New rankings this week are setting up what looks like a critical Week 10, as teams settle into their spots before their positioning starts to officially determine postseason slotting. No. 4 LSU-No. 7 Alabama and No. 17 Florida State-No. 3 Clemson are just the two biggest games next Saturday.
College football rankings: Ohio State, Clemson top composite top 25
The last polls of the year before the College Football Playoff rankings arrive, combined with two computer rankings.
The ranking that matters most comes out Tuesday, when the College Football Playoff committee unveils its first listing of the season.
Ahead of that, this weekend still turned out to be plenty interesting.
All was reasonably quiet at the top of the rankings, except for Ohio State quarterback J.T. Barrett getting suspended for a game. On the field, Miami beat Duke on a preposterous, lateral-fueled romp for a last-second touchdown. Notre Dame escaped raucous Philadelphia with a win against Temple. Washington State felt heartbreak against Stanford, as did Minnesota against Michigan. Iowa’s march to an undefeated season continued against Maryland, and Florida destroyed Georgia. Ole Miss beat Auburn with the help of a terrific Laquon Treadwell touchdown catch.
Here’s the new composite, followed by the four rankings:
| Composite ranking | Change | Average ranking | |
| 1 | Ohio State | 2 | |
| 2 | Clemson | 2.5 | |
| 3 | Baylor | 4 | |
| 4 | LSU | 4.25 | |
| 5 | Alabama | 5 | |
| 5 | TCU | -1 | 5 |
| 7 | Notre Dame | 8 | |
| 8 | Florida | +4 | 10.75 |
| 8 | Michigan State | +3 | 10.75 |
| 10 | Stanford | -2 | 11.25 |
| 11 | Iowa | -1 | 11.5 |
| 12 | Oklahoma | -3 | 11.75 |
| 13 | Michigan | -1 | 12.5 |
| 14 | Utah | 16 | |
| 15 | Florida State | 16.25 | |
| 16 | Ole Miss | +1 | 16.75 |
| 17 | Oklahoma State | -1 | 18 |
| 18 | Memphis | 20.25 | |
| 18 | Toledo | +2 | 20.25 |
| 20 | USC | +4 | 21.25 |
| 20 | Houston | +2 | 21.75 |
| 22 | UCLA | -2 | 22.5 |
| 23 | Wisconsin | NR | 22.75 |
| 24 | Mississippi State | +1 | 23 |
| 25 | Texas A&M | NR | 27 |
| AP | Coaches | S&P+ | Massey | |
| 1 | Ohio State (39) | Ohio State (48) | Clemson | Clemson |
| 2 | Baylor (6) | Baylor (9) | Alabama | Ohio State |
| 3 | Clemson (6) | TCU (4) | Michigan | LSU |
| 4 | LSU (5) | LSU (1) | Ohio State | Alabama |
| 5 | TCU (4) | Clemson (2) | Baylor | TCU |
| 6 | Michigan State | Michigan State | LSU | Notre Dame |
| 7 | Alabama (1) | Alabama | TCU | Baylor |
| 8 | Notre Dame | Stanford | Oklahoma | Michigan State |
| 9 | Stanford | Notre Dame | Notre Dame | Iowa |
| 10 | Iowa | Oklahoma State | Florida | Florida |
| 11 | Florida | Iowa | USC | Stanford |
| 12 | Oklahoma State | Florida | Ole Miss | Oklahoma |
| 13 | Utah | Oklahoma | West Virginia | Utah |
| 14 | Oklahoma | Utah | Florida State | Michigan |
| 15 | Memphis | Florida State | Wisconsin | Oklahoma State |
| 16 | Michigan | Memphis | Iowa | Memphis |
| 17 | Florida State | Michigan | Stanford | Ole Miss |
| 18 | Houston | Houston | Washington | USC |
| 19 | Ole Miss | Ole Miss | UCLA | Florida State |
| 20 | Toledo | Toledo | Toledo | Houston |
| 21 | North Carolina | North Carolina | Mississippi State | Toledo |
| 22 | UCLA | UCLA | Tennessee | Mississippi State |
| 23 | Temple | Temple | Michigan State | Texas A&M |
| 24 | Mississippi State | Texas A&M | Utah | Wisconsin |
| 25 | Texas A&M | Mississippi State | Duke | North Carolina |
The four rankings used here
The Associated Press Top 25: The longest-running and best-respected human poll. Didn't have any official bearing on the latter years of the BCS, and won't have any official bearing on the Playoff. Expect it to set the course for the committee, however, as most outlets (including SB Nation) will use the AP's rankings as the standard until the committee takes over in November. Usually comes out on Sundays about 2 p.m. ET.
The USA Today Coaches Poll: Formerly part of the BCS, and now just a poll. It tends to be more conservative than the AP's. Though polling athletic departments in order to rank other athletic departments is dubious, we still want multiple human polls in here, and this is the other big one. Releases early Sunday afternoons.
The Massey computer composite: A collection of ... every rating out there, which will be included as soon as it is updated. By including it here, we're giving extra weight to the two human polls, since they're already two of the dozens of ratings included in the Massey. It changes over the course of the week as more rankings arrive.
Bill Connelly's S&P+ ratings: Connelly's efficiency- and explosiveness-based metric parses each team's performance and adjusts it for strength of opposition. These ratings ultimately become part of each FBS team's advanced statistical profile. They're entirely computer-generated and don't signal an agenda against anybody's favorite team.
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