CFN College Football Rankings: Week 8 Top 10
10 Michigan State Spartans (7-0)
Last Week’s Ranking: 11
Week 8: OPEN DATE
Week 9 Opponent: Michigan
This is a courtesy ranking until we see what happens when Big Blue comes to town this week. Michigan State has yet to beat at team with 1) a winning record and 2) is a lock to go bowling. It’s Game On this week with Michigan, then at Purdue, then the Maryland break before dealing with at Ohio State and Penn State.
9 Notre Dame Fighting Irish (6-1)
Last Week’s Ranking: 10
Week 8: Notre Dame 31, USC 16
Week 9 Opponent: North Carolina
It would be great to rank the Irish even higher with wins over Purdue, Wisconsin, Virginia Tech, and USC, but that one loss to Cincinnati puts a hard ceiling on where this can go. There’s nothing flashy about what they’re doing, but they keep on winning against good opponent after good opponent.
8 Cincinnati Bearcats (7-0)
Last Week’s Ranking: 7
Week 8: Cincinnati 27, Navy 20
Week 9 Opponent: at Tulane
Yeah, Navy is wee bit better than its 1-6 record, but not really.
Cincinnati needs style points now with just the one great win over Notre Dame and absolutely nothing else. However, the Irish keep on winning making that one great win look more and more amazing as the season goes on. Outside of a showdown against SMU, the rest of the schedule is awful – at Tulane, Tulsa, at USF, at East Carolina. The annihilations have to return.
7 Ole Miss Rebels (6-1)
Last Week’s Ranking: 6
Week 8: Ole Miss 31, LSU 17
Week 9 Opponent: at Auburn
We don’t punish losses to amazing teams on the road. Losing at Alabama 42-21 is cost of doing business in the SEC, but wins over Arkansa, Tennessee, and now LSU are adding up fast. It’s a flawed team that has a fun test at Auburn coming up, but it’s getting the job done.
6 Ohio State Buckeyes (6-1)
Last Week’s Ranking: 9
Week 8: Ohio State 54, Indiana 7
Week 9 Opponent: Penn State
Before getting too gushy about the Buckeyes rolling up 52 points or more in four straight blowouts … Akron, Rutgers, Maryland, and Indiana aren’t very good.
Even with the loss to Indiana, Penn State is still a solid team. Hang 50+ on the Nittany Lions, and then it’ll be time to get really excited. Even without that, Ohio State is playing like the best team in the Big Ten, but for now, it just can’t be ranked ahead of …
5 Oregon Ducks (6-1)
Last Week’s Ranking: 8
Week 8: Oregon 34, UCLA 31
Week 9 Opponent: Colorado
It isn’t pretty, and the loss to Stanford is still an anchor, but no one outside Georgia is playing better than Ohio State, making the Duck win in Columbus still up there with the most impressive wins of the season – if not at the top of the list. With that said, it would be nice to come up with a full four quarter style point blowout soon, and it had better come at home against an awful Colorado.
4 Michigan Wolverines (7-0)
Last Week’s Ranking: 5
Week 8: Michigan 33, Northwestern 7
Week 9 Opponent: at Michigan State
There isn’t an amazing win on the slate so far, but there are a whole lot of round-first-base singles. Beating Northern Illinois by 53 is actually better than it seemed at the time, taking out Wisconsin by 21 is solid, and rolling through to a 7-0 record in this crazy year of upsets is terrific. Now it’s time to step it up with Michigan State up next.
3 Oklahoma Sooners (8-0)
Last Week’s Ranking: 2
Week 8: Oklahoma 35, Kansas 23
Week 9 Opponent: Texas Tech
Ehhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, let’s just rock chalk that up to a bad day against a horrible team with an effort that didn’t reflect Oklahoma’s best work. The team had better show it can put together a full 60 minutes in a hurry with a tough finishing kick of Texas Tech, at Baylor, Iowa State, and at Oklahoma State.
2 Alabama Crimson Tide (7-1)
Last Week’s Ranking: 3
Week 8: Alabama 52, Tennessee 24
Week 9 Opponent: OPEN DATE
This isn’t as rock-solid sure as it probably should be, but on the plus side, Texas A&M is playing much better and looking like a more worthy loss now. At the end of the day, 52-24 over Tennessee is good no matter what, but the Crimson Tide were shaky at home after three quarters. When this team turns it on, it can beat anyone, but can it avoid a brain cramp against LSU, Arkansas and Auburn?
1 Georgia Bulldogs (7-0)
Last Week’s Ranking: 1
Week 8: OPEN DATE
Week 9 Opponent: Florida (in Jacksonville)
And now the Bulldogs get their quarterback back. JT Daniels is expected to be okay for the showdown against Florida, the team is rested, and now comes what should be a fantastic second half of the season for the unquestioned No. 1 team in the nation.
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