HogManInLA’s Top 25 College Football Poll: Week Ten
By Ryan Wright
Jan 9, 2012; New Orleans, LA, USA; A detail of a BCS logo on a end zone pylon during the first half of the 2012 BCS National Championship game between the LSU Tigers and the Alabama Crimson Tide at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome. Mandatory Credit: Derick E. Hingle-US PRESSWIRE
The 2012 college football season keeps dishing out great football games week after week. In week nine of the season five unbeaten teams were upset while the race at the top of the heap got a little bit tighter.
Goodbye Florida. Who would have thought that the Gators would have been beaten by Georgia entering the game? The matchup in Jacksonville was not a pretty affair with nine total turnovers, Gators 6 and Bulldogs 3, and neither starting quarterback nor offenses played well. A win is a win and the Bulldogs move on to fight another day in the SEC East.
Florida’s loss has to make the BCS happy as there will more than likely not be a repeat of last year’s national championship game with two SEC teams fighting for the prize.
Kansas State is a machine. There is no stopping the Wildcats run to an undefeated regular season unless Oklahoma State or Texas can pull of a miracle? Will the fact that the Big 12 does not have a championship game hurt KSU?
Notre Dame got the cherry on top of their season this week with a dominating win over Oklahoma, 30-13.
The Irish are sitting in the same boat as KSU. No championship game to play after a possible undefeated season will not give either team a chance to leap frog Alabama or Oregon should all four teams finish the season undefeated.
Alabama and Oregon could be in a position to cry foul after their respective championship games are played should they lose. It does not seem fair that some teams have to play in a championship game while others do not.
Louisville scrapped by in overtime to beat Cincinnati. On paper the Cardinals only have one tough game left, a road trip to Rutgers on Nov. 29. Rutgers will look to spoil Louisville’s season after their season was ruined this weekend by Kent State. Louisville head coach Charlie Strong will have to keep his team’s motivation going through the month of November or one small slip up could cost them a dream season.
College football fans in Los Angeles have to be upset with the results Lane Kiffin is producing this season. Arizona is not in the same class of talent on the field as the Trojans but the unranked team managed a three point home win over the No. 9 team in the nation.
USC got caught looking ahead to Oregon this week and will have a tough finishing the season without another loss. They still have to play Oregon, UCLA, and Notre Dame. One more conference loss will put them out of the Pac-12 Championship game more than likely and out of a coveted BCS bowl game.
Mississippi State… you had your chance. A 31 point loss to Alabama in Tuscaloosa is common but for a team entering the game 7-0 one would hope the Bulldogs would have tried to keep the game close.
The Washington Huskies program may not be going anywhere on a national stage but each season they seem to knock off a team or two in Seattle. Oregon State got a taste of that Huskies medicine falling from the ranks of the unbeatens to toil around with the best of the rest of college football teams.
South Carolina hung on to beat Tennessee after their star running back, Marcus Lattimore, was carted off the field for the second season in a row with a horrific leg injury. Lattimore suffered a dislocated knee after a rush against the Vols on Saturday. Lattimore still has a redshirt season he can take but one has to wonder if his once promising NFL career is now over.
Best games of the upcoming week include:
Oregon at USC
Alabama at LSU
HogManInLA’s Top 25 Poll
1. Alabama 8-0
2. Oregon 8-0
3. Kansas State 8-0
4. LSU 7-1
5. Notre Dame 8-0
6. Georgia 7-1
7. Florida 7-1
8. Florida State 8-1
9. Ohio State 9-0
10. Clemson 7-1
11. South Carolina 7-2
12. Louisville 8-0
13. Mississippi State 7-1
14. Oregon State 6-1
15. Oklahoma 5-2
16. USC 6-2
17. Texas A&M 6-2
18. Boise State 7-1
19. Texas Tech 6-2
20. West Virginia 5-2
21. Louisiana Tech 7-1
22. Rutgers 7-1
23. Tulsa 7-1
24. Stanford 6-2
25. UCLA 6-2
New to the Poll:
No. 24 Stanford
No. 25 UCLA
Dropped Out of Poll:
No. 21 Cincinnati
No. 24 Ohio