Little Changes in AP Top 10 Ahead of CFB Playoff Rankings
Written by Ryan Wright
Twitter: @HogManInLA
Week 9 of the college football season did little to restructure or add mounting drama to the 2015 college football season with more near misses than amazing Top 25 upsets but all of that is sure to change in Week 10.
AAC
The American Athletic Conference showed that the top of the class deserves to be among all the Power Five Conference schools. No. 18 Houston had a statement win against Vanderbilt shutting out the Commodores 34-0 at home. No. 16 Memphis trounced Tulane 41-13 but the biggest game was No. 9 Notre Dame vs. No. 21 Temple.
Notre Dame led for much of the game but Temple took a 20-17 lead with under 5:00 minutes left in the game. The Irish fought back getting a DeShone Kizer 17-yard touchdown pass to Will Fuller for the winning 24-20 score. Notre Dame outplayed Temple in several facets of the game including offensive yards gained, 467-295, but Temple turned two fourth down tries into extra downs to help move the chains getting key plays remaining within a score of the bluebloods throughout.
ACC
The ACC got perhaps the biggest shakeup of the weekend, especially in the Coastal Division. Entering the weekend three teams were tied atop the Coastal, North Carolina, Pittsburgh, and Duke. Now North Carolina stands alone after beating then No. 23 Pitt 26-29 and then No. 22 Duke lost a highly controversial game 30-27 to Miami. Miami used eight last second laterals to move the ball down field for the score, one of which was done with a Hurricanes player’s knee on the ground but was not caught by the officials.
Florida State stayed on track to fight for a share of the Atlantic beating Syracuse 45-21. Virginia Tech jumped on Boston College 26-10 and Virginia beat Georgia Tech 27-21 at home. Clemson remained one of the top teams in the nation stopping N.C. State, after a tough fight, winning 56-41.
Big 12
A shocker in the Big 12 was Iowa State beating Texas 24-0. Iowa State junior quarterback Joel Lanning may have solidified himself in Cyclones’ folklore beating the Longhorns in his first career start. Texas Tech had an upset in mind going into the locker room at halftime up 38-28. The second half belonged to the Cowboys scoring five offensive touchdowns and got a pick-six with seconds remaining for a 70-53 win.
Kansas was lifeless against No. 14 Oklahoma falling at home 62-7 and No. 5 TCU stomped visiting West Virginia 40-10.
Big Ten
One of the bigger surprises from the weekend, off the beaten path, was Purdue (2-6) topping Nebraska (3-6) 55-45 at home. Wisconsin rolled Rutgers 48-10 and Penn State blanked Illinois 39-0. Iowa remained unbeaten with a 31-15 home win over Maryland and Michigan outlasted Minnesota 29-26. Ohio State and Michigan State both had byes.
Pac-12
If college football fans were looking for fantastic and competitive games, the Pac-12 was the place to be in Week 9. Arizona State took Oregon into triple overtime before falling to the Ducks 61-55 on Thursday night. Colorado ruined a lot of bets hung on the Bruins when the Buffaloes put a scare into UCLA before falling 35-31. No. 13 Utah had no troubles with Oregon State winning 27-12 and Washington rolled a depleted Arizona team 49-3. USC went on the road to beat Cal 27-21 but the best game of the weekend may have been No. 8 Stanford vs. Washington State.
The Cougars did not back down from the Cardinal taking a 12-3 lead into halftime and held a 22-20 lead at the end of three. The fourth quarter was wild with quarterback Kevin Hogan getting a 6-yard touchdown run to start the final period for a 27-22 Stanford lead. Washington State came back to take the lead midway through the quarter on a Luke Falk 1-yard pass to River Cracraft but missed a two-point conversion trailing 28-27. Stanford kicked a 19-yard field goal with just under 2:00 minutes left setting up the exciting conclusion. WSU kicker was perfect hitting five field goals in the game but went wide right on a 43-yard game winner allowing Stanford to stay in the college football playoffs picture.
SEC
Nothing surprising happened in the SEC, well nothing on the surface. Vanderbilt, as mentioned previously, was slightly embarrassed by Houston 34-0 and Arkansas clobbered FCS UT-Martin 63-28. Texas A&M got back in the win column downing South Carolina 35-28 and Tennessee showed they are still ahead of Kentucky in the race back towards competing in the SEC East downing the Wildcats 52-21 on the road.
Ole Miss was given a slight scare by Auburn but the Rebels prevailed in the end sweeping the Alabama schools with a 27-19 win over the Tigers. The Gators topped Georgia 27-3 giving a lot of fodder for fire Mark Richt campaigns.
Alabama and LSU had the weekend off preparing for their Week 10 showdown in Tuscaloosa.
Change in the Rankings
AP voters have been finicky with close wins for top teams early in the season quickly dropping the favored for lack of style wins. This week Notre Dame flip-flopped with Stanford after both programs had close calls but neither dropped out of the Top 10… curious. Even though Florida played a better opponent than Iowa, the Gators spot in the polls remained unchanged.
Welcome to the Top 25 Club
North Carolina and Texas A&M
North Carolina gets Duke at home this week and Texas A&M welcomes a beat up Auburn team to College Station.
See Ya Around
Duke and Pittsburgh both dropped from the polls but both have a shot at re-entering should they win in Week 10. Duke, again, gets North Carolina, and Pitt gets Notre Dame at home.
Week 10 AP Rankings
- Ohio State (39)
- Baylor (6)
- Clemson (6)
- LSU (5)
- TCU (4)
- Michigan State
- Alabama (1)
- Notre Dame
- Stanford
- Iowa
- Florida
- Oklahoma State
- Utah
- Oklahoma
- Memphis
- Michigan
- Florida State
- Houston
- Mississippi
- Toledo
- North Carolina
- UCLA
- Temple
- Mississippi State
- Texas A&M
Photo credit: Young Kwak; WSU kicker Erik Powell hits on a successful attempt in the first half against Stanford.