weekend, they lost to an unranked Notre Dame team. Now there's nothing left to do but consider this Utah squad as overrated, even ranked at No. 24 on the coaches' poll.
Ater losing to two solid opponents for the first time in their weak schedule—they were exposed as pretenders. Utah doesn't belong among the Top 25 football teams in the country.
2. Boise State Broncos
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Congratulations to the Boise State Broncos for leapfrogging the TCU Horned Frogs on both the AP and coaches' polls.
But the question needs to be asked: Did they really deserve to jump over TCU this week?
While the jump in the rankings reinforces immense respect that the non-BCS Broncos have earned among pundits, it also reflects a lot of disrespect for the Horned Frogs.
TCU has played two more games than Boise State and have rolled through similar schedules. In fact, both teams defeated the Pac-10's Oregon State Beavers.
Putting Boise State ahead of TCU with two more games to play may be too premature. For now, that makes the Broncos look overrated on both polls.
1. Oregon Ducks
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Oregon supporters constantly cite the Ducks' double-digit win margin as a testament of how great their offense is and how deserving they are of the nation's No. 1 ranking.
Now that they came within a missed field goal of losing a game against the California Golden Bears, does that still hold true?
Ducks fans will now likely break out the argument that a win is still a win. But that near-upset gives us reason to re-evaluate this squad.
The Ducks may have dominated opponents in their first nine wins of the season, however, there's been little competition on their schedule thus far. The only solid obstacle that they've managed to defeat is a top-ranked Stanford team.
If they managed to win easily against Cal, it would be a different story. But they didn't.
As the No. 1-ranked team on both the AP and coaches' polls, they deserve to be scrutinized for failing to dominate their unranked opponent.
Now at number with Auburn looking like a much better football team, the Ducks just appear overrated.
More importantly, if the pollsters wanted to punish TCU for playing a close game against a conference opponent. Then they should have done the same with Oregon.
It's only fair.
.jpg?w=480 "Ohio State Team Doctor")
