Week 10 was pretty uneventful all around, as far as immediate rankings impact goes, with much of the top 10 winning.
2016 college football rankings, Week 11: Any shakeups other than A&M’s fall?
We’re adding the major Sunday human polls, as well as a couple other rankings, in the chart below as they’re available. New Playoff rankings will arrive Tuesday night.
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In the biggest game of the day, Alabama outlasted LSU. In the only top-10 matchup of the day, Ohio State crushed Nebraska.
Texas A&M lost to Mississippi State, and now the road is clearer for Washington to march right into the Playoff top four if it wins out. (It probably already was.) The major human polls already had U-Dub in their rightful spot anyway, so nothing’s changed for them after beating down Cal, though the Buckeyes could jump them in the Playoff rankings this week.
Florida is also bounced from the top 10 after a less-than-stellar performance against Arkansas for their second loss of the season. The other big loser this week: Baylor, who got absolutely drubbed at the hands of TCU.
Elsewhere: Michigan, Clemson and Louisville also trounced their opponents.
What will the Playoff committee think of all this? We’ll find out Tuesday night around 7 p.m. ET. Spoiler alert: all the likely top four have to do is win.
| - | AP (Last week) | Coaches | S&P+ | Massey |
| 1 | Alabama | Alabama | Michigan | Alabama |
| 2 | Michigan | Clemson (1) | Alabama | Michigan |
| 3 | Clemson | Michigan (2) | Louisville | Clemson |
| 4 | Washington | Washington | Ohio State | Ohio State |
| 5 | Louisville | Ohio State (6) | Clemson | Washington |
| 6 | Ohio State | Louisville (5) | Washington | Louisville |
| 7 | Wisconsin (8) | Wisconsin (8) | Auburn | Auburn |
| 8 | Auburn (11) | Auburn (12) | LSU | Wisconsin |
| 9 | Oklahoma (12) | Oklahoma (11) | Penn State | Texas A&M |
| 10 | Texas A&M (7) | WVU (15) | Wisconsin | WMU |
| 11 | West Virginia (14) | Texas A&M (7) | Colorado | Colorado |
| 12 | Penn State (20) | Utah (16) | FSU | Penn State |
| 13 | Utah (16) | UNC (17) | USC | WSU |
| 14 | Western Michigan (17) | Penn State (23) | Oklahoma | FSU |
| 15 | UNC (18) | Colorado (20) | Florida | Virginia Tech |
| 16 | Colorado (21) | Florida (9) | Ole Miss | Oklahoma |
| 17 | Oklahoma State (22) | Okla. State (22) | Virginia Tech | LSU |
| 18 | Virginia Tech (23) | FSU (19) | WMU | UNC |
| 19 | LSU (15) | LSU (14) | Boise State | WVU |
| 20 | Florida State (19) | Nebraska (10) | Texas A&M | USC |
| 21 | Nebraska (9) | WMU (18) | SDSU | Boise State |
| 22 | Florida (10) | Virginia Tech (21) | Miami | Nebraska |
| 23 | Washington State (25) | WSU (25) | UNC | Tennessee |
| 24 | Boise State | Boise State (24) | TCU | Florida |
| 25 | Baylor (13) | Baylor (13) | WKU | Utah |
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. You can expect these rankings to drop early Sunday afternoon.
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. These rankings typically come in Sundays around noon.
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, which arrives a bit later than the others. An important thing to keep in mind: for the first few weeks, it also factors in preseason projections. It’ll look pretty weird early on, but it’s proved to be a very strong predictor against the Vegas spread over the long term.
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