...And Down the Stretch They Come!

Can you believe that the college football season is ¾ complete? Wow.

Finally, there are some significant changes in Al’s Top 25. The top three match most of the major rankings with Florida at the top, Texas second and Alabama third. After that, things get a little wacky.

The ACC surprisingly completes the rest of the top five with Georgia Tech and Miami moving up the rankings. Iowa slid to #6 after losing to Northwestern. Cincinnati and Pittsburgh claims numbers seven and eight for the Big East while two Texas teams, Houston and TCU, complete the top ten.

The strangest entry would be Minnesota, still ranked #13 even with five losses. As discussed before, when a team was predicted to have an awful year, but has a moderate to good year, they tend to be over-ranked towards the end of the year. Thus is the case with Minnesota. A similar storm is brewing with Miami. The Hurricanes were predicted to have a 2-10 record, however they currently post a record of 7-2. With two unlikely losses still predicted to UNC and South Florida, Miami could potentially finish 10-2 and have enough accumulated ranking points to finish #1. An obvious glitch in the system.

Be that as it may, it’ll still be fun to see how the final rankings turn out in another three to five weeks. Until then, let’s check out this week’s AT25:

1, Florida (1)
2. Texas (2)
3. Alabama (4)
4. Georgia Tech (7)
5. Miami (10)
6. Iowa (3)
7. Cincinnati (6)
8. Pittsburgh (9)
9. Houston (21)
10. TCU (11)
11. Boise State (12)
12. LSU (5)
13. Minnesota (13)
14. Auburn (14)
15. Clemson (15)
16. Fresno State (16)
17. Notre Dame (17)
18. Utah (18)
19. Oregon (8)
20. California (19)
21. Oklahoma State (20)
22. Nebraska (NR)
23. Idaho (22)
24. Central Michigan (23)
25. Stanford (NR)

Fell Out:

North Carolina (24)
Oklahoma (25)

As we head down the stretch, we have some very significant match-up:

· #5 Miami visits North Carolina. A Hurricane victory will propel Miami to #2.
· #6 Iowa at Ohio State. A Hawkeye win will allows Iowa to return to the top five.
· West Virginia at #7 Cincinnati. This was the Mountaineers only predicted loss of the year…could they upset the Bearcats and return to the Top 25 in this Friday match-up?
· #17 Notre Dame at #8 Pittsburgh. The Panthers are predicted to win this one.
· #18 Utah at #10 TCU. This could solidify TCU as THE BCS Buster team of the year.
· #23 Idaho at #11 Boise State. Who would have thought two Top 25 teams from this conference so late in the year?
· USC at #25 Stanford. Can the Cardinal pull of another big upset?

Oh it looks to be a good end-of-year approaching. Enjoy!

Week 8 Rankings...Starting To Gel

Al’s Top 25 is starting to gel and match-up real well with the other more well-known rankings. Then again, based on media coverage and newspaper headlines, almost anyone can come up with a similar list. At least I’d like to think my numbers are working out well…they don’t read the papers.

There was no apparent change to the top seven teams in this week’s AT25. However, the Iowa victory over Michigan State was actually an upset. However, the Hawkeyes remained at #3 merely because Florida and Texas are scored so much higher than all others. At least until Iowa joined this elite group.

Pittsburgh moved up ten spots to #8 after their convincing victory over South Florida. Their season-ending match-ups with WVU and Cincinnati should be a doozy! TCU skyrocketed sixteen notches to #9 after defeating BYU. This is the Horned Frogs same ranking as the BSC Poll. Forgive me for patting the numbers on the back.

Other teams entering Al’s Top 25 include Notre Dame (finally) at #15, Central Michigan at #23, Oklahoma at #24 and Ohio State at #25. Teams that dropped out of the AT25 are BYU, Boston College, Arkansas, and Nebraska.

Here’s the list after Week 8:

1. Florida (1)
2. Texas (2)
3. Iowa (3)
4. Alabama (4)
5. LSU (5)
6. Cincinnati (6)
7. Georgia Tech (7)
8. Pittsburgh (18)
9. TCU (25)
10. Boise State (8)
11. Virginia Tech (9)
12. Auburn 10)
13. Clemson (11)
14. Fresno State (12)
15. Notre Dame (NR)
16. Utah (14)
17. Oregon (15)
18. USC (16)
19. Oklahoma State (17)
20. Houston (19)
21. Miami (23)
22. West Virginia (24)
23. Central Michigan (NR)
24. Oklahoma (NR)
25. Ohio State (NR)

Fell Out:
BYU (13)
Boston College (20)
Arkansas (21)
Nebraska (22)

The games to watch in Week 9 are:

Georgia at #1 Florida (during preseason, this was predicted to be THE game to watch)
#2 Texas at #19 Oklahoma State (bigger than Texas and Oklahoma?)
#18 USC at #17 Oregon. (USC is rated much higher in most polls)
#21 Miami at Wake Forest (believe it or not, a predicted Wake victory)
#22 West Virginia at South Florida (Friday night fireworks)

Happy Halloween everyone!