To no surprise, the top four spots remain the same in college rankings. However, in the top ten, Iowa State breaks in at No. 9 (moving up four spots) while Georgia also moved up one spot putting them at No. 8.
Outside of the top ten, there was a good amount of big movers including Northwestern dropping six spots, Oklahoma State gaining eight, Iowa gaining five, Oregon losing eight, and Washington and Tulsa both breaking into the rankings after not being ranked last week.
| 1 | Alabama | 8-0 | – | |
| 2 | Notre Dame | 9-0 | – | |
| 3 | Clemson | 8-1 | – | |
| 4 | Ohio State | 4-0 | – | |
| 5 | Texas A&M | 6-1 | – | |
| 6 | Florida | 7-1 | – | |
| 7 | Cincinnati | 8-0 | – | |
| 8 | Georgia | 6-2 | +1 | |
| 9 | Iowa State | 7-2 | +4 | |
| 10 | Miami | 7-1 | – | |
| 11 | Oklahoma | 6-2 | – | |
| 12 | Indiana | 5-1 | – | |
| 13 | BYU | 9-0 | +1 | |
| 14 | Northwestern | 5-1 | -6 | |
| 15 | Oklahoma State | 6-2 | +8 | |
| 16 | Wisconsin | 2-1 | – | |
| 17 | North Carolina | 6-3 | +2 | |
| 18 | Coastal Carolina | 9-0 | +2 | |
| 19 | Iowa | 4-2 | +5 | |
| 20 | USC | 3-0 | -2 | |
| 21 | Marshall | 7-0 | – | |
| 22 | Washington | 3-0 | NR | |
| 23 | Oregon | 3-1 | -8 | |
| 24 | Tulsa | 5-1 | +1 | |
| 25 | Louisiana | 8-1 | NR |
Iowa State breaking into the top ten is huge for that program and is something that they hope they can maintain for the rest of the season. Sitting at 7-2, it will be hard to see them breaking into a top-four spot unless something drastic happens over the next couple of weeks. Iowa State will take on the West Virginia Mountaineers this Saturday in a game that should be closely contested as the Mountaineers have one of the top five defenses in the nation. Iowa State is favored in the game, but it will be a battle to see which offense has the least amount of problems against the opposing defense.
Northwestern dropping six spots is no surprise to anyone, I believe. With Northwestern losing to unranked Michigan State, we all were just waiting to see how many spots Northwestern would drop in the standings. Only having 285 yards and then also having four turnovers in this game, it is actually surprising that Northwestern only dropped six spots. I would say the circumstances we are in this year and the limited games some teams have played has allowed Northwestern to stay in the top fifteen. A team like Wisconsin or even Washington should be ranked higher than them, in my opinion, due to the lack of games they have had.
The biggest mover in my opinion is Washington getting into the rankings. I truly think this team has what it takes to be another top ten ranked team under new head coach Jimmy Lake. The team was down 21-0 against Utah this past weekend but coming out of halftime the Huskies showed up big time. The Huskies were able to put up 17 in the third quarter alone and then in the fourth quarter, things got a little more competitive on the defensive side of the ball for both teams as the Huskies were only able to get 7 more points but ultimately won the game 24-21. The Huskies will be staying at Mont Lake as they host their Pac-12 rival, Stanford. If the Huskies are able to get the win, they have a high probability of claiming their spot in the Pac-12 Championship and possibly a couple more spots in the rankings.
Some big games for this weekend that were not mentioned are Baylor at #11 Oklahoma, #12 Indiana at #16 Wisconsin, and I would say the big Pac-12 games of #23 Oregon at Cal and also Washington State at #20 USC. With some big games between ranked teams and rivalry games – expect some potential shakeup in the rankings next week.
