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2022 TipTop 25 Week Two

Arkansas is picked first out of my hat for 2022

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 Arkansas was selected first, thereby securing our preseason #1 slot. Sadly for the Razorbacks, they were unimpressive enough in their opener that we will have a new team at the top of the list this week, as covered below.

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.

TipTop 25 After Week Two Games

Unfortunately, I was very busy with family obligations and therefore unable to do a top 25 last week, so the first adjustments to this year's preseason TipTop 25 come after the week 2 games. With those adjustments, the TipTop 25 now looks like this:

#1
Oklahoma 2-0
#2 Wake Forest 2-0
#3 Ohio State 2-0
#4 Oregon State 2-0
#5 Mississippi State 2-0
#6 Arkansas 2-0
#7 Fresno State 2-0
#8 Air Force 2-0
#9 Kansas State 2-0
#10 Washington 2-0
#11 James Madison 2-0

#12 Mississippi 2-0
#13 Oklahoma State 2-0
#14 UCLA 2-0
#15 Tennessee 2-0
#16 Pittsburgh 1-1

#17 Kansas 2-0
#18 Texas Christian 2-0
#19 Cincinnati 1-1
#20 Georgia 2-0
#21 West Virginia 0-2
#22 Alabama 2-0
#23 Texas 1-1
#24 Indiana 2-0
#25 Illinois 1-1

Notes on Changes to the TipTop 25 Since the Preseason List

Arkansas fell out of first place due to their opening 31-24 win at home over then-#50 Cincinnati. That's just not the performance of a #1 team. Their week 2 win over unrated (in top 50) South Carolina, coming 44-30 at home, was also not the performance one would expect to see out of a #1 team. Pittsburgh had started #2, but they struggled against unrated (in top 50) West Virginia in their opener, then lost to Tennessee the next week.

Arkansas and Pittsburgh falling down the rankings enabled Oklahoma, ranked #3 in the preseason list, to rise to the top slot.

Oklahoma State, now ranked #13, was not ranked in the top 50 to start the season, but they beat then-#4 Central Michigan 58-44 in their opener, and that sends them shooting up into the rankings.

West Virginia may seem a strange inclusion at #21 with their 0-2 record, especially since they were not ranked in the top 50 to start the season, but they have performed like a #21 team in both losses, first going down by 7 to then-#2 Pittsburgh (now #16), then falling in overtime to #17 Kansas in week 2.

Close to the Top 25

The following teams are next in line to be ranked:

#26 Louisiana
#27 Toledo
#28 Western Kentucky
#29 North Carolina
#30 Appalachian State
#31 Texas A&M
#32 Kentucky
#33 Brigham Young
#34 Baylor
#35 Michigan State
#36 Miami (Florida)


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