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2019 TipTop 25 Week Twelve

Georgia Southern is picked first out of my hat for 2019

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 Georgia Southern was selected first, thereby securing our preseason #1 slot, but they lost their opener 55-3 at previously unranked Louisiana State, 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.

Louisiana State Still #1

Louisiana State was not ranked in the preseason top 50, but they got off to a spectacular start, stomping on #1 Georgia Southern 55-3 in their opener. That moved them all the way to #3 in the next rankings, but it wasn't until last week, when they gave Alabama their only loss, that LSU was able to climb to #1.

I still think that Ohio State, who had been #1 previously, has performed better than LSU, and I think they would be a valid choice for #1, but the Tigers have played a vastly tougher schedule than the Buckeyes have faced. LSU has now beaten teams that are currently ranked #3, #7, #8, and #22, while Ohio State has only beaten #10 and #17. However, that starts to change this week, as Ohio State plays #5 Penn State, followed by #12 Michigan, and if the Buckeyes rout those teams, LSU won't have much of an argument for #1 at all.

TipTop 25 After Week Twelve Games

Last week, our top 25 teams only took 3 upset losses, much like the previous week, and that has translated into a pretty stable top 25 for a while now. This week, there were 5 upset losses, but 4 of those were to fellow ranked teams, so the top 25 remains fairly stable yet again. This week's TipTop 25 is as follows:

	Team	Record	LW	This Week's Result
#1	Louisiana State	10-0	1	Won 58-37 at unrated Mississippi
#2	Ohio State	10-0	2	Won 56-21 at unrated Rutgers
#3	Alabama	9-1	3	Won 38-7 at #30 Mississippi State
#4	Clemson	11-0	4	Won 52-3 over unrated Wake Forest
#5	Penn State	9-1	6	Won 34-27 over unrated Indiana
#6	Georgia	9-1	7	Won 21-14 at #9 Auburn (now #8)
#7	Florida	9-2	8	Won 23-6 at unrated Missouri
#8	Auburn	7-3	9	Lost 21-14 to #7 Georgia (now #6)
#9	Oregon	9-1	10	Won 34-6 over unrated Arizona
#10	Wisconsin	8-2	11	Won 37-21 at unrated Nebraska
#11	Michigan	8-2	12	Won 44-10 over unrated Michigan State
#12	Iowa	7-3	13	Won 23-19 over #5 Minnesota (now #13)
#13	Minnesota	9-1	5	Lost 23-19 at #13 Iowa (now #12)
#14	Notre Dame	8-2	22	Won 52-20 over #17 Navy (now #19)
#15	Oklahoma	9-1	19	Won 34-31 at #14 Baylor (now #16)
#16	Baylor	9-1	14	Lost 34-31 to #19 Oklahoma (now #15)
#17	Cincinnati	9-1	15	Won 20-17 at unrated South Florida
#18	Memphis	9-1	16	Won 45-27 at unrated Houston
#19	Navy	7-2	17	Lost 52-20 at #22 Notre Dame (now #14)
#20	Southern Methodist	9-1	18	Did not play
#21	Iowa State	6-4	24	Won 23-21 over #20 Texas (now #21)
#22	Texas	6-4	20	Lost 23-21 at #24 Iowa State (now #20)
#23	Oklahoma State	7-3	23	Won 31-13 over unrated Kansas
#24	Kansas State	6-4	21	Lost 24-20 to unrated West Virginia
#25	Texas Christian	5-5	25	Won 33-31 at unrated Texas Tech

Notes on Changes to This Week's TipTop 25

Kansas State's loss to unrated West Virginia this week was mighty ugly, but they remain in the top 25 thanks to their previous wins over #15 Oklahoma and #25 TCU.

Close to the Top 25

The following teams are next in line to be ranked:

#26 Utah
#27 Boise State
#28 Air Force
#29 Texas A&M
#30 Washington
#31 Southern Cal
#32 Brigham Young
#33 Tennessee
#34 Mississippi State
#35 Appalachian State

Looking Ahead to Next Week's Games

Things have been heating up lately. We just saw 5 games pitting top 25 teams against each other, and next week we'll see another 4: #5 Penn State at #2 Ohio State, #25 Texas Christian at #15 Oklahoma, #22 Texas at #16 Baylor, and #20 Southern Methodist at #19 Navy. In addition, #29 Texas A&M travels to #6 Georgia, and 7-3 Temple pays a visit to #17 Cincinnati. Join me next week as we continue to hone the top 25 that was born from my magic hat.

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