Week 11 Power Rankings

1. Oregon Ducks - With the betting sweat of the week (Oregon -14.5), Dan Lanning showed no mercy and punched one in late to propel the Ducks to a 38-17 victory over Michigan. The saying “great teams cover” won’t get you any extra wins, but the Ducks are 4-0 against the spread over the last month, eliminating any doubts people had about them early on. What a first year in the Big 10, but watch out, the William vs Zac Bowl takes place this weekend on the BTN at 6pm CT. Maryland travels across the country to be the Duck’s sacrificial lamb, and a playoff spot is all but guaranteed. The question is, who will they be facing in the conference championship game?

2. Ohio State Buckeyes - After a nightmarish start, the Buckeyes fought back from a quick 10-0 deficit to get a big time win in Happy Valley. Penn State was unable to score an offensive touchdown, which is a testament to Jim Knowles being able to get this team up for an important game. Offensively, the Buckeyes were one Will Howard fumble away from blowing this one open. Props to Penn State on forcing the fumble out of the endzone, but Howard was inches away from taking a two score lead and silencing the 95% white out crowd. Looking forward, Ohio State will likely sleepwalk through Purdue this weekend and the next with Northwest before a big time game with Indiana. Cough cough, as it stands, the winner of that game gets a crack at Oregon… in Indianapolis I might add.

3. Georgia Bulldogs - Carson Beck has turned into Nathan Peterman as of late and Florida had a legitimate shot to win this one if they didn’t have to turn to their 3rd string QB. That is now multiple games where Georgia has struggled to beat inferior opponents and I don’t know what to think of this Bulldogs team. The consistency isn’t there to trust them in January, which might be a fan’s dream. No sure front-runner will make for an excellent playoff and gives lots of teams hope that they can compete. Speaking of games with massive question marks around them, Georgia heads to Oxford to face Ole Miss this weekend and my confidence level on predicting this one is nearly a 0. Can’t wait to play some OG Fortnite while I watch this one!

4. Miami Hurricanes - Discussing Miami is a broken record, so here’s my best caveman impression. Offense good. Offense score many point. Defense no good. Defense allow many point. Cam Ward good. That all.

5. Penn State Nittany Lions - Things were looking up early-on for the Nittany Lions but quickly came to a standstill. I’m no genius, but if your top 2 leading rushers are your tight end and quarterback, usually that won’t reflect well on the final scoreboard. James Franklin has to continue living with the Michigan and Ohio State criticisms for another year, and many were saying this season was the one to break that narrative. The remaining schedule is favorable to win out and finish 11-1, but with how top heavy the Big 10 is, that might not be enough to compete for the conference championship. None of that should matter to Penn State though. Take care of the game in front of you and it will result in hosting a playoff game at minimum.

6. Texas Longhorns - UT had the week off to make fun of A&M for their performance against South Carolina. They now host Florida, who I’ll remind you again, is starting a 3rd stringer who just went 7 for 22. If only there was a way Texas could catch a break! I’ll be back next week with tweets from UT fans along the lines of “we just blew out the same Florida team who Georgia could barely beat! This is our conference! Rahh rahh other annoying nonsense”.

7. Indiana Hoosiers - As the Hoosiers go up in the rankings, the more people I notice trying to predict them getting upset. We get it, you want to sound like a college football guru Brandon Walker by predicting they lose to Michigan State. Moral of the story, this wasn’t even close after the 1st quarter. Like Ohio State, Indiana fell to a quick 10-0 deficit but it was all Cignetti’s team after that with a final score of 47-10. This team is dangerous and more than just a product of a poor schedule. If they can take care of business this week against Michigan, they are 10-0 going into the bye week before the showdown in Columbus. If they win that game, they will be playing Oregon for the national #1 seed in the playoff. Bet that one wasn’t on your bingo card.

8. Notre Dame Fighting Irish - Notre Dame gets back-to-back bye weeks (aka Florida State) and this one might be less stressful than the one where they were actually off. The Nole’s stadium was a ghost town last week as Omarion Hampton got to make an NFL draft highlights video. They are truly awful and I’m petitioning to have them play Purdue in a Cottonelle Worst Team in Football bowl game. Give me Notre Dame -26 and give me Mike Norvell “how to make a resume” in his search history after this game. Remember when he had Travis Hunter committed?

9. Tennessee Volunteers - A tight one for the Vols last week, as Kentucky kept this one close until a late Dylan Sampson touchdown to seal the deal at 28-18. Speaking of, that’s now 19 touchdowns for Sampson, just 2 total behind the almighty Ashton Jeanty. That’s also now 4 straight games for Tennessee that were one possession in the 4th quarter, something Heupal would like corrected. A trip to Athens is coming up and that is not an environment you want to be playing sloppy in. If they can manage to take down Georgia, that completely shakes up the SEC title race. There are 3 games left and we have 5-6 teams that have a shot to win it - what a time to be alive. And go Cocks!

10. BYU Cougars - The Mormons now stand alone at the top of the Big 12 as the only unblemished program. They can drop one any given Saturday, but it’s safe to say they have been the most consistent team in the conference. Looking at their remaining schedule, I don’t even know what games to call sneaky or not, but November can prove to be a stressful period of football. For all of you Big 10 and/or SEC homers out there, you should either root for BYU to win out or for the Big 12 to keep eating itself alive so that this conference only gets 1 playoff bid. 

Others receiving votes:

None! Down go Iowa State and Kansas State as the Big 12 continues to destroy itself! A&M what the hell! One of Bama and LSU will get a 3rd loss this weekend! This year has become a cluster. Shoutout to the SMU Mustangs, though.

• Zac Bryan, daily Sudoku player