And then there were 6 undefeated teams remaining in college football. Five of them are coming from the power conferences with little old Navy the only remaining non-power team in the nation–and they still can’t get ranked in the AP Poll. More on that below as we take a look at the current playoff picture through 8 weeks.

Here’s the latest poll from 18 Stripes:

18 Stripes Top 20 Poll

RANK TEAM RECORD NEXT
1 Ohio State (+1) 7-0 BYE
2 Indiana (+1) 7-0 vs. UCLA
3 Texas A&M (+1) 7-0 at LSU
4 Alabama (+2) 6-1 at South Carolina
5 Georgia (+2) 6-1 BYE
6 Oregon (+3) 6-1 vs. Wisconsin
7 Georgia Tech (+4) 7-0 vs. Syracuse
8 Miami (-7) 5-1 vs. Stanford
9 Vanderbilt (+5) 6-1 vs. Missouri
10 BYU (+6) 7-0 at Iowa State
11 Ole Miss (-6) 6-1 at Oklahoma
12 Notre Dame (+4) 5-2 BYE
13 Oklahoma 6-1 vs. Ole Miss
14 Texas Tech (-6) 6-1 vs. Oklahoma State
15 Missouri (+4) 6-1 at Vanderbilt
16 Virginia (-1) 6-1 at North Carolina
17 Louisville (NR) 6-1 vs. Boston College
18 Tennessee (-6) 5-2 at Kentucky
19 Texas (-1) 5-2 at Miss State
20 LSU (-10) 5-2 vs. Texas A&M

Dropped Out:

#20 USC

Plenty of carnage this week as 6 teams in our week 8 rankings fell to their opponents but only the Trojans are gone from this week’s updated rankings. Here are the best SP+ ranked teams currently not in our rankings:

14 – Utah
16 – USC
17 – Penn State (lol)
21 – Michigan
22 – Iowa
23 – Washington
25 – Cincinnati

The Bearcats (21st in the recent AP Poll) are worth keeping an eye on right now. They haven’t beaten a ranked team yet, lost their opener to Nebraska, but do face Utah and BYU to close out the regular season. We are so far away from things being done in the Big XII conference.

Top Games Recap:

Miami’s soft remaining schedule likely means they are still okay for the playoffs, although they are now in a tangled mess within the ACC and quarterback Carson Beck’s 4 interceptions torpedoed any shot at a Heisman trophy. Louisville took a bye week coming off a tough close loss to Virginia to beat the Canes 24-21 in Miami Gardens.

The Ole Miss offense was a real problem for Georgia. Then, the Dawgs pitched a 4th quarter shutout in addition to scoring 17 points of their own on the way to a big 43-35 win. The 8-game win streak for Mississippi stretching back to last year is over.

Tennessee threatened to make a game of it for a while although Alabama eventually pulled away convincingly 37-20 in the SEC rivalry game.

Texas Tech only scored 7 points through 3 quarters, a big reason why they suffered their first defeat of the season 26-22 at pesky Arizona State.

Vanderbilt being a real threat for the SEC Championship Game has entered the chat. The Commodores beat visiting LSU 31-24 to hand Brian Kelly and the Tigers their 2nd loss this year.

A strong second half allowed Georgia Tech to go into Duke and win 27-18. The Yellow Jackets move to an impressive 7-0.

It took double overtime for Missouri to win on the road 23-17 at Auburn. Hugh Freeze is 0-4 in the SEC.

We’re approaching 2 years since Oklahoma State won a game in the Big 12. Cincinnati beats the Cowboys 49-17 with the Bearcats tied with BYU as the only unbeaten teams in league play.

Interesting Games to Note:

Minnesota 24-6 Nebraska: With rumors swirling that Matt Rhule is the front-runner for the Penn State job, the Corn drop a road game in an ugly way.

Ohio State 34-0 Wisconsin: That’s still 34 combined points against their 5 Power opponents this season for the Badgers. Luke Fickell has lost his last 10 games against Power programs.

Indiana 38-13 Michigan State: The Hoosiers calmly ran away from the Spartans, the Cig is now 12-1 in the Big Ten as Indiana coach.

Oklahoma 26-7 South Carolina: The pre-season ranked Gamecocks are now 1-4 in SEC play.

Virginia 22-20 Washington State: This was close to an upset!

Texas 16-13 Kentucky: A mighty 132 passing yards for Arch Manning as the Horns needed overtime to beat the Wildcats.

UAB 31-24 Memphis: Immediately after firing Trent Dilfer, the Blazers spring a big upset over previously unbeaten Memphis.

PLAYOFF PICTURE

Here’s a look at the playoff picture after week 8 if we freeze the AP Poll as if it were the final CFP rankings:

Of course, we know things cannot stay this way. In the most basic sense, Alabama/A&M and OSU/Indiana conference title game matchups would re-shuffle things at least a little bit.

I think all 3 of Ohio State, Indiana, and Oregon will be in the playoffs. Indiana already beat Oregon, and Ohio State plays neither the Hoosiers or Ducks in the regular season. The only ranked team currently remaining on all 3 of their schedules is #25 Michigan hosting the Buckeyes. It might be tough for the Big Ten to hold on to the no. 1 seed, though. It’s definitely looking unlikely if OSU or Indiana drop a game. Heck, Oregon may finish the regular season without a ranked win. They’d need carnage in the SEC, speaking of which…

Five teams from the SEC in the playoffs is a lot and it’ll be near impossible for it to remain these 5 teams. There are 10 SEC teams in the current AP Poll! Here are their remaining difficult games:

Texas A&M – at LSU, at Missouri, at Texas
Alabama – LSU, Oklahoma, at Auburn
Georgia – Texas, Georgia Tech (do I need to include Florida?)
Ole Miss – Oklahoma
Vanderbilt – Missouri, Texas, at Tennessee
Oklahoma – Ole Miss, at Tennessee, at Alabama, Missouri, LSU
Missouri – at Vanderbilt, Texas A&M, at Oklahoma
Tennessee – Oklahoma, Vanderbilt
LSU – Texas A&M, at Alabama, at Oklahoma
Texas – Vanderbilt, at Georgia, Texas A&M

Still lots of football remaining!

Does anyone believe the Big XII will get more than 1 team in the playoffs? Maybe if BYU runs the table. Cincinnati, Texas Tech, and Houston all sit with 1 loss only. Texas Tech already beat Houston but doesn’t face Cincinnati. Then, Houston and Cincinnati don’t play each other. BYU still has to travel to both Texas Tech and Cincinnati.

The ACC Wheel of Suck is an abomination this year. From the top 4 ACC teams in the AP rankings, Louisville beat Miami, Virginia beat Louisville, while Georgia Tech has not played and will not play any of the Cardinals, Hurricanes, or Cavaliers. The only remaining ranked matchup for these 4 teams is Georgia Tech hosting Georgia in the Mercedes-Benz Stadium to close out the regular season. There are no ranked vs. ranked ACC matchups remaining at present time!

The Group of 5 auto-bid is starting to come into focus. It seems likely anyone from the Conference USA is out (everyone has at least 2 losses, pre-season favorite Liberty is already 3-4, and the conference as a whole is really bad) and we’ll include the MAC (everyone has at least 3 losses, including the highest rated team by SP+ Toledo) with no chance, as well. That leaves us with 9 G5 teams still in the hunt:

AAC: Navy, USF, Tulane, Memphis, North Texas

Mountain West: Boise State, SDSU, UNLV

Sun Belt: James Madison

USF is currently ranked #18 in the AP Poll while all other teams, except Memphis, North Texas, and UNLV, are receiving votes just outside the top 25.

I’ll focus on the AAC for a minute as they are the strongest conference, and their best team at the moment USF, has a convincing victory over the Mountain West leader Boise State. The remaining tough games from the group:

Navy: at North Texas, at Notre Dame, USF, at Memphis
USF: at Memphis, at Navy
Tulane: at Memphis
Memphis: USF, Tulane, Navy
N. Texas: Navy

Who knows what will happen but do we need to talk more about the North Texas Mean Green? They’re in year 3 of the Eric Morris tenure (former receiver under Mike Leach at Texas Tech) and out of all the 9 G5 teams above they are the 3rd best (#43) in the current SP+ rankings. Not bad! I’m not sure they can really win the whole conference–duly noted their only loss so far is by 27 points to USF–but they might be a pleasant surprise in the AAC Championship Game with this friendly run in to close the regular season.

Where does 10-2 Notre Dame fit in, should that come to fruition? A top 6 seed looks like it’s going to be really tough to obtain, so I think we can probably scratch off a potential matchup against the G5 team and/or the weakest of the bunch from the power conferences in that 6 vs. 11 game. At least hosting a playoff game would be a big goal right now. And honestly, I’d rather face someone like Ole Miss, Vanderbilt, or Oregon in the first round from an entertainment standpoint than a potential rematch with 2-loss Boise State (that specific scenario in the 5 vs. 12 game was mentioned in my August 12th playoff preview).

Opponent Recap:

Miami (5-1): A perfect season no more. Better be careful with Stanford!?

Texas A&M (7-0): Arkansas simply would not go away but the Aggies hold on to stay unbeaten 45-42 in Fayetteville.

Purdue (2-5): A shutout at Northwestern 19-0 is a pretty miserable way to lose a football game.

Arkansas (2-5): The Hogs’ 4 non-Notre Dame losses have come by a combined 13 points.

Boise State (5-2): Now sitting atop the Mountain West, the Broncos beat UNLV easily 56-31.

NC State (4-3): Pittsburgh is coming up after a week of rest.

USC (5-2): Well, I guess the Trojans now have to hope for the best in the Big Ten. Oh well.

Boston College (1-6): Dark days for Notre Dame’s next opponent. For the 2nd time in 3 years, UConn beats the Eagles. This time by 15 points.

Navy (6-0): A bye week and now they’ll host FAU.

Pittsburgh (5-2): They eventually pulled away at Syracuse for an easy 30-13 win.

Syracuse (3-4): The Orange are 0-3 since the Steve Angeli injury.

Stanford (3-4): Florida State easily outgained Stanford, were +1 in turnovers, and still couldn’t beat the Tree. Somehow, this Stanford team is terrible but annoying.