It was not a good day to be in the top 25. Eleven ranked teams were licking their wounds after losses in Saturday’s games, and seven teams fell out of the rankings entirely, marking the largest turnover in the rankings since the AP went to a 25-team format in 1989. A couple of teams find themselves in unfamiliar territory – ranked! Syracuse is ranked for the first time since the end of the 2001 season after a win 51-41 over NC State took the Orange to 6-2, breaking the second-longest current drought of top-25 appearances (Indiana hasn’t been in the top 25 since 1997).\u00a0 Virginia is ranked for the first time since 2011 after winning “The South’s Oldest Rivalry” against North Carolina 31-21.<\/p>\n
As we turn the calendar forward and (soon) turn the clock back, let’s check in on each of the conference races. For the first time, every conference is holding a championship game, so there’s a lot to look forward to in early December, but first you have to get through the gauntlet that is November!<\/p>\n
American<\/strong><\/span>: the East features two teams unbeaten in conference play: UCF and Temple, both 4-0. They play each other this week, so the winner is in the driver’s seat going forward. Cincinnati and USF each are 3-1 and not out of it, although the Bearcats lose the tie-breaker to Temple. In the West, Houston is in command, holding a two-game lead over SMU and Tulane.<\/p>\n ACC<\/strong><\/span>: Clemson is the overwhelming favorite in the Atlantic, with a 5-0 mark. A win over Boston College in two weeks clinches the division for the Tigers; if BC pulls the upset and can win out, they would win the division.\u00a0 The Coastal is wide-open, with Virginia currently the front-runner at 4-1.\u00a0 But Virginia Tech and Pittsburgh are each 3-1, and none of the three have played each other yet.<\/p>\n Big 12<\/strong><\/span>: remember that unlike all of the other conferences, the top two teams advance to the conference championship. Texas, Oklahoma, and West Virginia all stand at 4-1; the Longhorns hold a head-to-head tie-breaker over the Sooners. Iowa State and Texas Tech aren’t completely out of it, but can’t afford another loss.<\/p>\n Big Ten<\/strong><\/span>: In the East, Michigan has a 5-0 mark and looks to be cruising. But the Wolverines must get past Penn State this weekend, and then a familiar foe awaits in Columbus on November 24…Ohio State, who sits one game back. Michigan State, Penn State, and Maryland aren’t eliminated, but need some major help. The surprise leader in the west is Northwestern, which holds a 5-1 mark going into November. But the Wildcats must venture into Iowa City to take on the Hawkeyes, and they, Wisconsin, and Purdue are all at 3-2.<\/p>\n Conference USA<\/strong><\/span>: The Eastern Division’s Florida International is 4-0 and has a win over Middle Tennessee, one of two East teams with one conference loss, who holds a win over Marshall, the other such team. FIU probably wishes the transitive property applied to college football, but alas for them, they’ll have to play the Thundering Herd on November 24. The West’s darling is UAB, who is 5-0 in conference and effectively has a two-game lead over second-place Louisiana Tech due to a 28-7 win earlier this year. The Blazers can wrap up the West with two more conference wins in three games.<\/p>\n MAC<\/strong><\/span>: Buffalo is the beast of the East, with a 4-0 record. However, there are two 3-1 teams (Miami (OH) and Ohio), and the three play each other in the next 2 1\/2 weeks, so things will shake out by mid-November. In the West, Northern Illinois has a 4-0 mark but has yet to play 4-1 Western Michigan. All other teams have at least two losses.<\/p>\n Mountain West<\/strong><\/span>: how about Utah State? The Aggies are 4-0 (and 7-1 overall and #18 in America!), and are the current leaders of the Mountain Division. But they still have to visit “The Blue” in Boise, where the Broncos, currently 4-1 and in second place, awaits them.\u00a0 The West Division’s leader is Fresno State, with a 4-0 mark (and #20 in the AP poll), but they also have to go to Boise, and they play second-place San Diego State the week after that, so the Bulldogs have their work cut out for them.<\/p>\n Pac-12<\/strong><\/span>: The North’s current leader is Washington State, the only team in the conference with one loss. They also hold tie-breaker wins over Stanford and Oregon. Washington is next at 4-2, but Stanford is 3-2 and has a win over the Huskies, so they’re not completely out of it either. In the South…well, literally anyone can still win it! Utah has a 4-2 mark and leads the division, but every other team in the division has exactly three losses. I won’t even try to get into who owns tie-breakers over whom…we’ll just let that one play out.<\/p>\n SEC<\/strong><\/span>: the easiest one on the board. It pretty much all comes down to two games, both coming up this weekend. The winner of the Georgia-Kentucky game clinches the East division. In the West, if Alabama wins their game against LSU, they also win the division title. LSU doesn’t clinch if they win, but as long as they beat Arkansas and Texas A&M as well, the Tigers would take the crown.<\/p>\n Sun Belt<\/strong><\/span>: the East division has two teams sitting at 4-0 – Georgia Southern and Troy. The Eagles have a win in hand over Appalachian State (currently 3-1); the Trojans play App State in the final game of the year. Troy and Georgia Southern meet on November 10. The West is wide open. UL Monroe and Louisiana (I still want to call them UL-Lafayette) are both 2-2; Arkansas State and South Alabama are 1-3. There’s still a long way to go before anything’s set in stone!<\/p>\n In small-school news, a team that was started in 2015 is second in the nation! Kennesaw State, which didn’t have a football team for the first 53 years of its existence, began play in FCS in the Big South Conference in 2015 and immediately found success. Last year, the Owls were 12-2 and made it to the FCS Quarterfinals. This year, the Georgia school is looking to do even better, sporting a 7-1 mark (its only loss to FBS member Georgia State), and a #2 FCS ranking. KSU is led by coach Brian Bohannon, who was an assistant under Paul Johnson at Navy and Georgia Tech. I bet you might be able to guess their offensive system of choice – that’s right, the Owls are a triple-option team, and they run it with deadly efficiency, averaging 46.9 points per game. Interestingly, while they normally play their games at Fifth Third Bank Stadium (capacity 8,318), they’ll play Jacksonville State in their regular-season finale in SunTrust Park, the Atlanta Braves’ stadium.<\/p>\n Congratulations to bamaken<\/strong>, who wins week 9 (their third weekly win!) with 119 points. JagRag<\/strong> was second with 116, and CrimsonWhite<\/strong> was third with 108.<\/p>\n Standings after nine weeks:<\/p>\n After several weeks of short lists of games, we have a big point opportunity! Twenty-one games are on the docket this week, including four games with both teams ranked. The stakes are high for several teams, and they are for the pickers as well – good luck! The first game this week is Temple at UCF, Thursday, November 1 @ 7:30 PM ET<\/strong>, so make sure to get your picks in by then!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It was not a good day to be in the top 25. Eleven ranked teams were licking their wounds after losses in Saturday’s games, and seven teams fell out of the rankings entirely, marking the largest turnover in the rankings since the AP went to a 25-team format in 1989. A couple of teams find […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-427","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-football"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.e-systems.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/427","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.e-systems.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.e-systems.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.e-systems.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.e-systems.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=427"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.e-systems.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/427\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":429,"href":"https:\/\/www.e-systems.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/427\/revisions\/429"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.e-systems.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=427"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.e-systems.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=427"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.e-systems.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=427"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n\n
\n 1st<\/td>\n AllySun\u00a0<\/strong><\/td>\n 1,613<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n 2nd<\/td>\n JagRag\u00a0<\/strong><\/td>\n 1,612<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n 3rd<\/td>\n Paul Herron\u00a0<\/strong><\/td>\n 1,607<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n 4th<\/td>\n bamaken\u00a0<\/strong><\/td>\n 1,606<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n 5th<\/td>\n BEVO\u00a0<\/strong><\/td>\n 1,593<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n 6th<\/td>\n Jeff4Bama\u00a0<\/strong><\/td>\n 1,592<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n 7th<\/td>\n Crimson Gator\u00a0<\/strong><\/td>\n 1,588<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n 8th<\/td>\n Pachyderm\u00a0<\/strong><\/td>\n 1,573<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n 9th<\/td>\n Ragnor\u00a0<\/strong><\/td>\n 1,571<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n 10th<\/td>\n El Dude-arino\u00a0<\/strong><\/td>\n 1,546<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n