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2022 TipTop 25
Week Eight
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 to the bottom of the TipTop 25, and are lucky to
be ranked that highly.
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 half of
the season
at least, on
where they were ranked in the preseason (as well as 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.
Oklahoma had initially replaced Arkansas at #1, but Ohio State took
over the top slot after Oklahoma lost their first game to Kansas State
on September 24. Ohio State has been very impressive, winning every
game by more than a touchdown, but this week we have a new team taking
the throne, as covered below.
TipTop
25 After Week Eight Games
As stated above, Ohio State had been #1 last week,
and they've been very impressive, winning every game by more than a
touchdown, but Clemson replaces them on the throne this week anyway.
That's because Clemson has now beaten 4
ranked teams (#3 Wake Forest, #9 Syracuse, #11 NC State, and #12 FSU),
and Ohio State has not beaten any team that is ranked or even close to
ranked (top 38). That difference in strength of schedule has become too
large to ignore any longer. The latest rankings:
#1 Clemson 8-0
#2 Ohio State 7-0
#3 Wake Forest 6-1
#4 Texas
Christian 7-0
#5 Georgia 7-0
#6 Michigan 7-0
#7 Oklahoma
State 6-1
#8 Penn State 6-1
#9 Syracuse 6-1
#10 Tennessee 7-0
#11 North
Carolina State 5-2
#12 Florida State 4-3
#13 Louisiana State 6-2
#14 Mississippi 7-1
#15 Oregon
6-1
#16 UCLA 6-1
#17 Alabama 7-1
#18 Kentucky 5-2
#19 Florida 4-3
#20 Utah 5-2
#21 Mississippi
State 5-3
#22 South Carolina 5-2
#23 Arkansas
4-3
#24 Southern Cal 6-1
#25 Oregon State 6-2
Notes
on Other Changes to This Week's TipTop 25
6-2 Maryland had
been ranked #14 last week, and they did win this week, but they fall
out of this week's TipTop 25 anyway. That's because they have
previously lost to Purdue, who had been ranked #12 last week, and this
week Purdue was smashed by unranked Wisconsin, sending the Boilermakers
out of the rankings, and they take Maryland out the door with them.
South Carolina could have been ranked last week, but at that point they
only had one win of any significance (albeit a very good one, over
now-#18 Kentucky), so I was waiting for them to get a second decent
win. They did that this week, topping Texas A&M, so let's go ahead and bring
them in at #22. That puts them ahead of #23 Arkansas, who has beaten
them, and behind #18 Kentucky, whom they have beaten. We'll leave them
ranked behind #21 Mississippi State primarily because MSU had been
ranked #10 in the preseason ratings, while South Carolina was not in
the preseason top 50.
6-1 Cincinnati had been ranked #25 last week, but they struggled to
beat a weak opponent for the 2nd straight game this week (29-27 at 3-4
SMU), so we're moving 6-1 Southern Cal and 6-2 Oregon State ahead of them.
Close
to the Top 25
These teams are
next in line to be ranked:
#26 Cincinnati
#27 Illinois
#28 Washington
#29 Liberty
#30 North Carolina
#31 Troy
#32 South Alabama
#33 Tulane
#34 Kansas State
#35 Texas Tech
#36 Texas
#37 Purdue
#38 Maryland