Upsets Sure To Shake Up College Football Rankings, Half Of The Top 10 Lose
Four of the top 10 ranked college football teams tasted defeat on Saturday, losses which will no doubt be reflected in this week’s new college football rankings. A fifth top ten team was defeated on Thursday, beginning the avalanche that is sure to shake up the rankings.
As USA Today reported, the number 2, 3, 4, and 6 ranked teams in the AP Poll, along with No. 8 team in the college rankings, experienced their first losses of the college football season. Of all the losses in the top 10, only the No. 2 and 8-ranked teams, the Oregon Ducks and UCLA Bruins, lost to an unranked opponents. No. 2 Oregon was defeated by Arizona 31-24 on Thursday and No. 8 UCLA dropped a game late Saturday evening to unranked Utah, 30-28.
The losses continued on Saturday as the No.3 ranked Alabama lost to No.11 Ole Miss by a score of 23-17. Oklahoma went into Saturday’s game with No. 25 Texas Christian University as the No.4 ranked team in the college football. However, they were beaten when TCU intercepted a pass and returned it for a 41-yard touchdown and stopped Oklahoma on a fourth-down to help seal the 37-33 victory over their Big 12 rivals.
No. 6 ranked Texas A & M were also defeated from a Mississippi team as No.12 Mississippi State handed the Aggies their first defeat by a score of 48-31. CBS Sports predicts this week’s rankings will be turned virtually flip flop by this string of upsets.
These losses could have a more long term impact than this week’s college football rankings as the new college football playoff system will debut this season. The playoff system, which was announced in 2012 as reported in the Inquisitr, will feature a final four format, with the championship game being played on January 12, 2015. With today’s upsets, the teams that had the higher rankings will risk missing out on the playoffs altogether.
In other scores that could effect the playoffs, No. 9 Notre Dame narrowly beat No. 14 Stanford by a score of 17-14. Michigan State, No. 10 in the college football rankings, held off No. 19 Nebraska 27-22. No. 17 Wisconsin lost to Northwestern 20-14 and Arizona State threw a Hail Mary pass to defeat No. 16 USC 38-34 in the last seconds of their game.
When the college football rankings come out Sunday, it will be interesting to see which teams moved up and how far the once undefeated teams slid in the rankings. The only teams in the top five that are sure to be safe are is No. 1 Florida State, who soundly defeated Wake Forest 43-3, and No. 5 Auburn. Auburn will undoubtedly move up in the college rankings with their 41-7 victory over No. 15 LSU.
How do you think the football rankings will shake out this week?
