Yes, I said a plethora. After a hectic round of college football that saw seven ranked football teams fall in week 7, we could see the BYU Cougars jump ahead in the AP Poll without doing anything.
Among the biggest upsets were Vanderbilt's first top-5 victory over top-ranked Alabama, Tennessee's last-minute flounder against Arkansas, Texas A&M's therapeutic beatdown over 9th-ranked Missouri, and Washington's decisive win over Michigan in a rematch of last year's title game.
In all, the following top-25 teams dropped their week 7 matchup, and the Cougars could see a jump into the top-15 if the dominoes have fallen correctly.
Week 7 Upset Victims:
1. Alabama
4. Tennessee
9. Missouri
10. Michigan
11. USC
22. Louisville
A moment of silence for college football's fallen giants. Many top teams fell to the upset goblin last week, and that's an inevitable part of life for a football program, but in a week that seemed to be a popular BYE on many schedules, to see such a high volume of L's pile up like this is a rare treat for proponents of chaos ball, like myself.
To add to BYU's case for a free ride into the top 15, their resume grows stronger by the week as SMU has won out since they met with the Cougars in week 2, and even took down 22nd-ranked Louisville on the road, which should be enough for the Mustangs to crack the polls for the first time this year.
Just like those "Luigi wins by doing absolutely nothing" compilations, the Cougars stood pat on their resume this week, and in doing so, they're rising up the polls largely thanks to doing absolutely nothing. In a similar strategy, the Texas Longhorns have regained their top spot from Alabama, by letting the Tide do all the heavy lifting while UT sits back and enjoys the show.
This is such a beautiful sport sometimes.
But I'm sure you've already scrolled down to the rankings prediction without reading any of my needlessly allusion-rich commentaries, so I'll save us both some time and jump to the rankings prediction. Here are my Week 7 Top-25 rankings.
Week 7 College Football rankings prediction:
Rank | Team | Change |
|---|---|---|
1 | Texas | +1 |
2 | Ohio State | +1 |
3 | Georgia | +1 |
4 | Oregon | +2 |
5 | Penn State | +2 |
6 | Alabama | -5 |
7 | Miami | +1 |
8 | Tennessee | -4 |
9 | Ole Miss | +3 |
10 | LSU | +3 |
11 | Clemson | +4 |
12 | Notre Dame | +2 |
13 | Iowa State | +3 |
14 | BYU | +3 |
15 | Utah | +3 |
16 | Missouri | -7 |
17 | Oklahoma | +2 |
18 | Kansas State | +2 |
19 | Boise State | +2 |
20 | USC | -9 |
21 | Texas A&M | +4 |
22 | Michigan | -12 |
23 | Indiana | -- |
24 | Illinois | -- |
25 | SMU | N/A |