College Football Rankings: LSU, Oklahoma Take Top Spots As Wisconsin Rises

Week 6 is likely to do as much to shake up the SEC standings as it will do to alter the college football rankings. Two of the three match-ups of ranked teams feature SEC schools clashing — Florida visiting LSU, Auburn heading to Arkansas — and the in-conference ramifications of those games are almost as important as the national consequences. But Oklahoma and Texas have their own in-conference showdown, too.

Here’s what’s at stake in Week 6.

LSU and Alabama have risen to the top of the college football rankings. But both SEC leviathans have been at the top of the 2011 BlogPoll, which has the Tigers and Crimson Tide 1-2 for the second consecutive week in its Week 6 iteration.

The Tigers take the No. 1 spot in the BlogPoll for the third week in the 2011 season, and become the first team to hold the No. 1 spot in the BlogPoll for consecutive weeks in 2011. But LSU, which walloped low-profile Kentucky in Week 5, lost a significant amount of ground to Alabama, fresh off a dominant win at Florida: the Tigers had more than a point per blog on the Tide last week, but that margin has been shaved to just more than a third of a point per blog in Week 6. The Tigers may well rebuild their lead in Week 6, when Florida, still ranked, comes to Baton Rouge with a freshman quarterback at the helm.

The complete FCS top 25:

Alabama and Wisconsin both made powerful statements to add to their resumes for the 2011 season, with overwhelming victories over solid competition. LSU, Stanford, and Oklahoma held serve by taking care of business, although all three notched wins over weaker teams that really didn’t do any favors to their computer scores, both now and in the future. While Boise State got sweet revenge over Nevada in convincing fashion, the Broncos’ national title hopes suffered a crucial setback many miles away in Fort Worth. Clemson, Texas, Oklahoma State, and Michigan are coalescing as the “second tier” of undefeated contenders, although all four still have huge match ups ahead.

As we dust off our BCS analytics, we don’t want to get too granular yet, thinking about Harris poll votes and Colley Matrix. We will have plenty of time for that when the first of many BCS weekly standings are released on October 16. However, what may be useful is to look at trends that are emerging after five weeks of football has been played, and in my opinion, the most important tea leaves to read right now come from conference strength (good news for the Big XII and SEC, very bad news for the Pac 12) and schedule strength.

Boise State’s BCS fate is almost always inextricably tied to the college football rankings. As a result, the Week 6 AP Poll Top 25 and the Week 6 USA Today coaches poll have bad news for the Broncos.

Boise State fell in both polls after a 30-10 win over Nevada in Week 5, to No. 5 in the AP Poll and No. 6 in the coaches poll, and that’s bad for their chances of making a BCS Championship Game this year. Wisconsin moving ahead of the Broncos is particularly bad: while one of LSU and Alabama must lose, and Oklahoma’s schedule from here on in is not easy, the Badgers have a rather easy slate, and could run the table.

Florida State and Virginia Tech were expected to be the ACC standard-bearers heading into 2011. But Clemson has been the surprise of the year in the conference, and maybe in college football, and the Week 6 AP Poll Top 25 and the Week 6 USA Today coaches poll reward the upstart Tigers with their first top 10 perch of the season in the college football rankings.

After capping three straight wins over ranked teams with a dominant win over Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, the Tigers move to No. 8 in both the Week 6 AP Poll and the Week 6 coaches poll, and are well ahead of the rest of the ACC.

The Week 6 AP Poll Top 25 and the Week 6 USA Today coaches poll didn’t do a ton for the Big 12, but the latter did make the conference’s signature game this season a match-up of top 10 teams: Oklahoma vs. Texas, at least according to the coaches, is now a No. 1 vs. No. 10 clash.

That’s because Oklahoma stayed on top of the Week 6 coaches poll, while Texas rose to No. 10 from No. 17 after a week of carnage in the middle of the rankings. The AP Poll for Week 6 is a little less kind, setting up a No. 3 Oklahoma vs. No. 11 Texas battle.

Just one team from the Big East makes the cut in the Week 6 AP Poll Top 25 and the Week 6 USA Today coaches poll. And West Virginia isn’t likely to have any company in the near future.

The Mountaineers are No. 16 in the Week 6 AP Poll and No. 19 in the Week 6 coaches poll, and lost their only college football rankings running mate, South Florida, after Pittsburgh blew out the Bulls on Thursday night.

Stanford’s one of a handful of Pac-12 teams in the Week 6 college football rankings, but the Week 6 AP Poll Top 25 and the Week 6 USA Today coaches poll aren’t too kind to the Cardinal.

The coaches poll awards Stanford its No. 4 ranking, but by the slimmest possible margin: the Cardinal are one point ahead of Wisconsin, 1,237 to 1,236. And the AP Poll isn’t so kind, slotting Stanford at No. 7.

Twin titans LSU and Alabama lead the SEC in the Week 6 AP Poll Top 25 and the Week 6 USA Today coaches poll. It makes sense: no other conference has two teams as highly esteemed.

LSU retains its place atop the AP Poll, which helps offset falling to No. 3 in the coaches poll, as Alabama broke a Week 5 tie and moved just two points ahead of the Tigers (1,410 to 1,408) in the Week 6 USA Today poll. Alabama is also No. 2 in the Week 6 AP Poll.

Wisconsin moves up to No. 5 from No. 7 in the coaches poll, and receives one first-place vote, while the Badgers climb to No. 4 in the AP Poll. Wisconsin’s been fantastic so far this year, clobbering its five foes by a collective 242-51 score, and the Badgers could well be on their way to the BCS National Championship Game.

But behind them are a lot of ranked Big Ten teams: Michigan is No. 11 in the coaches poll and No. 12 in the AP Poll, Nebraska falls to No. 14 in the AP Poll and No. 15 in the coaches poll, and Illinois is No. 16 in the coaches poll and No. 19 in the AP Poll. Michigan State is No. 20 in the coaches poll and unranked in the AP Poll.

The Week 6 AP Poll will be satisfying for the fan who likes the college football rankings to be based on the on-field accomplishments of a team during the season. LSU and Alabama, unquestionably the most accomplished teams of the 2011 schedule so far, come in at No. 1 and No. 2 in the Week 6 AP Poll Top 25, respectively, according to the AP Poll on Twitter.

The Tigers and Crimson Tide both have three wins over ranked teams, and two of the three, in both teams’ cases, came away from home.

The Sooners have been at the top of the coaches poll for much of the 2011 season, and will likely remain there until a loss, despite the impressive resumes of the two teams clipping at their heels. LSU and Alabama each have multiple wins over ranked teams (the Crimson Tide have two on the road), and have looked downright scary at times.

Another thing that might frustrate fans: Stanford, which has been very good against limited competition, stays ahead of the Wisconsin team that throttled Nebraska on Saturday. The Cardinal and Badgers round out the top five.

The Sagarin top 25:

The top-ranked teams in the AP and Coaches Polls took care of business on Saturday, handling their business convincingly along the way. The marquee matchups of the evening -- Alabama vs. Florida and Wisconsin vs. Nebraska -- weren’t close at all, with the Crimson Tide and Badgers each pounding a worthy foe to cap the night.

Will Alabama move up with a resume-building win? How far will Wisconsin rise with a big win over Nebraska? We’ll find all that out and more on Sunday morning as the newest polls are released.