BYU Football: College Football Top 25 – Week 9
By Adam Gibby
The College Football Top 25 could be very interesting with big upsets and games including a big win by BYU Football.
BYU Football took down Washington State to move to 4-0 in the Pac 12 this season. While that result wasn’t a shock per say, it did appear that the Cougars were pulling into the perfect storm with Washington State dealing with losing their head coach earlier in the week. Lucky for BYU Football fans, the Cougars passed the test and once again seem to have some momentum.
In other games around the country, there wasn’t a ton of surprising games. A lot of games came down to the wire including Cincinnati and Oklahoma both having to make big plays late to avoid losing to one win teams.
The game of the day of course was the 9 OT game between Syracuse and Penn State. I was a critic of the penalty kick style of ending a game, but the drama and emotion of every conversion attempt was fun to watch.
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 Nine rankings with last week’s rankings in parenthesis.
WEEK NINE RANKINGS
1. Georgia (1)
2. Cincinnati (2)
3. Oklahoma (3)
4. Alabama (6)
Alabama is back in the Top 4. Not because they have earned it, but because of how all of the other teams ahead of them keep losing. It will be very interesting how the College Football Committee will ranked Alabama with it starting to look like Cincinnati has to be in the Top 4.
5. Ohio State (7)
6. Michigan (9)
7. Iowa (8)
8. Ole Miss (11)
I have never really believed in Ole Miss, but they are starting to really prove me wrong. They keep finding ways to win, and after their beating of LSU, I’m jumping on the Lane Train.
9. Oregon (12)
10. Michigan State (13)
11. San Diego State (14)
12. UTSA (15)
I was the first to have UTSA in my Top 25, and they have continually risen every single week. This team could be another Coastal, or perhaps they are the real deal. I know is that of all the teams that BYU played in 2020, UTSA was probably the toughest opponent, including yes Coastal Carolina.
13. SMU (16)
14. Baylor (17)
15. Penn State (4)
16. Coastal Carolina (5)
Penn State and Coastal Carolina are two teams who I thought were going to be in the Top 10 at the end of the season. While Coastal didn’t lose to a bad team at home like Penn State did to Syracuse, wiith no resume or good games on their schedule, it is tough to believe in Coastal, especially when they didn’t even get in the end zone the entire second half.
16. Oklahoma State (8)
17. Baylor (17)
18. Kentucky (18)
19. Wake Forest (21)
Wake Forest scored 70 points while only having the ball for 17 minutes. I really want to see Wake Forest get into a game against Mississippi State, another team who likes to only pass the ball. There honestly may be over 150 points scored if those two got together.
20. Notre Dame (20)
21. Virginia (24)
22. BYU (22)
The Cougars had a really nice win, but with no teams right in front of them losing, the Cougars like many other teams ahead of BYU are staying put where they are. The Cougars have a huge matchup this upcoming week when Bronco Mendenhall returns back to Provo.
23.Texas A&M (25)
24. Auburn (NR)
25. Pittsburg
Dropped Out: Arizona State (23)
On the Fringe: Louisiana, Oregon State, Iowa State