Week 12 Power Rankings

1. Oregon Ducks - I’d like to take this moment to congratulate the Maryland Terrapins for covering the spread this weekend. Their bowl eligibility may be in jeopardy, but real ball knowers know teams are judged based on how they fare against Vegas. On a serious note, here’s a quick trivia question for you. Who is the college football all-time leader in total touchdowns? 3… 2… 1… correct, it is Dillon Gabriel. The stud quarterback found his lineman (no that’s not a typo) to break the record, which currently stands at 179. Although Gabriel will be eligible to pull from his 401k in a few months, all that stands between Oregon and a perfect regular season is Wisconsin and Washington. Not calling them fraudulent by any means, I am just excited for them to play some more top tier talent next month. 

2. Ohio State Buckeyes - I saw a commercial previewing some of the Week 12 games and “Penn State takes on upset minded Purdue” was one of the game descriptions. The only time the words “upset” and “Purdue” should be used in the same sentence this year is to describe how they feel about what they let the Buckeyes do to them last week. This game was never close and the only positive I have for Purdue is “congrats it wasn’t a multiple score game in the 1st quarter”... again, congrats? OSU is a very dangerous team, but I’ll wait another week to discuss the elephant in the room cough cough Cignetti’s coming. For now, they look forward to Northwestern in what should be another tune up for the big one on the 23rd.

3. Penn State Nittany Lions - Well, even though they lost the big one to Ohio State, due to the craziness of last week, here they are back up to 3rd in our rankings. I can’t even use my previous “addition by subtraction” mindset to justify them being this high. The reality is, they are taking care of business when other teams aren’t so they deserve to be highly ranked. Since the Big 10 is quite top heavy, we are seeing lots of solid teams in the conference with .500-ish records. I say that to credit Penn State for their performance on Saturday. Washington might be 5-5, but any team that can beat them 35-6 is deserving of recognition. As previously mentioned, Purdue is on the docket which should certainly improve the Nittany Lions record to 9-1. 

4. Texas Longhorns - As foretold by yours truly last week, Texas dismantled Florida without DJ Lagway active. I was too busy fighting for profit (which I did do) in other parlays last Saturday, but Texas -21.5 was one of the freest bets over the weekend. I think today is a good time to make my opinion on Texas abundantly clear. They are a very talented team that has the potential to make some noise in the playoff BUT their schedule allows for their record to be better than they are. I’m not defending Kirby Smart, but if Texas had Georgia’s schedule, they would also have 2 losses, if not more. You can’t control the conference games on your schedule, but they have no wins against current ranked teams. These fans pridefully expect to win every game, which they should considering their strength of schedule, but don’t get high on Bevo just because you demolished a Florida team with half their starters out. 

5. Indiana Hoosiers - This last Saturday was the exact type of game Indiana needed to find themselves in. Michigan is down heavily from last year, but being tested was something we hadn’t seen from the Hoosiers and might benefit them in the long run. I’m not contradicting what I just said about Texas, the reality is Indiana didn’t play up to par against a lesser team, so let’s get that straight. I’m not telling them to be boastful, but it’s encouraging for Indiana to know they can win games when their offense isn’t gunning at the rate they’ve been going. What a year for Indiana, who was projected in the preseason to be one of the worst teams in the conference. Now with their bye week coming at the perfect time, this squad gets two weeks to prepare for Ohio State. Not that Oregon should lose their #1 ranking, but we can make a serious argument for Indiana to be the top overall team if they take care of business.

6. Notre Dame Fighting Irish - Marcus Freeman has dropped a couple games in his young career as a 20+ point favorite, but this one was never in doubt. The o/u on points scored by Florida State in this game was 7.5 - Vegas thought it was a pick 'em on if a group of D1, Power 4 athletes could score more than a touchdown. The best part? They only scored 3. Norvell, in a desperate attempt to keep his job, got rid of a good chunk of his staff after this one but it’s only going to get worse. As for Notre Dame, they have only had 1 game within 3 possessions since their early season upset loss to Northern Illinois. Remember when the AP ranked NIU after that? Gosh their ranking system is so reactionary; they’re still fighting for bowl eligibility. Virginia is up next for the Irish and they need to win out to make it in the playoff. Otherwise, their years of being an independent might catch up to them after a hectic year like this.

7. Tennessee Volunteers - Not much to say about their performance Saturday. They did what they were supposed to against Mississippi State and Dylan Sampson continues to ball out. Give this man the 5th spot at the Heisman ceremony already, the list of guys ahead of him in current odds is sickening. Looking forward, the Volunteers are on center stage in the biggest matchup of Week 12 against Georgia. The Bulldogs have no offensive identity currently and this one is more of a toss up than originally anticipated. Which quarterback will do a better job at limiting mistakes, as that will likely indicate who comes out on top. My lean is to the home team here for that reason solely; I don’t have a confident sway one way or the other. Watch out though, Tennessee controls their destiny to make the SEC championship game if they take this one, which is something Georgia can’t say.

8. Alabama Crimson Tide - Welcome back to the top-10, Bama! One of the teams with the most movement in and out of our rankings this season, the Tide got an impressive blowout win in Baton Rouge last weekend thanks to a Vick-esque masterclass from Jalen Milroe. How to beat LSU? Put someone who runs under a 4.6-40 under center and they can’t stop you. Alabama cements themselves back in the conference race and gets to finish this year off with a trio of what should be easy games. Seriously, Mercer might be the best remaining offense they play. It appears Bama’s destiny is in the hands of a tiebreaker based on opponent win percentages and I can’t even begin to list out all the possible outcomes that can occur. For example, LSU still has a legitimate chance to make the SEC championship game; that’s how interesting the remainder of this month will be. LSU isn’t good but don’t listen to the media blindly telling you they got eliminated on Saturday. Like the AP poll, it’s all casual reactions.

9. Ole Miss Rebels - Another “welcome back” is in order for the Rebels as they handled Georgia in a gross midday game. In the first few minutes, Jaxson Dart left the game and the Bulldogs punched the ball in for a score on 4th and goal. All was looking gloomy, except that was the end of Georgia’s momentum. It was all Rebels from that point on as they added themselves to the log-jam known as the SEC title race. Even more conveniently for them, they get the week off to watch the rest of the games unfold. With only Florida and the Egg Bowl vs Mississippi State left, the likelihood of Jaxson Dart’s Anakin Skywalker edit coming to fruition is growing. Don’t know what I’m talking about? Please go watch his presser after they played LSU.

10. Georgia Bulldogs - The Carson Beck drop off will be studied in the next generation’s history classes. How he has gone from one of the premier quarterbacks to someone who is lucky to throw more touchdowns than interceptions is beyond me. This is an unforgiving game that we all love, so where does Georgia go from here? The literal answer is Tennessee but what is left in the bag of tricks to get this offense humming on a consistent basis? I’m no psychic but when I bet on Georgia this weekend, my very first thought was “they’re going to lose today then bounce back big against Tennessee”. I don’t have the confidence anymore to trust Georgia but I imagine the crowd in Athens will show up like they haven’t needed to in years and help propel this team forward to a big win. If not, Georgia might be just on the outside, looking in again this season. Oh yeah, if Georgia wins, it makes that SEC race even tighter. Joy!

Others Receiving Votes:

Miami Hurricanes - If you’ve ever met someone over the age of 60, you’ve heard the expression “keep playing with fire and you’ll get burnt”. That appears to be the case for Miami as the close games finally caught up to them. Haynes King doesn’t have a working arm currently and they still moved the ball down Miami’s throat. If this offense isn’t on, it’ll be a long day for them.

SMU Mustangs - And possibly who Miami will face in the ACC championship. The pride of Dallas finishes the year off with Boston College, Virginia, and Cal. As I audibly sigh at that competition, props on a remarkable first year in the conference. 

BYU Cougars - Fell asleep to this one, so I didn’t get to see the late game debacle until the next morning. Good team, but like Miami, ticking time bomb. A loss could complicate some things for the rest of the playoff hopefuls, and maybe it’s in order from the same Kansas team who just shocked Iowa State.

• Zac Stats, soon to be founder of the Anonymous Aggie Dream Home GoFundMe