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2018 TipTop 25 Week Eleven

Tulane is the first school picked at random from my hat

Welcome back to the college football ranking system that began with a preseason top 25 that was based solely on picking teams at random out of a hat, as shown above. You can see that Tulane was selected first, thereby securing our preseason #1 slot, but they lost their opener 23-17 in overtime to previously unranked Wake Forest, so their stay at the top was brief.

As the games are played, I am also ranking teams completely blind to their histories and "name" value, so that they are ranked solely based on what they do this season and, for now at least, on where they were ranked in the preseason (and on where their opponents were ranked in the preseason). Eventually, where teams were ranked in the preseason should have little or no impact on their current rankings.

All unranked FBS teams are treated the same here, but this ranking assumes that FCS teams are a level below, and therefore it is unacceptable for a ranked FBS team to struggle with an FCS team, let alone lose. On the other hand, beating an FCS team, regardless of how "impressive" the score, means nothing and is treated the same as though the winner did not play a game at all.

Alabama Still #1

Get used to this subheading: hard to see it changing this year. Alabama was not ranked in the preseason top 50, but they dropped a hydrogen bomb on #8 Mississippi in the third week, 62-7 on the road, and entered the TipTop 25 at #3. The next week they manhandled #17 Texas A&M 45-23 (the closest anyone has gotten to them so far), while #1 Virginia Tech was embarrassed 49-35 at unranked Old Dominion. Since #2 Central Florida hadn't played anyone of value (and they won't until their bowl game), Alabama rose to #1. This week Alabama slapped around #10 Mississippi State 24-0. They currently own 6 victories over teams ranked in the TipTop 25, all in routs, and at this point the case they are making is not for best of 2018, but for best of all time.

TipTop 25 After Week Eleven Games

Last week's top 25 saw less of a shake-up than the previous 2 editions had seen, and that stability continues this week. In fact, this week, though the order has shifted some, our top 25 teams remain exactly the same! This week's TipTop 25 is as follows:

	Team	Record	LW	This Week's Result
#1	Alabama	10-0	1	Won 24-0 over #10 Mississippi State
#2	Clemson	10-0	2	Won 27-7 at #37 Boston College
#3	Central Florida	9-0	3	Won 35-24 over Navy
#4	Notre Dame	10-0	4	Won 42-13 over Florida State
#5	Louisiana State	8-2	5	Won 24-17 at Arkansas
#6	Georgia	9-1	6	Won 27-10 over #11 Auburn
#7	Michigan	9-1	7	Won 42-7 at Rutgers
#8	Florida	7-3	9	Won 35-31 over #13 South Carolina
#9	Kentucky	7-3	8	Lost 24-7 at #20 Tennessee
#10	Mississippi State	6-4	10	Lost 24-0 at #1 Alabama
#11	Oklahoma	9-1	15	Won 48-47 over Oklahoma State
#12	Washington State	9-1	16	Won 31-7 at Colorado
#13	West Virginia	9-1	17	Won 47-10 over Texas Christian
#14	Tennessee	5-5	20	Won 24-7 over #8 Kentucky
#15	Auburn	6-4	11	Lost 27-10 at #6 Georgia
#16	Texas A&M	6-4	12	Won 38-24 over #24 Mississippi
#17	South Carolina	5-4	13	Lost 35-31 at #9 Florida
#18	Missouri	6-4	14	Won 33-28 over Vanderbilt
#19	Syracuse	8-2	18	Won 54-23 over Louisville
#20	North Carolina State	6-3	19	Lost 27-23 to Wake Forest
#21	Washington	7-3	22	Did not play
#22	Utah	7-3	25	Won 32-25 over #21 Oregon
#23	Stanford	6-4	23	Won 48-17 over Oregon State
#24	Oregon	6-4	21	Lost 32-25 at #25 Utah
#25	Mississippi	5-5	24	Lost 38-24 at #12 Texas A&M

Notes on Changes to This Week's TipTop 25

Kentucky's loss to Tennessee doesn't drop them much because of their previous win over #10 Mississippi State. Tennessee benefits from the big upset win by moving back ahead of Auburn, whom they have previously beaten. West Virginia, who has previously beaten Tennessee, rises up with the Volunteers, and I decided to keep Oklahoma and Washington State rated ahead of the Mountaineers.

Close to the Top 25

The following teams are next in line to be ranked:

#26 Texas
#27 Ohio State
#28 Arizona State
#29 Northwestern
#30 Michigan State
#31 Penn State
#32 Utah State
#33 Pittsburgh
#34 Purdue
#35 Boston College
#36 Virginia
#37 Duke
#38 Army
#39 Buffalo
#40 Wisconsin
#41 Iowa
#42 Iowa State
#43 Texas Tech

Looking Ahead to Next Week's Games

A fairly weak lineup of games this time around. We do have a pair of ranked teams playing each other: #19 Syracuse vs. #4 Notre Dame in New York City, and #18 Missouri at #14 Tennessee. In addition, we have #37 Duke at #2 Clemson, 9-1 Cincinnati at #3 Central Florida, 9-1 Alabama Birmingham at #16 Texas A&M, #23 Stanford at 6-4 Cal, #28 Arizona State at #24 Oregon, #42 Iowa State at #26 Texas, and #40 Wisconsin at #34 Purdue. Join me next week as we continue to hone the top 25 that was born from my magic hat.

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