College Football Ratings Week 9 2022
As the calendar turns to November, conference title races around the country are heating up. It’s been an interesting mix this year with some conference races being led by the favorites (Clemson in the ACC, Oregon in the Pac-12) while others have seen surprise teams out front (TCU and Kansas State in the Big 12, Tulane in the American). As the season moves along I may have more posts previewing conference title races and the playoff picture as well.
Top 25
Ohio State
Georgia
Alabama
Tennessee (+1)
Michigan (-1)
Kansas State (+6)
LSU (-1)
Texas (-1)
Illinois
Penn State (+1)
Oregon (-3)
Utah (-2)
UCLA (+8)
Mississippi State (-1)
Florida State (+4)
TCU (-1)
Oregon State (+3)
USC (-4)
Baylor (+10)
Clemson (+3)
Notre Dame (+18)
Louisville (+23)
Arkansas (+11)
Purdue (+3)
Texas A&M (+6)
Kansas State blew out Oklahoma State 48-0 in what has to be one of the most shocking results of the season just far. The Wildcats have been a solid team all year that has suffered some bad injury luck. A huge game with Texas looms this week, win that and they are quite likely to make the Big 12 title game. Baylor is another Big 12 team who is higher in my ratings than one would naively expect from their record. The depth of the Big 12 is so strong this year with 11 of the 12 teams in my top 50. Scott Satterfield looked dead to rights at Louisville earlier in the season but after a strange win over Wake Foest they re-enter my top 25.
Moving Up
North Texas (95th → 67th) went on the road and beat fellow CUSA favorite Western Kentucky by 4 scores. The Mean Green had a shaky start to the year but now look likely to face off with UTSA in the CUSA title game. Oklahoma (52nd → 33rd) is a lot better than I feared after a 3 game losing streak and controlled Iowa State easily in a win. UCF (44th → 26th) played a tremendous game to beat Cincinnati and is now my top G5 team in the country.
Moving Down
Oklahoma State (17th → 50th) failed to show up in a blowout loss to Kansas State. My model overreacts to blowouts in the short term so I think they’ve fallen a bit too far, but they’re nowhere near the playoff contender they were talked about as a few weeks ago. NC State (40th → 59th) squeaked past an awful Virginia Tech team. I don’t understand why they are ranked in the polls, they’ve been absolutely terrible since Devin Leary got hurt. Rice (108th → 123rd) was on the path to bowl eligibility and got destroyed at home by an awful Charlotte team that just fired its head coach.