Photo courtesy of Cincinnati athletics
We are officially at a halfway point in the college football regular season.
There are always debates concerning polls, especially preseason polls. There is a good presence of college football fans that believe we should wait a few weeks into the season until teams are ranked.
While the flaws of the College Football Playoff Selection Committee are many, one of the cooler things they do is wait until near the last quarter of the season until they release their rankings. Obviously, we wouldn’t want the AP or Coaches Poll to wait that long, but perhaps a few weeks to see who is a contender or pretender is a good idea.
So, let’s take a look at how we started this season to see where we are now.
Preseason Top 25 Current AP Poll (Week 6)
1) Alabama (currently No. 5) 1) Georgia
2) Oklahoma (currently No. 4) 2) Iowa
3) Clemson (unranked currently) 3) Cincinnati
4) Ohio State (currently No. 6) 4) Oklahoma
5) Georgia (currently No. 1) 5) Alabama
6) Texas A&M (currently No. 21) 6) Ohio State
7) Iowa State (unranked currently) 7) Penn State
8) Cincinnati (currently No. 3) 8) Michigan
9) Notre Dame (currently No. 14) 9) Oregon
10) North Carolina (unranked currently) 10) Michigan State
11) Oregon (currently No. 9) 11) Kentucky
12) Wisconsin (unranked currently) 12) Oklahoma State
13) Florida (currently No. 20) 13) Ole Miss
14) Miami (unranked currently) 14) Notre Dame
15) USC (unranked currently) 15) Coastal Carolina
16) LSU (unranked currently) 16) Wake Forest
17) Indiana (unranked currently) 17) Arkansas
18) Iowa (currently No. 2) 18) Arizona State
19) Penn State (currently No. 7) 19) BYU
20) Washington (unranked currently) 20) Florida
21) Texas (currently No. 25) 21) Texas A&M
22) Coastal Carolina (currently No. 15) 22) NC State
23) Louisiana (unranked currently) 23) SMU
24) Utah (unranked currently) 24) San Diego State
25) Arizona State (currently No. 18) 25) Texas
Notes
- Michigan and Michigan State are the only two teams in the top 10 that started their season not ranked. Broaden that to the top 15 and you add Kentucky and Oklahoma State.
- Cincinnati has reached AP No. 3 — its highest ranking ever.
- Alabama is the only team in the top 10 with a loss to a team that was not ranked at the time.
- The Big Ten and SEC make up for almost half of the AP Poll