In this week’s AP Top 25 and Coaches Poll, a lot of teams are on the move, marking a major shakeup ahead of the season’s final stretch.
College football rankings: Major AP Top 25 shakeup ahead of new Playoff rankings
This post will be updated as more rankings become available.
The postseason picture got a little bit clearer on Saturday, and it’ll come more sharply into focus with the College Football Playoff selection committee’s third rankings release on Tuesday. Until then, Week 12’s other human polls are a possible preview. Here’s a detailed accounting of how Week 11 altered the Playoff landscape.
Baylor couldn’t keep up with new Big 12 favorite Oklahoma and probably saw the end of its Playoff hopes. Stanford saw its title dreams go up in smoke against Oregon, too. Clemson stayed atop the world with a sort of uninspiring win against Syracuse. North Carolina pounded Miami. TCU almost lost to Kansas but survived, as did Oklahoma State and as did Michigan, very narrowly. Alabama will never, ever lose again. Maybe Iowa won’t, either.
Ohio State handled its business at Illinois, setting up a College Gameday bout with Michigan State on Saturday. The Buckeyes’ next three games (against Michigan State, then Michigan, then Iowa in the Big Ten Championship) will probably put Playoff possibilities on the line for all involved.
| AP | Coaches | S&P+ | Massey | |
| 1 | Clemson (34) | Clemson (28) | Clemson | Clemson |
| 2 | Ohio State (2) | Ohio State (32) | Alabama | Alabama |
| 3 | Alabama (4) | Alabama (4) | Ohio State | Ohio State |
| 4 | Oklahoma State | Oklahoma State | Oklahoma | Oklahoma |
| 5 | Notre Dame | Notre Dame | Michigan | Notre Dame |
| 6 | Iowa | Iowa | Notre Dame | Oklahoma State |
| 7 | Oklahoma | Oklahoma | Baylor | Florida |
| 8 | Florida | Florida | Florida State | Iowa |
| 9 | Michigan State | Michigan State | Ole Miss | Baylor |
| 10 | Baylor | Baylor | Florida | TCU |
| 11 | TCU | TCU | USC | Michigan State |
| 12 | North Carolina | North Carolina | Navy | Stanford |
| 13 | Houston | Michigan | LSU | Michigan |
| 14 | Michigan | Houston | West Virginia | North Carolina |
| 15 | Stanford | Stanford | Stanford | Houston |
| 16 | Florida State | Florida State | Bowling Green | Navy |
| 17 | LSU | LSU | UCLA | LSU |
| 18 | Utah | Utah | Wisconsin | Utah |
| 19 | Navy | Navy | NC State | Florida State |
| 20 | Northwestern | Wisconsin | Oklahoma State | USC |
| 21 | Wisconsin | Northwestern | Tennessee | Ole Miss |
| 22 | USC | Oregon | Western Kentucky | Memphis |
| 23 | Oregon | Washington State | Arkansas | Wisconsin |
| 24 | Washington State | USC | Mississippi State | Mississippi State |
| 25 | Ole Miss | Ole Miss (T-25) | Washington | Arkansas |
| 25 | Mississippi State (T-25) |
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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