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2017 TipTop 25 Week Eleven

 Clemson 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 Clemson was selected first, thereby securing our preseason #1 slot, and they held on to that spot for 6 weeks, beating 3 ranked opponents along the way. But then they took an upset loss at Syracuse, finally giving up their hold on #1.

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. Eventually, where teams were ranked in the preseason should have little or no impact on their current rankings.

We Have a New Team at #1

MS Paint of Wisconsin 2017

Last week's #1 team Georgia was upended 40-17 at #9 Auburn on Saturday, so this week we have a new team at #1. And as you can see by my MS Paint commemorating the event, that team is 10-0 Wisconsin. Wisconsin was picked out of my hat 18th in the preseason, and they jumped up to #5 after stomping #5 Utah State in their opener. But Utah State turned out to be fairly poor, as have most all of Wisconsin's opponents this season, so even though the Badgers kept winning, they sat at #5 or lower for most of the season. Two weeks ago, enough teams lost to push them to #3, and this week #1 Georgia and #2 Notre Dame both lost, enabling Wisconsin to rise to #1.

Wisconsin's schedule has been rather weak, but you could say the same about the teams just behind them. In the end, 10-0 Wisconsin is #1, 9-0 Central Florida is #2, and 10-0 Alabama is #3 because that is the order they were ranked relative to each other in the preseason. 9-0 Miami is #4 because they have had 4 close wins, all over unrated teams, while Alabama has had 2, and Wisconsin and UCF just 1 each.

TipTop 25 After Week Eleven Games

Last week only 4 of our ranked teams took upset losses, and this week it was only 5, so for the second week in a row we don't see much reshuffling of the top 25. This week's TipTop 25 is as follows:
Team Record LW This Week's Result
#1 Wisconsin 10-0 3 Won 38-14 over #19 Iowa
#2 Central Florida 9-0 4 Won 49-24 over Connecticut
#3 Alabama 10-0 5 Won 31-24 at #24 Mississippi State
#4 Miami (Florida) 9-0 6 Won 41-8 over #2 Notre Dame
#5 Clemson 9-1 7 Won 31-14 over Florida State
#6 Auburn 8-2 9 Won 40-17 over #1 Georgia
#7 Georgia 9-1 1 Lost 40-17 at #9 Auburn
#8 Oklahoma 9-1 11 Won 38-20 over #10 Texas Christian
#9 Notre Dame 8-2 2 Lost 41-8 at #6 Miami (Florida)
#10 Texas Christian 8-2 10 Lost 38-20 at #11 Oklahoma
#11 Oklahoma State 8-2 12 Won 49-42 at #20 Iowa State
#12 Ohio State 8-2 21 Won 48-3 over #14 Michigan State
#13 Michigan State 7-3 14 Lost 48-3 at #21 Ohio State
#14 Penn State 8-2 15 Won 35-6 over Rutgers
#15 Michigan 8-2 16 Won 35-10 at Maryland
#16 Virginia Tech 7-3 13 Lost 28-22 at 5-4 Georgia Tech
#17 West Virginia 7-3 17 Won 28-23 at Kansas State
#18 Northwestern 7-3 18 Won 23-13 over Purdue
#19 Iowa 6-4 19 Lost 38-14 at #3 Wisconsin
#20 Iowa State 6-4 20 Lost 49-42 to #12 Oklahoma State
#21 Memphis 8-1 22 Did not play
#22 Mississippi State 7-3 24 Lost 31-24 to #5 Alabama
#23 Southern Cal 9-2 25 Won 38-24 at Colorado
#24 Washington State 9-2 (26) Won 33-25 at Utah
#25 Louisiana State 7-3 (28) Won 33-10 over Arkansas

Notes on Changes to This Week's TipTop 25

Penn State could be ranked higher than Michigan State due to consistently better performance, but I'm going to stick with the head-to-head result for now and keep MSU just ahead of PSU.

Virginia Tech took an embarrassing loss this week, but they don't fall far because of their season-opening head-to-head win over #17 West Virginia.

LSU jumps Arizona for the last slot in the top 25. Arizona's only advantage had been a far higher ranking in the preseason top 25. But at this point, Arizona has 2 upset losses, LSU just 1, so I'm ready to leave the preseason ratings behind on this one and move LSU ahead.

Close to the Top 25

The following teams are next in line to be ranked:

#26 Arizona
#27 Boise State
#28 San Diego State
#29 Stanford
#30 Washington
#31 Troy
#32 Fresno State

Looking Ahead to Next Week's Games

This is a terrible week for big games. Only one game matches teams from our top 32, #15 Michigan at #1 Wisconsin. Could be that Wisconsin's stay at #1 won't be for long.

Join me next week as we continue to hone the top 25 that was born from my magic hat.

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