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Michigan and Penn State are two of the most successful college football programs. This weekend, the two schools will face off with College Football Playoff implications.
As the Week 8 marquee matchup, the #16 Wolverines hope to knock off the #7 Nittany Lions. This is a rivalry in which the home team has typically prevailed in recent history, including Michigan winning eight of the last nine home games in the series.
Three of the top 11 teams in the country went down over the weekend, most notably Georgia, who lost in double overtime against unranked South Carolina.
The result? The Bulldogs tumbled from #3 to #10 on the Associated Press Poll. Ouch!
Things also aren’t looking so hot for the previous top team in the country, Clemson, which fell from #2 to #3 after beating Florida State 45-14. Ohio State dropped a spot to #4 after beating Michigan State 34-10.
The Florida Gators fell two spots to #9 after being convincingly beaten 28-42 by the new #2 team in America, LSU. The Tigers play unranked Mississippi State next weekend, then host #11 Auburn before the real showdown on Nov. 9th against #1 Alabama in Tuscaloosa.
Our Games of the Week include Florida at LSU, Texas vs Oklahoma and Michigan State at Wisconsin.
You can subscribe to our college football newsletter to see our picks for these and other games, along with our Power Ratings for consulting when deciding your own picks.
The Gators are riding high after beating Auburn, moving up three spots in the AP Top 25 while the Tigers fell 5 spots to #12.
Successes in September may impact the College Football Playoff, but October could bring some scary matchups.
Our Games of the Week include a showdown between #7 Auburn and #10 Florida. The outcome of that one will decide which team challenges Alabama, Georgia, and LSU for SEC supremacy. Our other two Games of the Week at Michigan State at Ohio State and California at Oregon.
As expected, Alabama leapfrogged Clemson in the college football rankings for Week 6 of the season after the Tigers had to stop a last-minute two-point conversion attempt by Mack Brown’s Tarheels. Ohio State also moved up a notch to #4 on the AP Top 5, knocking LSU back one spot. Impressed by their 48-7 win over Nebraska, we have the Buckeyes ranked third in the Kickoff Top 25, which Florida falling at #8. The AP knocked the undefeated Gators back one spot to #10 to make room for 3-1 Notre Dame at ninth. We also moved Oklahoma up a spot to #5 following the 55-16 performance against Texas Tech. Georgia and LSU were both idle this past weekend, the Bulldogs remaining at #3 while LSU tumbled from #4 in Week 5 to #5 for Week 6.
Jalen Hurts, Tua Tagoailoa, Tanner Morgan, Bo Nix, and Tyler Huntley all turned in superlative performances this weekend. Hurts is arguably the Heisman favorite, but Bama’s bump in the polls puts Tua in position to take the Tide all the way to another championship and sweet revenge over Clemson.
Auburn continues to impress, unleashing an offensive a 56-23 storm on Mississippi State, but some very talented teams ahead of them in the rankings will need to lose for them to make it into the College Football Playoff. This weekend’s game against Florida marks the start of a grueling road stretch that will last until November, including a clash with #5 LSU in Death Valley, plus #3 Georgia and #1 Alabama before season’s end to give Auburn room to enter the Playoff picture if they miraculously survive the next month unscathed. It will be fun to see if victories over #11 Oregon and #17 Texas A&M were flukes or early indications of greatness.
Clemson’s slip shows that with such a title race for the Playoffs, contenders need to not only win but pretty much blow out their opponents by double digits to stay in place or advance.
In Issue 6 of our 69th season of publishing our college football newsletter, we list this weekend’s matchups and assign each team a Power Rating. You’ll also find the Conference Breakdown, FBS Top Scoring Offenses per game, top FBS Defense-Points Allowed Per Game, News and Notes, the Kickoff Thermostat, a review of the rankings this week in 1969, Expanded standings, average margin of victory leaders, Kickoff times and television schedules for this week, Opening Over/Under Odds and our picks, Opening Consensus Odds and our picks, and more!
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The SEC fares well in the AP Top 25 rankings for Week 5. Alabama, Georgia, LSU, Auburn, Florida, and Texas A&M all remain in the hunt.
No. 3 Georgia overcame #10 Notre Dame, which fell 3 spots in the polls.
Oklahoma slipped one spot to #6 as Ohio State moved up to #5.