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2022 TipTop 25
Week Four
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 by now they have fallen all the way out of the TipTop 25.
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 Four Games
Oklahoma had been #1 last week,
but their upset loss to Kansas State knocks them all the way out of the
TipTop 25 this week (more detail on that below), enabling Ohio State to
move up one slot and onto the throne. For now. The latest rankings:
#1 Ohio State 4-0
#2 Washington 4-0
#3 Oklahoma
State 3-0
#4 Southern Cal 4-0
#5 Oregon State 3-1
#6 James Madison 3-0
#7 Georgia 4-0
#8 Mississippi 4-0
#9 Tennessee 4-0
#10 Pittsburgh 3-1
#11 Kansas 4-0
#12 Minnesota 4-0
#13 Texas
Christian 3-0
#14 West
Virginia 2-2
#15 UCLA 4-0
#16 South Alabama 3-1
#17 Clemson 4-0
#18 Alabama 4-0
#19 Michigan 4-0
#20 Kentucky 4-0
#21 Wake Forest 3-1
#22 Maryland 3-1
#23 Southern Methodist 2-2
#24 North Carolina State 4-0
#25 Appalachian State 2-2
Notes
on Changes to This Week's TipTop 25
3-1 Oregon State had been unranked last week,
and they lost this week, but they come zooming all the way into the top
5 anyway. How could such a thing happen? Well, first of all their loss
was very impressive, coming 17-14 to now-#4 Southern Cal. Secondly,
Oregon State had been ranked #13 in the preseason, which is higher than
all but 2 of the teams currently ranked in the top 25! Thirdly, they
had initially fallen out of the top 25 due to a close win at unranked
Fresno State, but at this point a lot of our top 25 teams have posted a
close win over an unranked opponent, so that kind of blemish doesn't
hurt a team's ranking nearly as much as it did a couple of weeks ago.
Similarly, 3-1 Wake Forest, who had been ranked #5 in the preseason,
also comes into the top 25 despite losing this week. Their close win
over unranked Liberty a couple of weeks ago no longer hurts them as
much. Their loss came to 4-0 Clemson, who had been unranked last week,
and for that reason, these 2 teams are much lower ranked than USC and
Oregon State are.
4-0 Michigan, 3-1 Maryland, and 2-2 Southern Methodist all come into
the TipTop 25 this week due to SMU's close loss to now-#13 Texas
Christian (Michigan beat Maryland this week, and Maryland has
previously beaten SMU). All 3 teams have performed well against
unranked teams.
2-2 Appalachian State comes into the top 25 due primarily to unranked
3-1 Texas A&M's victory this week over 3-1 Arkansas, who had been
ranked #13 last week. Appalachian State had previously beaten Texas
A&M, so they benefit most from the Aggies' big win. 3-1 North
Carolina has previously beaten Appalachian State, but the Tar Heels
lost by more than a touchdown to unranked Notre Dame at home this week,
on top of an atrociously close win over 0-4 Georgia State the previous
week, and they are thus unrankable for now. So Appalachian State
becomes our first ranked team that has taken a loss to an unranked
opponent.
3-1 Cincinnati had been ranked #14 last week, but they fall out of the
top 25 along with Arkansas, having previously lost to the Razorbacks.
Last week, Oklahoma had been #1 and Kansas State #24, and this week KSU
upset the Sooners, but both fall out of the top 25 because Tulane, who
had beaten KSU the week before, just lost to unranked Southern Miss.
That sends Tulane out of the rankings, and KSU and Oklahoma follow them
out the door.
Close
to the Top 25
The
following teams are next in line to be ranked:
#26 Troy
#27 Texas A&M
#28 Arkansas
#29 Cincinnati