2021 Couch Power 10, Week 10
This season, y'all. This. Season.
Just like three weeks ago, last week had no business being anything but a pedestrian weekend of college football. For the first time all year, we saw a gameweek with ONE matchup between ranked teams. Not only that, there were barely even matchups between teams with winning records! Here's how unimpressive last week's slate was: my favorite team North Carolina was sitting at a disappointing 4-4 and was playing the smallest Power 5 school in the country, and I honestly thought there was a shot that College Gameday would head to Chapel Hill, simply by virtue of our opponent being an unranked Top 10 team. (As it was, Gameday went to Cincinnati to watch that unbeaten Top 10 team play 3-6 Tulsa.)
And yet? Eight ranked teams lost. Yes, all but one of them to unranked teams. In fact, two of the remaining unbeatens fell, Wake Forest to my beloved Tar Heels, and Michigan State to Purdue. Speaking of Big Ten West teams with a reputation for breaking hearts, Illinois got their second stunner in three weeks, shocking the newly ranked Minnesota side. Baylor, Mississippi State, Kentucky, Fresno State....all felled by underdog conference foes. And it almost was even crazier! If a ranked team won last weekend, chances are it weren't by much; four Top 10 teams won by a score or less. What to make of this madness?
Just a refresher: our ranking is not a definitive ranking on how good the teams are, or on who I think will be/deserves to be in the playoff at the end of the year. Rather, it's more of a "What if preseason rankings and bigwig bias didn't predetermine the top teams" kind of thing, an ideal ranking of the country's teams based on what they've actually proved on the field to date. You know, the kind of thing you'd expect the playoff committee to consider:
1. Georgia
Nearly all top teams were in danger of losing on Saturday, and for a little while, it seemed Georgia would be following suit, holding to a slim 7-3 lead against Missouri until late in the 2nd quarter. But then the Bulldogs showed why they're the undisputed #1 team in the nation by blowing the Tigers out over the next three quarters and securing a comfortable 43-6 win. There's a gulf right now between Georgia and the field.
2. Cincinnati
For the first time all season, I'm kind of annoyed at Cincinnati. And the reason is, while they stayed unbeaten, for the third straight week, they struggled to put away a clearly inferior team. This was the closest call yet for the Bearcats; Tulsa had 8 downs inside their 10-yard line in the closing minutes of the game, but fortunately that defense held strong to deliver a thrilling (and
vital) 28-20 win. Because of losses to other unbeatens, and my personal belief that in this particular season, a perfect record is priceless, they move up to #2 by default. But man, with College GameDay in town, with so much of the college football world voicing their support of them, with their own perceived slight by the playoff committee, to turn in yet another ugly performance? It makes the ardent 'little guy' supporters' defense that much more difficult.
3. Oklahoma
The Sooners are this week's huge bye week beneficiaries. As mentioned above, there have been so many crazy upset victims this year that at this late point in the season, simply having an unbeaten record is impressive to me. Now, Oklahoma's play has impressed me exactly once this season (the 2nd half against Texas), but they've won all their games. A closing stretch of Baylor, Iowa State, Oklahoma State, then likely a rematch with one of those teams in the Big 12 Championship, is absolutely season-defining. Lose even one of those and the skepticism surrounding your play gets justified; win out, and you not only secure a playoff bid, you make a serious claim for being at least #2 in the country.
4. Oregon
Oregon supplants Alabama as the highest-ranked 1-loss team in these rankings. It wasn't altogether convincing, but compared to how much their peers struggled, Oregon's ultimately comfortable road win over rivals Wisconsin ended up being one of the more impressive wins of the weekend among top teams. With that road win at Ohio State in their back pocket, if Oregon were unbeaten they'd be the undisputed #2 team at this point. Considering their sole loss was an overtime road loss that came after horrendous officiating allowed their opponent to score a touchdown on the last play of regulation...well, it feels only right that they be at least in the Top 4.
5. Alabama
Do I actually think Oregon (and Cincinnati and Oklahoma, for that matter) are better teams than Alabama? Not really, no. But even leaving the resumé argument out of it, after the Tide struggled mightily to beat a mediocre, depleted LSU team at home, I don't think we can all just assume that Alabama is an elite team just because of the name on their jerseys, They've now been taken to the absolute wire by two different 4-5 teams, and this week saw Mississippi State, one of their 'signature wins,' lose to an unranked team and fall out of the rankings themselves.
6. Michigan State
7. Michigan
I'm torn here. On the one hand, I genuinely think Michigan is the better football team, and that was reinforced after this weekend, wherein the Spartans were thwamped by a decent (but not great) Purdue team, and Michigan dominated an Indiana team that is more talented than their record shows. However, we are not even two weeks removed from the Spartans winning the head-to-head, and unlike the playoff committee, I have a problem with ranking a team behind someone they've beaten if they have an equal or better record. I'll keep Sparty ahead by a razor thin margin unless or until one of them loses again.
8. Notre Dame
It's not often that a good Notre Dame team isn't the source of constant media attention and hype, but you don't hear much chatter about this team. Perhaps everyone tuned out once they lost to Cincinnati, but the Fighting Irish are quietly winning all their games (5 straight since their sole loss of the season) and climbing back up the rankings. With a closing stretch of Virginia, Georgia Tech and Stanford, an 11-1 record is not only possible, it's arguably likely. You'd have to imagine that would secure a NY6 bid and possibly even put them in the playoff conversation.
9. Oklahoma State
Similarly to Notre Dame (though the history and culture of the two programs could not be more different), people seem to have completely forgotten about the Cowboys since their upset loss to Iowa State. But with dominant wins over West Virginia and Kansas-- before you laugh, keep in mind this is the Kansas team that took Oklahoma to the wire --they've improved to 8-1 on the year and returned to very much looking the part of Big 12 title contender.
10. UTSA
If UTEP hadn't just gotten upset by Florida Atlantic the week prior, this would have actually been a fairly high-profile matchup for UTSA; a showdown of in-state rivals and the two best teams in Conference USA. Regardless, UTSA won't complain about a 20-point rivalry win on the road, nor will they complain about the playoff committee finally deeming them fit to be ranked in the Top 25. But I will! At #23, the Roadrunners are still drastically underrated! Meep meep, motherf***ers!!
Just missed: Ohio State, Texas A&M, Wake Forest, Ole Miss, Houston, Ty "Big Gainz" Chandler
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