Week 13 Power Rankings

1. Oregon Ducks - If it weren’t for the new expanded playoff, I would be getting sentimental as the regular season is entering its final stretch. Luckily for us, we still have quite a bit of meaningful football left. All the conference races are wide open and the possibilities regarding CFP seeding seem endless. The unfortunate reality is there will be multiple teams who will feel as if they’ve been snubbed in a couple of weeks. For instance, there are technically 6 teams in the SEC with a shot to win the conference but not all of them will be able to make the playoffs. Who would’ve thought adding more teams meant more problems? Shocking! Therefore, even if some of the upcoming matchups don’t seem high profile, odds are they have a strong impact on the various conference title races. Wait a minute, you’re telling me this is supposed to be a power rankings article? Oof, I think I’d rather leave this here instead of talking about Oregon’s performance Saturday. Everyone has rough weeks so I won’t dawg on the Ducks, but not much to say here! Dan Lanning should be on trial for selling my parlay.

2. Ohio State Buckeyes - Although SEC teams get a “scrimmage” game late season against a non-conference opponent, it feels like that’s what over half of Ohio State’s schedule is. The Buckeyes are a very talented team, no doubt, but Purdue and Northwestern in back-to-back weeks would be a wet dream for A&M fans like myself. Fortunately, a big time matchup is here. The Hoosiers head to Columbus in hopes of keeping their undefeated season alive. The winner of this one likely plays Oregon in the Big 10 championship with a shot at the #1 overall seed. As hinted a few weeks back, if Ryan Day blows this one, I’ll be purchasing the classic pinstriped Indiana pants and WILL wear them for the Hoosier playoff games.

3. Penn State Nittany Lions - Saturday Morning Shotgun shows SEC bias! Said no one since our following is minimal and no one cares enough about four white guys from the South. Penn State did exactly what they were supposed to against a terrifyingly bad Purdue team led by Longhorn legend Hudson Card. That said, I’m bored with discussing PSU so here’s a hypothetical for ya: blindly, which quarterback would you take? 

(A) 69% completion percentage, 2571 total yards, 16 total TDs, 11 interceptions 

(B) 66% completion percentage, 2570 total yards, 18 total TDs, 6 interceptions

Yeah, I also would’ve picked Bo Nix (B) over Patrick Mahomes (A)

4. Notre Dame Fighting Irish - It continues to be the same story with Notre Dame every week. We can harp on their strength of schedule all we want, but another 20+ point win is admirable, showing they are comfortably taking care of business. They host Army this weekend in what is hopefully a more competitive game than the one against Navy a few weeks back. The troops let us down once, but now that it's Trump’s America again, will Army find some magic and be able to pull off the upset? Don’t look now but the Irish might be the recipients of the prized 5 seed if they win out, something Marcus Freeman is certainly hoping for. My undiagnosed ADHD is acting up again; anyone else frequently think about how Telescope by Cage the Elephant is an A+ song?

5. Indiana Hoosiers - Hoooooooooooooosiers. I know the level of competition they’ve faced has been subpar up to this point, but I can see a world where they give Ohio State a run for the money and possibly win. This will be by far their biggest test on both sides of the ball, but I am especially curious to see how Kurtis Rourke and this Hoosier offense hold up. An important underlying factor at play with this game is CFP seeding. If Indiana gets blown out of the water, the committee will likely ax them from further discussions, opening up a spot for someone cough 5th SEC team cough

6. Texas Longhorns - How dare Arkansas keep their field’s grass higher than normal to try to slow the game down! The lack of class is getting out of hand and we deserve reparations! Maybe Del Conte can sweeten up Greg Sankey and reverse the ruling of the Georgia game to keep our undefeated season intact? Unfortunately college football’s only child beat Arkansas last weekend and gets the honors of smoking Kentucky on Saturday. Why didn’t A&M hire Stoops! Just 11 more sleeps until the one we all care about.

7. Alabama Crimson Tide - Showing glimmers of the Alabama of old, the Tide have outscored their opponents 128-20 since dropping the game to Tennessee. If they win out, they will be in Atlanta for the SEC championship game; it doesn’t matter what happens with everyone else. Saban might be gone, but this program isn’t. Ripping on Deboer for going 10-2 and making the conference title game in Year 1 would be asinine. People are just fed up with their continuous winning and want to find an excuse to think it’s over. No, this team isn’t the monstars, and I’m kind of grossed out by myself for defending Bama like this, but I’ve seen a lot of casuals going off the rails about them.  

8. Ole Miss Rebels - If Josh Pate suddenly passes, it's probably because he suffocated from having this team’s hypothetical johnson so far down his throat. They certainly impressed me against Georgia and seem to control their playoff destiny, but they can’t overlook Florida this weekend. Not me, but lots of people are calling this game the Lane Kiffin Bowl; whoever wins will have him as their coach next year. Florida already said Napier will be back in 2025, and I’m glad, but what do I know!

9. Georgia Bulldogs - After a sluggish start last Saturday, I was at a loss for words about Georgia. The team I projected to win it all looked lifeless and prepared to drop their 3rd game of the year… until I realized I needed to not overreact so soon. Carson Beck went on to have his best game of the year, including a couple important plays on his feet. The scary thing? The Bulldogs needed every bit of that or this one would’ve panned out differently. With just non-conference games remaining, it’s time to sit back and see what everyone else does in the conference race. Don’t get me wrong, Georgia Tech is no slouch, but I’m confident in saying they can take it easy this week against UMass.

10. Miami Hurricanes - Maybe a week off was needed for them to do some soul searching. In the (slightly changed) words of the great Jon Gruden, “it’s week 12, you know who you are at this point” which indicates they won’t become ‘85 Bears overnight on defense, but hopefully they can make enough adjustments to not rely solely on Cam Ward to score 40. Wake Forest and Syracuse finish off the regular season for them and they’ll need to secure both of these wins in order to be in the ACC championship game. Hopefully both teams in that game don’t make the playoff!

Others Receiving Votes:

SMU Mustangs - They found themselves in a close one Saturday, when Boston College had the ball in the final minutes with a chance to tie or win the game. Unfortunately, that did not happen. Big 10 and SEC fans, I’m telling you, them losing would help a lot with freeing up a spot in the playoff. The less bubble teams, the better.

Boise State Broncos - Ashton Jeanty, blah blah blah, other stuff, other stuff, Ashton Jeanty. Just something to think about: if Army beats Notre Dame and wins out, do we see two Group of 5 schools make the playoff?

• Zac Bryan, soon to be father of the next Nastia Luikin