Network Ranking - Week 6

by Patrick Rhamey

Big shake ups this week driven by a few big games.  Florida gets leaped by Utah, Michigan, and the Aggies.  Utah jumps (and jumps dramatically) for two reasons: (1) They beat Cal, who beat Texas, who just upset Oklahoma, as well as Washington, who upset USC.  The consequences of those two upsets reverberate pretty strongly throughout the network.  (2) They beat Michigan, who just beat Northwestern.  The value of both Utah and Michigan's wins are really quite impressive, with Michigan only receiving a slight negative for losing to undefeated Utah.  The Aggies and the Gators are pretty close, and though the Aggies were on a bye, the value of their wins increased this week by slightly more than those of the Gators.

While Utah should take care of business at home against Arizona State, Michigan gets another test with #23 Sparty in the Big House.  In the SEC, we'll find out if the Aggies and Gators are for real against #14 Bama and #13 LSU.

Finally, where's Baylor?  While the Bears are undefeated, their best (and only half-decent) win is against Texas Tech.  While their schedule improves with West Virginia next week, it doesn't get interesting until mid-October, where in a three week period they play OU, Oklahoma State, and TCU.  If they make it out of that, they'll have a case to make.

Top 25 (Explanation; Full Ranking):

  1. Utah
  2. Michigan
  3. Texas A&M
  4. Florida
  5. TCU
  6. California
  7. Clemson
  8. Notre Dame
  9. Ohio State
  10. Oklahoma State
  11. Northwestern
  12. Temple
  13. LSU
  14. Alabama
  15. Iowa
  16. Toledo
  17. Penn State
  18. Ole Miss
  19. Oklahoma
  20. Memphis
  21. Baylor
  22. Florida State
  23. Michigan State
  24. Stanford
  25. UCLA