Oregon Ducks Dropped from AP Rankings for the First Time Since 2009

College Football Leave a comment

Written by Ryan Wright

Twitter: @HogManInLA

Parity is alive and well in college football where the strength of a team’s quarterback and backup quarterback is seemingly the difference between success and failure. For the Oregon Ducks, a lopsided 62-20 loss at the hands of Utah at home with backup Jeff Lockie running the show proved to be a monumental downfall delivering repercussions not seen since 2009.

When the finicky AP voters turned in their ballots at the end of Week 4, Oregon (2-2) was out of the Top 25 for the first time since 2009. The reversal of fortunes was tremendous for the Utes jumping from No. 18 in the poll last week to No. 10 this week with their first ever regular season first place vote.

The rest of the Pac-12 followed suit with Stanford beating Oregon State 42-24, UCLA romping on Arizona on the road 56-30, and USC also notching a big road blowout over Arizona State, 42-14. The one team to watch out for is Cal. The Golden Bears are continuing on last year’s success and are off to a 4-0 start after beating Washington 30-24, also on the road. Cal is now in the AP Poll for the first time since 2009 joining in at No. 24.

The early season favor for Georgia Tech has now run out. The Yellow Jackets lost 34-20 to Duke a week after getting dropped on the road 30-22 by Notre Dame. No other ranked ACC team played this week, but the rest of the conference got beat up in non-conference action with Boise State toppling Virginia 56-14 at Virginia, LSU winning 34-24 at Syracuse, Indiana beating Wake Forest 31-24, and Virginia Tech falling to East Carolina 17-14. Boston College survived a scare against Northern Illinois but thing look bleak on the national level for the ACC other than Florida State (No. 11) and Clemson (No. 12).

The Big 12 almost got turned upside down when Texas Tech gave TCU more than they wanted in a 55-52 win for the Horned Frogs. TCU was in a tie with Ole Miss at No. 3 last week sliding down a spot to No. 4 this week.

Oklahoma State survived Texas 30-27, Kansas lost to Big Ten conference member Rutgers 27-14, and West Virginia returned the favor beating another Big Ten conference member Maryland 45-6. West Virginia joins the polls for the first time this year at No. 23 and OSU moved up from No. 24 to No. 20.

The Big Ten made it out of the weekend relatively unscathed other than Maryland’s loss to WVU and Bowling Green downing Purdue at Purdue 35-28. There were a few scares though with No. 2 Michigan State not putting Central Michigan away until late finally winning 30-10. The lack of overwhelming win margin, assuming, knocked a couple of first place votes away from the Spartans from five to two.

Northwestern held on to beat Ball State 24-19 and Iowa continued to stay unbeaten with a 62-16 win over North Texas. Ohio State, much like MSU, did not look sharp against Western Michigan but won 38-12.

The biggest winner over the weekend out of the Big Ten was Michigan. Big Blue beat visiting, then No. 22 BYU, 31-0. The Wolverines are now 3-1 with wins over Oregon State, UNLV, and BYU with their lone loss coming on the road to Utah in Week 1, 24-17. With the loss, BYU dropped out of the polls.

The conference everyone loves to hate, the SEC, continued on track without any major setbacks. South Carolina avoided further embarrassment beating Central Florida 31-14 and Alabama shutdown Louisiana-Monroe 34-0.

Arkansas gave Texas A&M a scare taking the Aggies to overtime for the second consecutive season but falling for a second consecutive season in overtime, this time by a score of 28-21. Tennessee, much like Arkansas, could not hold their lead allowing Florida to stay unbeaten in a 28-27 Gators home victory.

Kentucky and Mississippi State added big wins with the Wildcats taking down then No. 25 Missouri 21-13 and the Bulldogs dropping the falling Auburn Tigers 17-9.

Missouri fell out of the rankings but Florida replaced them out of the SEC climbing in at No. 25. Voters expected Ole Miss to beat Vanderbilt by a larger margin than the 27-16 outcome with one voter taking away one of their first place votes. One can assume said voter does not take into account the possibility of a letdown game after beating Alabama on the road in Week 3 and a Week 5 road trip to Florida.

Top Games in Week 5

No. 13 Alabama at No. 8 Georgia

No. 3 Ole Miss at No. 25 Florida

No. 6 Notre Dame at No. 12 Clemson

No. 21 Mississippi State at No. 14 Texas A&M

No. 23 West Virginia at No. 15 Oklahoma

Iowa at No. 19 Wisconsin

Arizona at No. 18 Stanford

Arizona State at No. 7 UCLA

Kansas State at No. 20 Oklahoma State

 

Week 5 AP Top 25 Rankings

  1. Ohio State (45)
  2. Michigan State (5)
  3. Ole Miss (10)
  4. TCU
  5. Baylor
  6. Notre Dame
  7. UCLA
  8. Georgia
  9. LSU
  10. Utah (1)
  11. Florida State
  12. Clemson
  13. Alabama
  14. Texas A&M
  15. Oklahoma
  16. Northwestern
  17. USC
  18. Stanford
  19. Wisconsin
  20. Oklahoma State
  21. Mississippi State
  22. Michigan
  23. West Virginia
  24. California
  25. Florida

Photo credit: Ryan Kang; Utah fans raise their helmets to the Utes section after beating Oregon 62-20.

Leave a Reply