BYU Football: College football Top 25 – Week 8
By Adam Gibby
The College Football top 25 rankings after week seven show a clear cut line of the top teams.
Week Eight in the rankings won’t reflect how good of a week of college football that this week actually was. The highlight of the week of course was Purdue upsetting Iowa, but I’d venture to say the most impressive thing I saw the total domination that Cincinnati put on against UCF. I wouldn’t be surprised even a little if Cincinnati starts to receive a vote or two as the top team in the country.
In the Lawless Republic rankings, we do not take prestige or blueblood rankings into account. Because of that, you will notice that my rankings don’t match up perfectly or even very closely in some cases with the national rankings like the AP or Coaches Poll.
For the entire 2021 season I will put out my Top 25 poll, whether BYU Football is in it or not. Again, my polls are based off of what I see, not what the AP/Coaches Poll says. In fact, I don’t even reference them while making my ranking.
Below are my Week Eight rankings with last week’s rankings in parenthesis.
WEEK EIGHT RANKINGS
1. Georgia (1)
2. Cincinnati (2)
3. Oklahoma (4)
Oklahoma looks like a really good squad now with their new quarterback. Somehow they were able to avoid an early loss with Spencer Rattler as the starter, and now they looked poised to run the table until a huge matchup against Oklahoma State at the end of the season.
4. Penn State (5)
5. Coastal Carolina (6)
6. Alabama (7)
7. Ohio State (8)
8. Iowa (3)
If you thought BYU’s loss hurt, imagine being Iowa who now may not have enough tough games to get back into the Playoff conversation. That is the danger and beauty of playing in the Big 10 West. The division is easier, but losses sting worse. Iowa likely has to win out including in the Big 10 Championship game to make a NY6 bowl.
9. Michigan (9)
10. Oklahoma State (18)
Oklahoma State keeps on finding ways to win. I’m still not totally bought in on the Cowboys, but at this point, they are more than halfway to a perfect season, and have a path to the Playoff.
11. Ole Miss (11)
12. Oregon (10)
Ole Miss and Oregon switch spots after Ole Miss looked impressive against a decent Tennessee team and Oregon needed a goal line stand to take down 1-5 California.
13. Michigan State (13)
14. San Diego State (15)
15. UTSA (17)
UTSA continues to win. If SMU loses a game and then upsets Cincinnati in the AAC championship, UTSA may get the auto bid to the NY6.
16. SMU (19)
17. Baylor (23)
Baylor is looking really good. BYU didn’t play a bad game against the Bears per say, Baylor just was bigger and stronger.
18. Kentucky (12)
You can’t blame anyone for losing to Georgia, but they didn’t look very good in the loss.
19. NC State (21)
20. Notre Dame (20)
21. Wake Forest (22)
22. BYU (14)
BYU is going to need to recover quickly as Washington State is looming next week. Early in the season the Cougars of WSU looked like an easy win, but with now a 4-3 record, this is not going to be a game that BYU can just expect to dominate in.
23. Arizona (17)
24. Virginia (NR)
Virginia has quietly positioned themselves to a 5-2 record and second in their division. They may want to get bowl eligible now as they have BYU, Notre Dame, Pitt and Virginia Tech to finish out the season. While all of those games are winnable, they will all be tough matchups.
25. Texas A&M (NR)
On the Fringe: Auburn, Pittsburg, Louisiana, Utah
Dropped Out: Liberty (23), Arkansas (25)