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The SportsRatings Weekly Top 25 is a subjective ranking of the top 25 college football teams in the style of the AP or USA/Coaches poll. Our rankings properly reflect head-to-head results and give additional consideration to teams who have victories over other top 25 teams.
We all know that LSU is #1. Who should be #2? Mike Gundy argues that it should be the team that would make for a 39-36 game rather than a 9-6 game in the national championship. But our purpose here isn't to create a BCS title game matchup; we keep the Alabama Crimson Tide #2. Because LSU is such a far and away, obvious #1, and the Tide took them into overtime—while Oklahoma State lost to 6-6 Iowa State in the same fashion—how can we do otherwise?
Both teams have solid wins—the Cowboys' win résumé is a bit bitter, capped by their complete destruction of Oklahoma—but the Tide are ahead overall. Oklahoma State does move up to #3 based on their three top 25 wins, passing Boise State and Stanford, who have but one each. Arkansas is #6 based on the fact that they've only lost to #1 and #2, while #7 Wisconsin now has three top 25 wins, too. Southern Cal, Oregon, and South Carolina round out our final pre-bowl top 10.
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SportsRatings Top 25 - week 14 (thru 12/03/2011)
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Losses/important wins
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| 1 | 1 | Louisiana State | 13-0 | w@Ala 9-6ot, Ark 41-17, Ore 40-27, @WVA 47-21, @GA 42-10 |
| 2 | 2 | Alabama | 11-1 | L LSU 9-6ot; wArk 38-14, @PennSt 27-11 |
| 5 | 3 | Oklahoma State | 11-1 | L@IowaSt 37-31ot; wOK 44-10, KState 52-45, Baylor 59-24 |
| 3 | 4 | Boise State | 11-1 | L TCU 36-35; w@Georgia 35-21 |
| 4 | 5 | Stanford | 11-1 | L Oregon 53-30; w@USC 54-46ot |
| 8 | 6 | Arkansas | 10-2 | L@LSU 41-17, @Alabama 38-14; wSCar 44-28 |
| 10 | 7 | Wisconsin | 11-2 | L@OSU 33-29, @MSU 37-31; wNeb 48-17, PennSt 45-7, =MSU 42-39 |
| 11 | 8 | Southern Cal | 10-2 | L@ArizSt 43-22, Stan 54-46ot; w@Oregon 38-35 |
| 12 | 9 | Oregon | 11-2 | L USC 38-35, @LSU 40-27; w@Stanford 53-30 |
| 13 | 10 | South Carolina | 10-2 | L Aub 16-13, @Ark 44-28; w@Georgia 45-42, Clem 34-13 |
| 14 | 11 | Michigan | 10-2 | L@Iowa 24-16, @MichSt 28-14; wNebraska 45-17 |
| 15 | 12 | TCU | 10-2 | L SMU 40-33ot, @Baylor 50-48; w@Boise 36-35 |
| 18 | 13 | Kansas State | 10-2 | L Oklahoma 58-17, @OKst 52-45; wBaylor 36-35 |
| 7 | 14 | Houston | 12-1 | L SMiss 49-28 |
| 19 | 15 | Baylor | 9-3 | L@TexAM 55-28, @Kst 36-35, @OKst 59-24; wOK 45-38, TCU 50-48 |
| 20 | 16 | Nebraska | 9-3 | L Nwest 28-25, @Wisc 48-17, @Mich 45-17; wMichSt 24-3, @PennSt 17-14 |
| 9 | 17 | Michigan St | 10-3 | L@ND 31-13, @Neb 24-3, =Wisc 42-39; wWisc 37-31, Mich 28-14 |
| 21 | 18 | Clemson | 10-3 | L@NCst 37-13, @GTech 31-17, @SCar 34-13; w@VT 23-3, =VT 38-10 |
| 6 | 19 | Virginia Tech | 11-2 | L Clemson 23-3, =Clemson 38-10; wArkSt 26-7 |
| 25 | 20 | Southern Miss | 11-2 | L@UAB 34-31, @Marshall 26-20; w@Houston 49-28 |
| 16 | 21 | Oklahoma | 9-3 | L TxTech 41-38, @OKst 44-10, @Baylor 45-38; w@KSt 58-17 |
| 17 | 22 | Georgia | 10-3 | L SCar 45-42, BoiseSt 35-21, LSU 42-10 |
| 22 | 23 | Penn State | 9-3 | L@Wisc 45-7, Nebraska 17-14, Alabama 27-11 |
| 23 | 24 | Arkansas State | 10-2 | L@Illinois 33-15, @VTech 26-7 |
| 24 | 25 | West Virginia | 9-3 | L@Syr 49-23, Lou 38-35, LSU 47-21 |
Michigan, TCU, and Kansas State, all 10-2, move up three spots each; the Wolverines would have no trouble being in a top 14 if the BCS were fashioned from our rankings.
Houston tumbles to #14; on the one hand they are 12-1, on the other their schedule was easy and they just got manhandled by Southern Miss. We keep them ahead of the 3-loss teams, the best of which are Baylor and Nebraska. Michigan State lost to Wisconsin last night, but was beaten handily by Nebraska during the season; they fall from #9 to #17.
Clemson inches up to #18. Instead of rewarding the Tigers for beating Virginia Tech a second time we dropped the Hokies like a rock from #6 to #19. They have only one top 25 win (Arkansas State), have lost to the TIgers twice badly, and have an otherwise easy schedule.
Southern Miss gets their first top 25 win and moves up to #20, still hampered by the bad loss to UAB.
Oklahoma got thrashed but we don't penalize them that much; they were already pretty low at #16. They fall five spots to #21, as does Georgia, who like Penn State has three losses to top 25 teams. In fact, all of Georgia's losses are to top 10 teams.The Nittany Lions slip a spot along with Arkansas State and Big East champ West Virginia.
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