Week 12 wasn’t anything like Week 11. Nearly all of the top teams held firm, and we’ll have to wait another week for more chaos across the board. That doesn’t mean the top teams weren’t threatened, however.
New 2016 college football rankings, Week 13: Will we see any shakeups?
New Playoff rankings will arrive Tuesday night.
Mike Carter-USA TODAY Sports
Louisville got spanked on Thursday night, and all Playoff hopes went out the window with the defeat, as did ACC title hopes, as Clemson will be on its way to Orlando after putting a hurting on Wake Forest.
Alabama won a yawner, but in the Big Ten, Ohio State got taken down to the wire against Michigan State, Michigan pulled away in the snow, and Wisconsin and Penn State both beat their respective opponents to set up a high-stakes last weekend of the regular season.
Washington got it done too against Arizona State in a big way. The Big 12 had our biggest loser of the week though, as Oklahoma took down West Virginia. Other losers: Utah, LSU and Washington State each caught the dreaded late-season L as well.
Again, new playoff rankings drop Tuesday night at 7 pm E.T.
| AP (last week, if different) | Coaches (LW) | S&P+ | Massey | |
| 1 | Alabama | Alabama | Alabama | Alabama |
| 2 | Ohio State | Ohio State | Michigan | Ohio State |
| 3 | Michigan (4) | Clemson (5) | Ohio State | Michigan |
| 4 | Clemson (5) | Michigan | Clemson | Clemson |
| 5 | Wisconsin (6) | Washington (7) | Louisville | Washington |
| 6 | Washington (7) | Wisconsin | Washington | Wisconsin |
| 7 | Oklahoma (8) | Oklahoma (8) | LSU | Penn State |
| 8 | Penn State (9) | Penn State (10) | USC | Colorado |
| 9 | Colorado (12) | Colorado (12) | Auburn | Louisville |
| 10 | Oklahoma State (13) | Oklahoma State (13) | Wisconsin | Oklahoma |
| 11 | Louisville (3) | Louisville (3) | Florida State | USC |
| 12 | USC (15) | USC (19) | Penn State | WMU |
| 13 | Florida (21) | Florida (18) | Oklahoma | FSU |
| 14 | Western Michigan | Florida State (15) | Colorado | Auburn |
| 15 | Florida State (17) | Nebraska (17) | Western Kentucky | Wash. State |
| 16 | Auburn (18) | Auburn | Boise State | Stanford |
| 17 | Nebraska (19) | West Virginia (9) | Florida | Boise State |
| 18 | Houston (NR) | Western Michigan (21) | Texas A&M | Florida |
| 19 | West Virginia (10) | Boise State (23) | Miami | Oklahoma State |
| 20 | Boise State (22) | Utah (11) | Temple | Texas A&M |
| 21 | Utah (11) | Houston (NR) | Houston | Nebraska |
| 22 | Texas A&M (23) | Texas A&M | North Carolina | Houston |
| 23 | Washington State (20) | Washington State (20) | San Diego State | LSU |
| 24 | Tennessee (NR) | Tennessee NR) | Western Michigan | Tennessee |
| 25 | LSU (16) | North Carolina (24) | Oklahoma State | WVU |
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 doesn’t have any official bearing on the Playoff.
The USA Today Coaches Poll: Formerly part of the BCS, and now just a poll. It tends to react more cautiously 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.
The Massey computer composite: A collection of dozens of ratings, all combined into one. We include the latest version as of publication. (It does also include the two human polls, but they can’t sway it all that much.)
Bill Connelly’s S&P+ ratings: SB Nation’s favored advanced stat. An important thing to keep in mind: it will probably look different than the human polls, but that’s because it isn’t a human poll! It’s a measure of efficiency derived from play-by-play and drive data from every FBS game. It’s designed to predict which teams would win upcoming games, not award teams for impressive wins.
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