The Couch Power 10, Week 8

Happy Halloween Week, college football fans! It's crazy to think that, chances are, the next time you hear from me it will be November. November! As in, the month with Thanksgiving! As in, the month before Christmas! As in, the last month of college football's regular season! How did we get here?

Anyways, even as we have now comfortably progressed past the midway point of the season, the madness has hardly slowed. While Week 8 didn't quite live up to the impossibly high bar of chaos that Week 7 set, it offered plenty entertainment in its own right. 1/3 of the remaining unbeaten teams in college football suffered their first loss of the season; Ole Miss was dealt the most painful blow of them, losing their perfect season in a blowout loss to unranked rivals LSU. UCLA, too, was run off the field in their College GameDay-featured matchup with Oregon. Against all odds, it was Syracuse who provided the stiffest defense of their unbeaten record, nearly managing to end Clemson's instead, until the Tigers roared back in the 4th quarter. Saturday wasn't just for the unbeatens, either; three other ranked teams lost, all to fellow ranked teams, but two in epic Big 12 comebacks or collapses (depending on who you ask).

Just a refresher: this 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:

1. Tennessee

The Couch's undisputed #1 team took a break from beating ranked teams in thrillers to do their other favorite thing: annihilate minnows. Their victims this week? UT-Martin, who the Vols dispatched with by a cool 41 points.

2. TCU

Another week, another thrilling comeback win against a ranked opponent for the Horned Frogs. For the third consecutive week, TCU pulled off some fireworks to beat a ranked team and remain unbeaten; this time, it was scoring 28 unanswered points to rally from an 18-point halftime deficit against #17 Kansas State. The poll voters might still be sleeping on the Frogs, but I'm not.

3. Clemson

Week 8 has come and gone, and Clemson STILL hasn't played a complete game, which is probably why they're drawing ire from some corners of college football media punditry. But what the skeptics fail to acknowledge is that the Tigers just keep finding ways to win, even when it seems everything is going wrong, as was the case against Syracuse on Saturday. And more importantly, it's not just that they're doing it against nobodies; the Cuse win marked their 3rd ranked win of the year, a feat only TCU can match.

4. Georgia

Georgia had a bye week, but managed to turn in a good bye week as they entered the week off of two blowout SEC wins, and watched as their season-opening Oregon win aged like a fine wine.

5. Michigan

Similarly to Georgia, the Wolverines enjoyed a bye week in between a big win and a big rivalry game, and watched as their marquee win (Penn State) won a big one of their own in primetime.

6. Ohio State

Do I actually think Ohio State is the worst of the undefeated teams? No, I do not. But I'm sticking to my principle of refusing to rank them higher until I see how they match up with a legitimately good team. That said, the Buckeyes' demolition of Iowa served notice; the Hawkeyes as a whole are a mess right now, but that defense usually isn't.

7. Alabama

Unsurprisingly, Bama bounced back from their stunning loss to Tennessee extremely well, destroying #24 Mississippi State in the Tide's most comprehensive performance of season. I'm still not sure this team will end up being the great team and title winner it was expected to be, but they finally have a convincing win over a ranked team, which they lacked up until now.

8. Oklahoma State

Oklahoma State were in very real danger of going from bona fide playoff contenders to being on the outside looking in in their own conference, but the Cowboys dug deep and rallied for a huge win over #20 Texas. Their late come-from-behind victory resulted not only in real Big 12 ramifications, but playoff ones as well. Don't scoff, a 1-loss Ok State would have made the playoff last year! Considering their only blemish to date is that nail-biting OT loss at The Couch's #2 team...not a bad resumé still.

9. Oregon

The bad news for Oregon, from a national perspective: the first thing everyone saw of this team was them getting blown off the field by 46 point. The good news? That's still their only loss on the season, it happened to come at the hands of the still-undefeated reigning national champs, and with Saturday's romp over UCLA, the Ducks now have added a blowout of a ranked (and undefeated, at that) team to their winning streak.

10. Syracuse

Coming into Week 8, Syracuse had seemed like the clown in this oft-used meme compared to the other remaining unbeaten teams. But if the cynics weren't sold on their swarming victory over NC State the week prior, due to the injury to star Wolfpack QB Devin Leary, last weekend's narrow, thrilling loss to Clemson in Death Valley should sell them. Cuse will kick themselves the rest of the season for letting it slip, and if they happen to win out, they might forever think "what if??", but there can be little doubt that this Orange team is for real.

Just missed: Wake Forest, Tulane, UCLA, USC, Penn State, my Drake Maye Heisman Hype tweets getting quote tweeted by national pundits