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2022 TipTop 25
Week Three
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 they fell out of the top slot immediately, and
though they are still unbeaten, they have been consistently
unimpressive enough that they just keep dropping, as we shall see again
this week (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 Three Games
It's only been 3 weeks, but the carnage within these rankings has been immense: only 9 of our preseason top 25 teams remain ranked in the TipTop 25! The latest rankings:
#1 Oklahoma 3-0
#2 Ohio State 3-0
#3 Washington 3-0
#4 James Madison 2-0
#5 Mississippi 3-0
#6 Oklahoma
State 3-0
#7 Southern Cal 3-0
#8 Tennessee 3-0
#9 Pittsburgh 2-1
#10 Kansas 3-0
#11 Texas
Christian 2-0
#12 Georgia 3-0
#13 Arkansas 3-0
#14 Cincinnati 2-1
#15 West Virginia 1-2
#16 Alabama 3-0
#17 UCLA 3-0
#18 Texas
2-1
#19 Indiana 3-0
#20 Illinois 1-1
#21 Western Kentucky 1-1
#22 Tulane 3-0
#23 South Alabama 2-1
#24 Kansas State
2-1
#25 Kentucky 3-0
Notes
on Changes to This Week's TipTop 25
It's not just losing that can cause a team to drop: a close win over an unranked opponent will do the trick as well. As an example, 3-0 Wake Forest had been ranked #2 last week,
but their 37-36 home win over Liberty, who had not been ranked in the
top 36, sends the Demon Deacons dropping all the way out of the TipTop
25 (they are now #26, as you can see below). Early in the season, with
so little data upon which to rank teams, a performance like that has a
far, far bigger impact than it would late in the season.
All of 3-0 Ohio State's opponents have been ranked or nearly
ranked, while none of 3-0 Oklahoma's have been, but Oklahoma has
performed perfectly, and they were ranked #3 in the preseason, Ohio
State #16, so based on that we will keep Oklahoma #1 for now.
3-0 Oregon State had been ranked #4 last week, and they smashed an
FCS opponent on Saturday, but they still fall all the way out of the
top 25 this week. Why? Because the previous week, they had won a close
game at Fresno State, who had been a top 10 team at the time, but this
week Southern Cal stomped on Fresno State, sending them out of the
rankings, and Oregon State falls out with them.
West Virginia actually moves up, to #15, despite being just 1-2. As
covered last week, that is because their losses have both been close,
and to teams now ranked #9 and #10.
Close
to the Top 25
The
following teams are next in line to be ranked:
#26 Wake Forest
#27 Oregon State
#28 Michigan State