College Football Ratings Week 7 2022
Saturday was one of the best days of college football in recent years. Tennessee’s epic win over Alabama was the obvious highlight, but even beyond that we saw great wins from Utah, TCU and Michigan State, among others. The list of undefeated teams was trimmed from 15 to 9, all of whom appear in my top 25.
Top 25
Ohio State
Georgia
Alabama
Michigan (+2)
Tennessee
Texas (-2)
Oregon (+2)
Illinois (+22)
TCU (+4)
Utah
LSU (+3)
Mississippi State (-5)
UCLA (+2)
Kentucky (+17)
USC (+2)
Purdue (-8)
Syracuse (+17)
Florida State (+1)
Ole Miss (+4)
Kansas State
Maryland (-10)
Clemson (-4)
Cincinnati (-1)
Texas Tech
Texas A&M (+2)
Tennessee jumped to #3 in the AP Poll, but stays at #5 in my ratings. My model sees the Alabama game as a coin flip that the Volunteers were slightly fortunate to win, since they were only a small underdog in my system their rating is pretty unchanged from the win. I am now all aboard the Illinois bandwagon as they absolutely destroyed a good Minnesota team. The Illini have to be considered the favorites to win the Big Ten West and will be favored in every remaining game except a trip to Ann Arbor. Syracuse vaulted into my top 25 for the first time all year after their big win over NC State. Their place is probably a bit overstated as my model doesn’t properly account for NC State’s QB injury weighing their performance down.
Moving Up
Old Dominion (114th → 81st) handed Coastal Carolina their first loss of the year in dominating fashion, putting up a terrifying 11 yards per play in a 49-21 win. Nebraska (68th → 49th) is proving to be a lot better than I feared they were, giving a good Purdue team a scare in West Lafayette. Stanford (82nd → 67th) got their first FBS win of the year on the road against Notre Dame and should get another one this week against Arizona State.
Moving Down
Coastal Carolina (66th → 95th) was undefeated all year but showed signs of trouble against Gardner-Webb. It all came crashing down for the Chanticleers in their loss to Old Dominion and they now enter the meat of the Sun Belt schedule. California (76th → 97th) lost an inexcusable game on the road against a horrible Colorado team and will now struggle to make a bowl. Washington State (35th → 50th) was not competitive in a loss to Oregon State and looks like a 6-6 type team.