Michigan loses again (Stanford too!) while Notre Dame did a thing this weekend. Florida grabs hold of the SEC East, Cincinnati and BYU continue to look damn good, while we welcome Indiana into the playoff conversation for the time being. That and more from this past weekend.
Note: We are only including teams who have taken the field in 2020.
18 Stripes Top 20 Poll
| RANK | TEAM | RECORD | NEXT |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Alabama | 6-0 | BYE |
| 2 | Notre Dame (+2) | 7-0 | 47-40 Win vs. Clemson |
| 3 | Ohio State | 3-0 | 49-27 Win vs. Rutgers |
| 4 | Clemson (-2) | 7-1 | 47-40 Loss at Notre Dame |
| 5 | Texas A&M (+3) | 5-1 | 48-3 Win at South Carolina |
| 6 | Florida (+3) | 4-1 | 44-28 Win vs. Georgia |
| 7 | Cincinnati (-1) | 6-0 | 38-10 Win vs. Houston |
| 8 | BYU (+2) | 8-0 | 51-17 Win at Boise State |
| 9 | Miami (+2) | 6-1 | 44-41 Win at NC State |
| 10 | Oregon (NR) | 1-0 | 35-14 Win vs. Stanford |
| 11 | Indiana (+2) | 3-0 | 38-21 Win vs. Michigan |
| 12 | Wisconsin (-5) | 1-0 | BYE |
| 13 | Oklahoma State (+1) | 5-1 | 20-18 Win at Kansas State |
| 14 | Marshall (-2) | 6-0 | 51-10 Win vs. UMass |
| 15 | Georgia (-10) | 4-2 | 44-28 Loss vs. Florida |
| 16 | Oklahoma (-1) | 5-2 | 62-9 Win vs. Kansas |
| 17 | SMU | 7-1 | 47-23 Win at Temple |
| 18 | Coastal Carolina (-2) | 7-0 | 23-6 Win South Alabama |
| 19 | Iowa State (-1) | 5-2 | 38-31 Win vs. Baylor |
| 20 | USC (NR) | 1-0 | 28-27 Win vs. Arizona State |
OUT: Boise State, Texas
IN: Oregon, USC
Week 10 Recap
Alabama had the week off and witnessed Florida pull away easily from a reeling Georgia team that now has massive issues at quarterback. Barring something crazy, we’ll see the Gators and Tide playing for the SEC title.
Ohio State was off the radar this week and continues its offensive dominance. The score is deceiving as Rutgers had some garbage points in the 4th quarter.
Things are not trending well for Muschamp in South Carolina following a humiliating defeat at the hands of Texas A&M. Question: Is there a legitimate backdoor route for the Aggies to make the playoffs?
BYU (6th) and Cincinnati (10th) are super legit if you’re looking at their SP+ rankings. By almost any measure, they continue to be knocking on the door to the playoffs.
Elsewhere, Miami survived in a shootout last Friday against NC State while the Pac-12 opened up play as Oregon took down Stanford by 3 touchdowns. The Cardinal offense looked okay and ran the ball pretty well but the normally reliable kicker Jet Toner went 0 for 4 on field goals. Yikes.
Our rivals USC opened their season and trailed Arizona State 27-14 late in the game before a juggled, tipped touchdown catch, recovered onsides kick, and 21-yard touchdown pass by Kedon Slovis to secure the comeback win.
***
AP Top 25: Alabama, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Clemson, Texas A&M, Florida, Cincinnati, BYU, Miami, Indiana, Oregon, Georgia, Wisconsin, Oklahoma State, Coastal Carolina, Marshall, Iowa State, Oklahoma, SMU, USC, Texas, Liberty, Northwestern, Auburn, Louisiana
SP+ Top 25: Alabama, Ohio State, Clemson, Wisconsin, Florida, BYU, Oregon, Notre Dame, Georgia, Cincinnati, Oklahoma, North Carolina, Texas A&M, Penn State, Washington, Iowa, Oklahoma State, Michigan, Iowa State, Virginia Tech, UCF, Auburn, Miami, USC, Utah.
Week 11 Games to Watch
Miami (+2.5) at Virginia Tech
This is a game between the 3rd and 5th ranked teams in the ACC standings. At times, the Canes have looked good this year and shaky for plenty of other moments. Same goes for the Hokies, too. I had a feeling Virginia Tech would fall to Liberty last weekend and I’m sensing a 2nd loss for Miami coming this weekend.
Ohio State (-25) at Maryland
Taulia Tagovailoa has the Terps back! That bomb of a loss in the opener against Northwestern feels like ages ago, already! If Maryland’s offense can continue to look far better than competent this could be a fun game for a while.
Alabama (-28) at LSU (Postponed)
From National Champions to this spread less than a year later. Life moves fast. LSU is in big trouble with COVID rates and lack of bodies, too. This one could get super ugly.
Arkansas (+17.5) at Florida
The Hogs coach just tested positive so this one is much more tricky. Still, with the Gators coming off a big win I can see them having a let down and a scare on Saturday.
Wisconsin (-3.5) at Michigan
After taking a couple weeks off trying to get the virus under control, Wisconsin takes the field once again. Who’s playing quarterback for the Badgers? We’ll see! Graham Mertz had about as good of a debut as you can have against Illinois and wouldn’t it be delicious to see him smoke Michigan and hand Harbaugh his 3rd straight loss?
Northwestern (-3) at Purdue
A battle for the top of the Big Ten West! After underachieving in 2019 both of these plucky teams have looked quite solid in 2020. In this crazy year it wouldn’t be too shocking to see either of these teams win the division, right?
aTm gets in if Bama/UF each drop one, then UF beats Bama in the SECCG (pretty sure they can both lose and would be in SECCG because of head-to-head tie breakers). Unlikely, but pretty straightforward, no?
In the second week of November, football teams from Indiana are undefeated and in first place in the B1GW, B1GE, and ACC. Words I would never thought I’d utter (technically I still haven’t, but didn’t think I’d type them either).
I think the easiest path for A&M is for Bama to win out and take out Florida and ND to win out and take out Clemson. That… might just do it. The teams behind A&M would then be Cincinnati, BYU, Oregon/USC winner, Oklahoma State. My confidence in the Committee to vastly overvalue playing in the SEC is extremely high.
Interesting. I’ve been hoping this is the year a G5 team gets in. Seems appropriate given the craziness of everything. But yeah ESSSS EEEEEE SEEEEEE probably gets 2 over BYU/Cincy
Glad to see we’re ahead of Georgia everywhere this week!
Just wait until Georgia picks up another Quality Loss (TM).
Well done, that made me chuckle
But but but the recruiting talent!
Miami loses all but locks up Clem vs ND in the ACC CG (yeah, it’s practically a certainty now but….)
Clem’s Son COULD still lose a game which, if Miami is 1-loss puts them up ahead of Clem. If they have 1 loss it means they beat UNC and sent them to a 3-loss season. Clem could then lose another game and still have the tiebreaker over Miami
This kind of raises a thought I had over on TOS a few weeks ago…What if we didn’t play Wake? I mean if that game literally means nothing to any standings or anything would the risk of traveling to NC to play that game? ND losing does not drop them out of the ACC CG, winning doesnt put Wake in anything. Could the ACC pull a move like the B10/Pac and just cancel that game outright?
Wake Forest is our designated Eternal ACC Rival, so we have to play them at the end of the season.
This is how we end up playing Wake in mid January
I mean, I got nothing going on in January. I’m a Bears fan.