College Football Ratings Week 3 2022
Week 3 was not as exciting as week 2, with fewer big upsets and less movement at the top. In an interesting twist, most of the notable results were out west where some Pac-12 teams established themselves as legitimate league contenders (Washington and Oregon) while others flamed out to the point that their coach was fired (Arizona State).
Top 25
Georgia
Ohio State
Alabama
Michigan
Oklahoma (+1)
Tennessee (+1)
LSU (+11)
Utah (+2)
Cincinnati (+2)
Purdue (+2)
Oklahoma State (+2)
NC State (-4)
Texas A&M (+1)
Maryland (+18)
Penn State (+15)
Minnesota (+3)
Mississippi State (-12)
Miami (-2)
Oregon State (-2)
Arkansas (-5)
Texas (+4)
Ole Miss (+1)
Pittsburgh (+5)
Oregon (+26)
Notre Dame (-4)
Many will be surprised to see LSU all the way up in the top 10. The Tigers are not even sniffing the AP Poll right now, but I was very impressed with how they dismantled a good Mississippi State team. I am pretty sure my model is the only thing on planet earth that considers 1-2 Purdue a top 10 team. The Boilermakers “deserve” to have around 2.5 wins as they outplayed both Penn State and Syracuse in their two losses. Maryland also rose a lot after their win over SMU. While the game was close, Maryland was the far more efficient team averaging almost 7 yards per play. Penn State is in my top 25 for the first time all year after a dominating road win against Auburn.
Moving Up
I completely wrote off Oregon (50th → 24th) after they were demolished by Georgia in Week 1. As time passes, it looks like Georgia may actually just be an NFL team in disguise as opposed to Oregon being fraudulent. Eastern Michigan (112th → 94th) pulled off one of their biggest wins in program history on the road at Arizona State and could possibly contend for the MAC championship. Washington State (54th → 39th) dropped the hammer on a bad Colorado State team and brings their 3-0 record to a matchup with Oregon this weekend.
Moving Down
South Carolina (33rd → 66th) was absolutely vaporized by Georgia. The Gamecocks have been quite disappointing so far this year and they will struggle to get back to a bowl. I was hyping up BYU (9th → 28th) as a possible playoff team a week ago and that has been stopped dead in its tracks after a blowout loss to Oregon. It is only a matter of time until Auburn (31st → 48th) joins Arizona State (26th → 43rd) in a mid-season coach firing, a loss this weekend to Missouri could do the trick.