We're starting to see things truly begin to even out in our rankings from week to week. While we still see a few teams like Virginia Tech and Washington State making big jumps -- and on the other side of the coin, teams like Stanford and Arkansas taking major tumbles -- in the rankings, for the most part, things are stabilizing.
We do see some shuffling in our top five this week, however, as it seems that 78-0 wins over teams will boost your overall resume a bit, even if those 78 points came against Rutgers.
Of course, as I say that, another team that put up 70 points this week actually dropped a spot because the team that scored 78 points leapt over it.
Hey, I don't make the rules ... wait, actually I do make them. OK, I may make the rules, but I can't tell you what they're going to spit out. Speaking of which, before we get to the rankings, and talk about some of the week's biggest winners, here's a reminder about how these rankings work.
1. My opinion has absolutely nothing to do with the rankings. They are based on a mathematical formula of my creation. So keep this in mind before you call me an idiot, which I know you will.
2. There is true equality to start. The math doesn't play favorites. Before the season begins, defending national champion Alabama is just as good as our defending Bottom 25 champion UCF Knights. The only factor that matters in the rankings is how you've performed on the field in 2016.
3. Wins and losses mean more than anything. I have a lot of different statistics involved, and I factor in strength of schedule (though, remember, everybody begins the season with the same SOS), but at the end of the day whether you won or lost is going to mean more than anything else. Also, just because it's too difficult for me to rank FCS teams as well, my formula doesn't have much respect for FCS schools. If you beat one it won't mean much, and if you lose to one, well, you might show up in The Bottom 25.
4. The formula is in no way predictive. It is based on nothing but what has occurred in the season to this point in time. Just because a team is currently ranked No. 15 does not mean it's better or that it's going to beat a team ranked No. 35. It just means that, to this point, it's been the 15th best team in the country. Think of it as a meritocracy in its purest form. The math plays no favorites.
5. I won't share the formula. I just don't want to. I'm not a mathematician. I know my formula isn't perfect. I don't think a perfect formula can exist, so I don't share it because I don't care what anybody thinks. So don't ask. Just know that, even if you don't agree with it right now, at the end of the season, it's been startlingly accurate.
Now let's assign some numbers to some teams.
1. Ohio State 5-0 (Last week -- 1)
2. Michigan 6-0 (4)
3. Alabama 6-0 (2)
4. Washington 6-0 (3)
5. Louisville 4-1 (5)
6. Boise State 5-0 (7): Washington ended its losing streak against Oregon, Texas A&M averted disaster against Tennessee, and Florida State seemed to get its act together in a win over hated rival Miami, but I'm not sure there's any team in the country that had a better weekend than Boise State.
It's not just because the Broncos beat up on New Mexico, because frankly, that's nothing to be all that proud of, and it's not going to turn any head. We're talking about a New Mexico team that's currently ranked No. 95 in my rankings here after all.
No, the greatest thing that happened to Boise this week was Houston losing to Navy.
Even if Houston remains ahead of Boise State in both the AP Top 25 and Coaches Poll, the Cougars still have a problem to deal with. It's not just the highest-ranked team from the Group of Five that gets that automatic berth, it's the highest-ranked Group of Five conference champion. Boise State is still very much in control of its own destiny in a Mountain West Conference that, outside of a couple of teams, really doesn't have anybody I believe will pose a threat to the Broncos.
Houston, on the other hand, not only needs to win out with a banged up Greg Ward Jr., but it needs Navy to lose at least twice in its final five conference games because Navy and Houston share a division. Houston can't even get to the AAC title game without surpassing the Middies in the standings first, and while it's not impossible that Navy can lose twice -- it still has to play South Florida and Memphis -- I'd much rather be in Boise's spot than Houston's right now.
7. Nebraska 5-0 (9)
8. Clemson 6-0 (15)
9. Baylor 5-0 (11)
10. Texas A&M 6-0 (12)
11. Western Michigan 6-0 (13): We come here today to present P.J. Fleck with a very prestigious award. For those of you who are unfamiliar with Mr. Philip John Fleck, he was born in Sugar Grove, Illinois, on Nov. 29, 1980. This means that Mr. Fleck is younger than I am, and I can't tell you how insane this makes me.
Here's a man who was born after me in charge of his own FBS program and on the verge of moving on to an even better job after the season. Meanwhile, I'm just hoping they can make a new NCAA Football so I can at least run a program on my PlayStation 4.But I digress, enough about me, back to Mr. Fleck.
P.J. grew up in Illinois, and after graduating from high school, he moved on to play college football at Northern Illinois. He had a fine career there, and after his football playing career ended, Mr. Fleck got into coaching. He became Western Michigan's coach in 2013, and now three years later, his 2016 Broncos have pulled off an impressive feat.
Earlier this season, the Broncos went into Evanston and beat Northwestern. They would follow that victory up with a win over the Fighting Illini in Champaign. Finally, this past weekend, Mr. Fleck hosted his alma mater Northern Illinois and beat it 45-30.
This give Fleck a clean sweep of the FBS programs in his home state, and for this reason, we must crown Philip John Fleck and his Western Michigan Broncos the Illinois State College Football Champions.
Congratulations, here is your trophy.
12. Miami 4-1 (6)
13. Houston 5-1 (8)
14. Florida 4-1 (16)
15. Virginia Tech 4-1 (26)
16. South Florida 5-1 (20)
17. Memphis 4-1 (21)
18. Wisconsin 4-1 (22)
19. Auburn 4-2 (28)
20. NC State 4-1 (29)
21. West Virginia 4-0 (23)
22. Tennessee 5-1 (14)
23. Troy 4-1 (25)
24. Toledo 4-1 (31)
25. Maryland 4-1 (10)
26. Washington State 3-2 (Not Ranked): Washington is receiving a lot of attention this season, and deservedly so. I mean, the Huskies have beaten both Stanford and Oregon in the last two weeks by a combined score of 114-27. If you look a bit closer at the state of Washington, however, just below the radar, you see there's another team in The Evergreen State. The Washington State Cougars.
The Huskies aren't the only team in the state of Washington to beat both Oregon and Stanford! The Cougars have done it, too, even if the final scores haven't been as emphatic. It's been quite the turnaround for a team that started the season 0-2 with losses to Eastern Washington and Boise State, but right now, the Pac-12 North belongs to the two Washington schools, meaning the Apple Cup is going to be off the charts come November.
But how have the Cougs done it? Well, don't look now, but it appears that Mike Leach has finally realized what having a run game can do for you. Through Wazzu's first two games -- both losses -- the Cougars ran the ball only 45 times for 137 yards, or 3.04 yards per carry. In the team's three victories, they've stepped things up both in performance and volume.
Against Idaho, Oregon and Stanford, Washington State has run the ball an average of 35 times per game for 203 yards per game while averaging 5.80 yards per carry. To put this in perspective, Washington State has now run the dang ball at least 30 times in each of its last three games. In Leach's first four seasons at Wazzu (50 games), they did that five times.
So yes, things have changed, and it's hard to argue with the results.
27. Air Force 4-1 (17)
28. TCU 4-2 (37)
29. Colorado 4-2 (19)
30. Army 3-2 (18)
31. Iowa 4-2 (36)
32. San Diego State 4-1 (47)
33. Utah 5-1 (42)
34. Middle Tennessee 4-1 (35)
35. Wake Forest 5-1 (46)
36. Penn State 4-2 (NR): I just wanted to take a moment to throw some credit Saquon Barkley's way. While Penn State fans know what they have in Barkley, the sophomore really hasn't attracted as much attention as he's deserved in his short college career.
Well, on Saturday against an undefeated Maryland, Barkley carried the ball 31 times for 202 yards and a touchdown. It was easily the best day of his career, topping the 195 yards he had against Rutgers (which exists solely for Big Ten teams and players to set records against) last season.
There's a reason Barkley doesn't get much attention, though, and it's because unless you're actually watching him play every week -- and Penn State hasn't been good enough to attract the attention of non-partisan viewers -- it's hard to know how good he is just looking at his numbers. He finished last season with 1,076 yards, which doesn't jump off the page at you. And before Saturday's game, he'd only been averaging 76 yards per game through Penn State's first five games of the season.
I assure you this is not because of Saquon Barkley. You see, Mr. Barkley has spent the first two years of his career playing behind an offensive line that just isn't very good. Nearly every yard he's picked up thus far has been the result of his skills. What's encouraging to me is that against Maryland, he had holes to work with. The offensive line was opening lanes, and wouldn't you know it, Barkley was able to combine his skills with good blocking and he had a monster game.
If Penn State's offensive line could just do that on a regular basis, you'd know all about Mr. Barkley soon enough.
37. Arizona State 5-1 (45)
38. Indiana 3-2 (24)
39. Ole Miss 3-2 (39)
40. Oklahoma 3-2 (NR)
41. Tulsa 4-1 (48)
42. Navy 4-1 (NR): A quick congratulations to Navy not just for beating Houston but winning its first game against a team ranked in the top 10 of the AP Top 25 poll for the first time since it beat No. 2 South Carolina in 1984. It had been 18-straight losses to top-10 teams since then.
No wonder Ken Niumatalolo was dancing.
TFW you end your 18-game losing streak against top 10 teams pic.twitter.com/rqiBRtqpVV
— Tom Fornelli (@TomFornelli) October 8, 2016
43. North Carolina 4-2 (30)
44. Ohio 4-2 (49)
45. Oklahoma State 4-2 (NR)
46. UCLA 3-3 (32)
47. LSU 3-2 (41)
48. Florida State 4-2 (NR)
49. Southern Miss 4-2 (27)
50. Akron 4-2 (NR)
No longer ranked: Stanford, Arkansas, Texas Tech, California, Temple, Minnesota, Mississippi State