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2022 TipTop 25 Week Six

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 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 Six Games

Oklahoma had initially replaced Arkansas at #1, but Ohio State took the top slot 2 weeks ago, and there they remain. Only 7 of our preseason top 25 teams are still here. The latest rankings:

#1
Ohio State 6-0
#2 Oklahoma State 5-0
#3 Clemson 6-0
#4 Wake Forest 5-1
#5 James Madison 5-0
#6 Texas Christian 5-0
#7 UCLA 6-0
#8 Georgia 6-0
#9 Michigan 6-0
#10 Mississippi 6-0
#11 Southern Cal 6-0
#12 Kansas 5-1
#13 South Alabama 4-1
#14 Penn State 5-0
#15 Syracuse 5-0
#16 Purdue 4-2
#17 Maryland 4-2
#18 Minnesota 4-1
#19 Liberty 5-1
#20 Tennessee 5-0
#21 North Carolina State 5-1
#22 Florida State 4-2
#23 Louisiana State 4-2
#24
Mississippi State 5-1
#25 Alabama 6-0

Notes on Changes to This Week's TipTop 25

Kentucky, who had been ranked #16 last week, was upset 24-14 at home by unranked South Carolina, and that has a big effect on this week's ratings. Not only does Kentucky fall out of the rankings, but coming along with them are Florida, whom Kentucky has previously beaten, and Utah, whom Florida has previously beaten. Not only that, but 6-0 Mississippi drops a bit in the rankings because their close win over Kentucky hurts them much more now, and likewise, 5-0 Tennessee drops because their close win over Florida hurts them much more now.

I've moved 6-0 Clemson and 5-1 Wake Forest (whose only loss came to Clemson in overtime) way up in the rankings because the performance of both teams has been terrific, and most ranked teams have put forth at least one poor performance by now. Clemson's only close win (within a touchdown) came over Wake Forest, and Clemson victim North Carolina State is now ranked. As for Wake Forest, their only close win came over Liberty, who is now ranked, and another Wake Forest victim, Florida State, is also now ranked.

6-0 Michigan has also moved up a decent amount due to strong performance. Their only close win came over 4-2 Maryland, who is now ranked #17. Maryland lost a close game to 4-2 Purdue this week, and that caused Purdue to rise, and along with them 5-0 Penn State and 5-0 Syracuse, both of whom have defeated Purdue, move up as well.

Alabama's close win over unranked Texas A&M sends the Tide down to the bottom of the top 25, as it is their 2nd poor performance over an unranked opponent, and they have not beaten a currently ranked team. They were also not ranked in the preseason top 50, so there's no room for error (5-1 Mississippi State, who is ranked just ahead of them, had been ranked #10 in the preseason ratings).

Close to the Top 25

This week I'm just going to list one team that is next in line to be ranked:

#26 Pittsburgh

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