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2021 TipTop 25 Week Eleven

Utah State is picked first out of my hat for 2021

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 Utah State was selected first, thereby securing our preseason #1 slot. Unfortunately, the Aggies were unimpressive enough in their opener that they slipped down out of the top spot after their opener.

As the games are played, I will be ranking teams completely blind to their histories and "name" value, so that they are ranked entirely based on what they do this season and, for the first few weeks 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 all FCS teams are at a lower power level, and therefore it is unacceptable for a ranked FBS team to struggle with an FCS team, let alone lose. Similarly, 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.

Georgia Still #1

MS Paint of a Georgia football player

Georgia was not randomly selected from my hat before the season, so they were not ranked in the preseason top 25, or even top 50. They entered the TipTop 25 at #13 in week 2 due to beating then-#22 UAB 56-7. But because they had struggled to beat Clemson in the first week, and because Clemson played poorly in week 3, Georgia was dragged down with Clemson and out of the top 25 again. They rose back into the top 25 in week 4 as teams fell out of their way, and in week 5 they smashed then-#18 Arkansas 37-0 to move all the way up to #6. Two more smashings of rated teams put them all the way to the top. This week they smashed unrated Tennessee 41-17.

TipTop 25 After Week Eleven Games

Five teams from last week's TipTop 25 suffered losses to lower-ranked teams, which is a pretty typical week. Our top 25 has been quite stable for about 6 weeks now. This week's TipTop 25 is as follows:

Team Record LW This Week's Result
#1 Georgia 10-0 1 Won 41-17 at #39 Tennessee
#2 Cincinnati 10-0 2
 Won 45-28 at South Florida
#3 Oregon 9-1 3
 Won 38-24 over #42 Washington State
#4 Ohio State 9-1 4 Won 59-31 over #13 Purdue
#5 Notre Dame 9-1 6 Won 28-3 at Virginia
#6 Alabama 9-1 7 Won 59-3 over New Mexico State
#7 Oklahoma State 9-1 8
 Won 63-17 over Texas Christian
#8 Baylor 8-2 9 Won 27-14 over #5 Oklahoma (now #9)
#9 Oklahoma 9-1 5 Lost 27-14 at #9 Baylor (now #8)
#10 Michigan State 9-1 10 Won 40-21 over Maryland
#11 Michigan 9-1 11 Won 21-17 at #17 Penn State (now #15)
#12
 Wisconsin 7-3
 12
 Won 35-7 over Northwestern
#13 Purdue 6-4 13 Lost 59-31 at #4 Ohio State
#14 Iowa 8-2 14 Won 27-22 over #41 Minnesota
#15 Penn State 6-4 17 Lost 21-17 to #11 Michigan
#16 Mississippi 8-2 20 Won 29-19 over #18 Texas A&M (now #17)
#17 Texas A&M 7-3 18 Lost 29-19 at #20 Mississippi (now #16)
#18 Auburn 6-4 19 Lost 43-24 to #29 Mississippi State (now #20)
#19 Arkansas 7-3
 21 Won 16-13 in OT at #48 Louisiana State
#20 Mississippi State
 6-4
 29 Won 43-24 at #19 Auburn (now #18)
#21 Iowa State 6-4 15 Lost 41-38 at unrated Texas Tech
#22 Kansas State 7-3 16 Won 34-17 over West Virginia
#23 Brigham Young 8-2 22 Did not play
#24 San Diego State 9-1 27 Won 23-21 over #23 Nevada (now #26)
#25 Fresno State 8-3 25 Won 34-7 over New Mexico

Notes on Changes to This Week's Top 25

Iowa State drops due to their upset loss at unrated Texas Tech, and because they have previously beaten Kansas State, KSU drops along with them.

Although Mississippi State beat Auburn this week, Auburn remains ranked ahead of them because Auburn has previously beaten Arkansas, who has previously beaten MSU, and MSU also owns an upset loss to unranked Memphis.

Close to the Top 25

The following teams are next in line to be ranked:

#26 Nevada
#27 Boise State
#28 Utah State
#29 Air Force
#30 Texas-San Antonio
#31 Utah
#32 Minnesota
#33 Washington State
#34 Arizona State
#35 Wake Forest
#36 Army
#37 Louisiana
#38 Appalachian State
#39 Coastal Carolina

Looking Ahead to Next Week's Games

For the second straight week, we have four games pitting TipTop 25 teams against each other:#10 Michigan State at #4 Ohio State, #19 Arkansas at #6 Alabama, #8 Baylor at #22 Kansas State, and #21 Iowa State at #9 Oklahoma. In addition, we have one game that pits a rated team against a nearly-rated team: #3 Oregon at #31 Utah. Finally, we have these games of note: #29 Air Force at #26 Nevada, 7-3 UAB at #30 Texas-San Antonio, #35 Wake Forest at 7-3 Clemson, and #37 Louisiana at 7-3 Liberty. Join me next week as we continue to hone the top 25 that was born from my magic hat.

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