Week 6 AP Rankings: Overcorrecting AP Voters Dock Michigan State but not Ohio State
Written by Ryan Wright
Twitter: @HogManInLA
Have the AP rankings ever been this temperamental? The 61 voters spread across the nation are having love affairs with a different team every week and much like a grade school or junior high kid, off to the next shinny object when all of Saturday’s scores have been tallied. The Week 6 bull’s eye was quick to dramatically drop Notre Dame, Ole Miss, Georgia, and UCLA after losses but then also dinged Michigan State but not Ohio State after similar outings by the Big Ten programs.
To say both Ohio State and Michigan State, then the No. 1 and No. 2 teams in the nation respectively, escaped with wins on Saturday is more than accurate. Ohio State’s 34-27 win on the road against Indiana came down to the last play of the game with the Hoosiers still having a chance to win but blew it in the end. Michigan State made the mistake of letting Purdue stay close at home in a 24-21 victory.
The voting damages dropped MSU from No. 2 to No. 4 with the Buckeyes only losing eight first place votes but remaining the No. 1 team in the nation. Trouble is Ohio State has not looked sharp in wins against Northern Illinois (20-13) and Western Michigan (38-12) before Saturday’s scare against Indiana. For some reason the voters are quick to judge others but not OSU even with MSU having a big win over Oregon.
Big Ten
The rest of the Big Ten shifted when Iowa beat then No. 19 Wisconsin 10-6 to remain undefeated and Illinois held home court against Nebraska winning 14-13. Penn State survived Army 20-14 at home and Northwestern blanked Minnesota 27-0. Michigan continues to ascend while Maryland plummets with the Wolverines knocking off the Terps 28-0.
Big 12
The Big 12’s weekend remained status quo with the ranked or higher ranked schools winning. Kansas State nearly took down No. 20 Oklahoma State on the road before losing 36-30 and Baylor dumped Texas Tech 63-35. No. 15 Oklahoma handled No. 23 West Virginia 44-24 and Iowa State got a 38-13 win against Kansas. Perhaps the biggest news was another bad loss for Texas getting dumped in Arlington by No. 4 TCU 50-7. The Charlie Strong hot seat rhetoric gets cranked up a notch.
ACC
In the ACC, Miami head coach Al Golden could not keep positive momentum going losing on the road to Cincinnati 34-24; another hot seated coach. Pitt added to Frank Beamer’s hot seat at Virginia Tech winning 17-13 and Duke held off Boston College in a surprisingly low scoring affair, 9-7. Including Pitt, four ACC teams won on the road with Louisville topping N.C. State 20-13, North Carolina thumping Georgia Tech 38-31, and Florida State outlasting Wake Forest 24-16.
The biggest win for the ACC was in non-conference play with then No. 12 Clemson stopping No. 6 Notre Dame 24-22 at home. The Tigers jumped six spots to No. 6 in this week’s poll now making Clemson a college football playoff contender… for now.
Pac-12
One game may have flipped the script in the Pac-12 putting everyone back on equal footing when then No. 7 UCLA lost to Arizona State 38-23 in the Rose Bowl. Utah is the only South Division team still undefeated in conference play, and overall. With Stanford taking down Arizona 55-17 and Cal squeaking past Washington State 34-28, the Cardinal and Golden Bears also remain undefeated in conference play, with Cal still without a loss overall. Colorado gave Oregon a run for 3.5 quarters but then allowed 10 unanswered points in the fourth quarter falling 41-24 at home to the Ducks.
SEC
The SEC produced some exciting results, both good and bad, in Week 5. The AP voters were all over Ole Miss the last two weeks pushing them to No. 3 in the nation after a win over Alabama but then dropped the Rebels to No. 14 in a huge overreaction after a 38-10 road loss to Florida in the Swamp. The Gators remain unbeaten and moved from No. 25 a week ago to No. 11 in Week 6.
The other big game of the week was No. 13 Alabama manhandling then No. 8 Georgia in Athens 38-10. The loss to Ole Miss must still be fresh on voter’s minds because the reversal of overreaction for the Crimson Tide only pushed Bama to No. 8, and that is with four Top 10 teams losing in Week 5.
Even without their starting quarterback, Missouri easily took care of the visiting Gamecocks winning 24-10. Auburn still did not look great but found their running game in a 35-21 non-conference victory against San Jose State.
In other non-conference action, Vanderbilt survived a rising Middle Tennessee State team 17-13. LSU also played outside the SEC hosting a bad Eastern Michigan squad. The expected lopsided win came but not as quickly as most had anticipated. In the end Leonard Fournette went over 200 yards for the third straight week in a 44-22 Tigers’ win. Kentucky was the fourth SEC squad to play a non-conference team needing overtime to beat Eastern Kentucky 34-27.
Arkansas head coach Bret Bielema got his first SEC road win guiding the Hogs past Tennessee 24-20. The win in theory keeps the Hogs in SEC West title contention but the team everyone might be looking up to see soon rising out of the West is Texas A&M. The No. 14 Aggies hosted No. 21 Mississippi State winning 30-17. A&M looked good posting 516 yards of total offense without a turnover. The defense did allow 406 yards to MSU but buckled down on third down conversions only allowing 5-of-14 attempts.
Welcome Back
Boise State jumped back into the rankings after downing visiting Hawaii 55-0. Toledo (4-0) is helping Arkansas out by joining the rankings for the first time since 2012. Another first in a while is Iowa coming into the polls at No. 22 after being absent since November 2010.
See Ya Later
Mississippi State, West Virginia, and Wisconsin were left out of the polls after their defeats.
On the Outside Looking In
The American Athletic Conference now has four teams without a loss, Temple (4-0), Navy (4-0), Houston (4-0), and Memphis (5-0). Navy has a couple of nice “name” wins on the resume against East Carolina, Connecticut, and Air Force. Temple has two high-profile wins against Penn State (27-10) and Cincinnati (34-26) while Houston has one against Louisville (34-31).
Many may not know, but Memphis has 12 consecutive wins. Their win list in 2015 is not overwhelming as compared to some Power 5 Conference members but as a Group of Five member with victories over Kansas (55-23), Bowling Green (44-41), Cincinnati (53-46), and South Florida (24-17), they are deserving of an AP ranking.
AP Rankings Week 6
- Ohio State (38)
- TCU (5)
- Baylor (10)
- Michigan State
- Utah (7)
- Clemson
- LSU
- Alabama
- Texas A&M (1)
- Oklahoma
- Florida
- Florida State
- Northwestern
- Ole Miss
- Notre Dame
- Stanford
- USC
- Michigan
- Georgia
- UCLA
- Oklahoma State
- Iowa
- California
- Toledo
- Boise State
Photo credit: Darron Cummings; Ohio State QB Cardale Jones (left) congratulates RB Ezekiel Elliott after a 55-yard touchdown run vs. Indiana.