The SportsRatings Top 25 is our answer to the AP and coaches' polls. This subjective "poll" properly reflects head-to-head results and give additional consideration to teams who have victories over other top 25 teams.
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#1 Alabama survived the carnage by not playing this weekend, but no one else was very safe, resulting in three new teams in the top five. Oregon beat ex-#16 Washington 52-21, scoring a bit more and giving up a bit more than LSU did vs. the Huskies; they replace the Tigers at #2. South Carolina might have had the best win of the weekend, crushing Georgia 35-7; they're up from #7 to #3. New #4 Notre Dame beat Miami 41-3, the same margin by which #5 Kansas State beat the Hurricanes a few weeks ago. The Wildcats handled Kansas 56-16 on Saturday.
West Virginia and Florida were big winners in their conference play, with the Mountaineers edging Texas on the road 48-45, while the Gators used a different ploy—killer defense—to beat LSU 14-6. They both move up six spots. Ohio State moved to 6-0 while clobbering Nebraska 63-38, and Oregon State took care of Washington State 19-6. Oklahoma beat previously undefeated Texas Tech 41-20 to rejoin the top ten.
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SportsRatings Top 25 - week six 2012 (thru 10/06/2012)
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Losses/important wins
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| 1 | 1 | Alabama | 5-0 | wWKentucky 35-0 |
| 4 | 2 | Oregon | 6-0 | wWashington 52-21 |
| 7 | 3 | South Carolina | 6-0 | wGeorgia 35-7 |
| 8 | 4 | Notre Dame | 5-0 | |
| 9 | 5 | Kansas State | 5-0 | w@Oklahoma 24-19 |
| 12 | 6 | West Virginia | 5-0 | w@Texas 48-45 |
| 13 | 7 | Florida | 5-0 | wLSU 14-6 |
| 10 | 8 | Ohio State | 6-0 | wNebraska 63-38 |
| 11 | 9 | Oregon State | 4-0 | w@UCLA 27-20 |
| 15 | 10 | Oklahoma | 3-1 | L KansasSt 24-19; w@TTech 41-20 |
| 2 | 11 | LSU | 5-1 | L@Florida 14-6; wWash 41-3 |
| 5 | 12 | Texas | 4-1 | L WVa 48-45 |
| 6 | 13 | Georgia | 5-1 | L@SCar 35-7 |
| 17 | 14 | Stanford | 4-1 | L@Wash 17-13; wUSC 21-14 |
| 18 | 15 | USC | 4-1 | L@Stanford 21-14 |
| 24 | 16 | Rutgers | 5-0 | |
| 3 | 17 | Florida State | 5-1 | L@NCState 17-16; wClemson 49-37 |
| 23 | 18 | Clemson | 5-1 | L@FSU 49-37 |
| -- | 19 | Mississippi State | 5-0 | |
| -- | 20 | Cincinnati | 4-0 | |
| -- | 21 | Louisiana Tech | 5-0 | |
| -- | 22 | Louisville | 5-0 | |
| -- | 23 | Ohio | 6-0 | |
| -- | 24 | W. Kentucky | 4-1 | L@Alabama 35-0 |
| -- | 25 | Texas-San Antonio | 5-0 | |
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| 16 | -- | Washington | 3-2 | L@LSU 41-3, @Oregon 52-21; wStanford 17-13 |
| 14 | -- | Northwestern | 5-1 | L@PennSt 39-28 |
| 22 | -- | Utah State | 4-2 | L@Wisc 16-14, @BYU 6-3 |
| 19 | -- | UCLA | 4-2 | L OregonSt 27-20, @Cal 43-17 |
| 20 | -- | Nebraska | 4-2 | L@UCLA 36-30, @OSU 63-38 |
| 25 | -- | Texas Tech | 4-1 | L Oklahoma 41-20 |
| 21 | -- | TCU | 4-1 | L IowaSt 37-23 |
Now for the losers. LSU, Texas, and Georgia drop 9, 7, and 7 spots respectively. None has a current top 25 win. At #14, Stanford survived a big scare from Arizona to win in overtime 54-48, but the Cardinal are one of just two teams to have a loss to a team with 2 losses. USC follows at #15 after beating Utah 38-28 on Thursday.
Rutgers remained unbeaten with a 19-3 win over UConn and took advantage of the carnage in the lower ranks to move to #16.
Florida State fell all the way to #17 due to their loss to unranked N.C. State. They remain a spot ahead of Clemson, whom they beat earlier in the year. The Tigers rallied to beat Georgia Tech 47-31.New Blood: With a slew of teams losing in the lower half, we've moved in every single undefeated team. New this week are: #19 Mississippi State (5-0) who beat Kentucky 27-14; #20 Cincinnati (4-0) who beat Miami of Ohio 52-14; #21 Louisiana Tech (5-0), beat UNLV 58-31; #22 Louisville (5-0) idle this week; #23 Ohio (6-0) who edged Buffalo 38-31; and at #25, Texas-San Antonio (5-0) who is new to the FBS this year. The Roadrunners have only played two FBS teams this year, so their appearance is mostly a symbolic reward. But as long as they can keep winning they'll remain in.
With one more slot to fill, we looked at every 1-loss team that has only lost to an undefeated team. From those three we chose Western Kentucky (4-1) since they've only lost to #1 Alabama. The other two are Texas A&M (4-1, lost to Florida) and Baylor (3-1, lost to West Virginia).
Faced with carnage throughout the rankings, we cleaned house. Teams with two losses were dropped, including Utah State (who lost to BYU 6-3), UCLA (upset by Cal 43-17), and Nebraska (lost to Ohio State). Washington has the best résumé of the 2-loss teams, falling to Oregon and LSU and holding a win over Stanford; their losses were very one-sided however. They get a chance to redeem themselves against USC next weekend.
Northwestern lost to unranked Penn State 39-28 and the Wildcats fell out since they have no offsetting Top 25 win. TCU lost to Iowa State 37-23, and rather than bring the Cyclones in we dropped the Horned Frogs out. The reason was that the Cyclones have a loss to Texas Tech, who lost to Oklahoma badly this weekend; that meant the whole lot would have to be cast out.
Next weekend could be just as crazy, as there are several big matchups:
- #3 South Carolina has to "prove it" against #11 LSU, in what could be the Tigers' last stand in their fight for the SEC title;
- #4 Notre Dame hosts #14 Stanford, another reason why it's nice to have a strong Independent team in this day of mega-conferences;
- #10 Oklahoma takes on #12 Texas. Six Big Twelve teams have one conference loss, and the Sooners and Longhorns are among them. But unless you think someone is going undefeated, this could still determine the Big Twelve champion.
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