Welcome to the SportsRatings College Football Top 25 for the week ending September 25, 2010. This is a subjective ranking, not a computer power rating. It does attempt to use several rules some of which include honoring head-to-head results whenever possible, and giving more consideration to teams with wins over other top 25 teams.
Boise State's 37-24 win over Oregon State wasn't pretty or particularly convincing but it was enough to keep the Broncose on top of our subjective rankings. The margin was roughly the same as TCU's earlier win over the Beavers, and now the question is: how good is Oregon State? If the Broncos and Horned Frogs are both top five teams, the Beavers should be a top 25-level team. We'll find out eventually but at 1-2 with a weak win over Louisville we aren't ranking them just yet.
Speaking of TCU, their Thursday evening win over SMU (41-24) was troubling, too. It was enough to drop them behind Oregon, and then Alabama grabbed the #3 spot due to their win over ranked Arkansas. That puts the Horned Frogs at #4 after beginning the season our #1 team. Again, SMU could prove to be a good team, as they've only lost to TCU and Texas Tech, but from a current vantage point TCU had too much trouble with them.
New #2 Oregon had their own troubles putting away Arizona State, but considering that the Sun Devils nearly beat Wisconsin the 42-31 road win doesn't seem so bad. And #3 Alabama might have lost to Arkansas if not for Ryan Mallet's sudden poor passing, but you can't fault the Tide for their play against any other team on the schedule or for beating a tough SEC foe on the road.
#1 Boise State handled Wyoming on the road easily, 51-6. This surpassed Texas' home win over the Cowboys (34-7) and gave us no reason to tinked with the Broncos #1 rating—for now. TCU faces Wyoming at home on October 9th and they'll have to be similarly dominant to stick around the very top slots. Their 45-10 win over Baylor was good enough to hold on to #2. Rounding out the top five is Oklahoma, holding steady after a scare from Cincinnati. The Sooners have had three scares now but still have two wins over top 25 teams which keeps them aloft.
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SportsRatings Top 25 - week four 2010 (thru 9/25/2010)
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Losses/important wins
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| 1 | 1 | Boise State | 3-0 | |
| 3 | 2 | Oregon | 4-0 | |
| 4 | 3 | Alabama | 4-0 | [email protected] 24-20 |
| 2 | 4 | TCU | 4-0 | |
| 5 | 5 | Oklahoma | 4-0 | wFSU 47-17, AirForce 27-24 |
| 9 | 6 | Stanford | 4-0 | |
| 7 | 7 | Ohio State | 4-0 | wMiami 36-24 |
| 6 | 8 | Nebraska | 4-0 | |
| 12 | 9 | Auburn | 4-0 | wSCar 35-27, Clem 27-24ot |
| 10 | 10 | Florida | 4-0 | |
| 8 | 11 | Arkansas | 3-1 | L Alabama 24-20 |
| 14 | 12 | LSU | 4-0 | |
| 15 | 13 | Wisconsin | 4-0 | |
| 17 | 14 | Miami FL | 2-1 | [email protected] 36-24 |
| 18 | 15 | Utah | 4-0 | |
| 16 | 16 | Texas A&M | 3-0 | |
| 13 | 17 | South Carolina | 3-1 | [email protected] 35-27 |
| -- | 18 | Kansas St | 4-0 | |
| 11 | 19 | Texas | 3-1 | L UCLA 34-12; [email protected] 24-14 |
| 20 | 20 | Clemson | 2-1 | [email protected] 27-24ot |
| 21 | 21 | Air Force | 3-1 | [email protected] 27-24 |
| 22 | 22 | Florida St | 3-1 | [email protected] 47-17 |
| 23 | 23 | Nevada | 4-0 | |
| 24 | 24 | Arizona | 4-0 | |
| 25 | 25 | USC | 4-0 | |
| out: | ||||
| 19 | -- | Texas Tech | 2-1 | L Texas 24-14 |
Stanford continues their rapid ascent at #6. #19 pre-season, the Cardinal have upset no one but their winning margins have been astounding including Saturday's 37-14 trouncing of Notre Dame, who nearly beat Michigan and Michigan State. Ohio State remains #7 after crushing Eastern Michigan as expected, while Nebraska slumps back to #8 following a lame performance against I-AA South Dakota State.
Auburn leaps to #9 from #12 after beating their 2nd top 25 victim in another close game. The Tigers could easily be 1-3 right now but their résumé is as strong as anyone's so far. They leap Florida, who finally put together a strong game against Kentucky.
Arkansas drops a few spots to #11 after nearly beating Alabama; LSU, Wisconsin, Miami, and Utah make up some ground after wins while Texas A&M holds at #16 following an idle week. South Carolina's loss to Auburn pushes them down just a few spots, as they lost narrowly on the road.
The biggest shift in the rankings occurs due to Texas' 34-12 loss to 2-2 UCLA. The Longhorns had just defeated Texas Tech on the road to prove they were better than we expected, only to lose big and prove that wasn't the case. The difficulty here is, how can you rank 3-1 Texas ahead of 4-0 Kansas State, when the Wildcats beat the Bruins? My answer is, you can't. The Wildcats, who edged Central Florida this weekend, debut one slot ahead of Texas at #18, while the Red Raiders drop out of the rankings on an idle week. Sometimes life isn't fair.
The final six spots in the rankings remain the same: Idle Clemson, Air Force (beat Wyoming 20-14), Florida State (shut out Wake Forest 31-0), Nevada (beat BYU 27-13), Arizona (edged Cal at home, 10-9), and USC (beat up on Washington State 50-16).
Next weekend's intra-top 25 matchups include #6 Stanford at #2 Oregon, #10 Florida at #3 Alabama, #14 Miami at #20 Clemson, and of course #5 Oklahoma vs. #19 Texas in the Red River Rivalry (né Shootout). Six teams (#8 Nebraska, #11 Arkansas, #15 Utah, #17 South Carolina, #18 Kansas State, and #24 Arizona) are idle.
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