Week 6 NCAA Rankings
Rather than doing an entire top 25, LUCK NUNU will be ranking the top 5: the 4 playoff teams and 1 "at-large" that hopes to swoop in for some of that sweet playoff misery. These rankings are fluid and are not based upon the previous week's ranking, but a ranking of which teams are the best at that time.
What is happening this year? There were not very many interesting games, YET AGAIN, although Clemson and UNC made things interesting.
#1 Ohio State - Nebraska never really stood a chance against them, but OSU put this game out of reach very quickly and never took their foot off the gas. Will this be the year for OSU to win it again? I don't know, they still haven't played any great teams. It's looking good so far, though. Next up: Michigan State. MSU usually plays them tough, and they do have a pretty good defense this year. But I don't see this being very close this year. It's a night game in the horseshoe. I'm sure this game will have a good deal of hype, but I doubt anything changes for next week.
#2 Auburn - Oh my, Mississippi State got themselves murdered. I had respect for what they were doing, but clearly I was wrong. Auburn was on a different level than MSU and it wasn't even close. Auburn has been quietly winning games here, and their Oregon win looks good as the Ducks keep winning as well. Next up: @Florida. Hoo boy, here we go. As you MAY OR MAY NOT KNOW, I'm a big Gators fan. This game scares me because I fear the Gators are going to get it given to them in ways they don't want. On the other hand, I think a Florida win here would give the Gators some credibility. Florida's defense is better than MSU's and their offense is probably a level below Auburn's. This can go either way, but I'm leaning toward Florida at home.
#3 Clemson - It wasn't pretty, but they won. Sort of. UNC had a bunch of chances to pull off the upset and just couldn't figure it out. Maybe this is what Clemson needed, though. Normally they drop a goofy game to a mediocre team, but they survived for another day. Next up: BYE WEEK! .. then Florida State. FSU is not very good, but they have the talent to match up well with Clemson. I just don't see FSU's defense playing well enough to win that game.
#4 Alabama - Alabama had a slow start against Ole Miss, but they pulled away in the 2nd quarter. Ole Miss just isn't ready for that type of game. They continue to dominate their opponents, which is good because they have a pretty sad schedule this year. Tennessee is bad, Texas A&M is not good, South Carolina is bad, Arkansas is bad, and Mississippi State is not good. Their only big games are against Auburn and LSU. They need to dominate both of those games. Next up: Bye week, then Texas A&M. A&M is really not very good, but I wouldn't be surprised if they kept it close against Alabama for a couple quarters at least. They play decent defense, but their offense is pretty miserable. Maybe we can see how Alabama's defense holds up against a .. slightly above mediocre offense.
Always the bridesmaid...
#5 Washington - Despite having one loss, Washington is playing good, solid football. They just took care of USC this week after blowing out BYU the week prior. The one-point loss to Cal is not good, but it could be worse. If Washington can run the table, they will have an outside chance of going to the playoff this year. They have 2 more big games against Oregon and Utah before a potential Pac 12 championship matchup (USC again? Utah again? Arizona State? Who knows). Next up: @Stanford. Not a huge opponent, and probably not very dangerous. But Stanford played Oregon close, and Washington can't afford to slip up again. Playing away from home gives this game a little bit of a .. questionable nature.
Other teams under consideration
Georgia had the week off and will play a sad Tennessee squad next week. I hope they lose. LSU was also on the bye week, but will come back to meet a surprisingly good Utah State squad at home. This game could be a shoot out if LSU hasn't fixed their defense at all. Oklahoma gave Texas Tech the business and it wasn't really close. They play Texas next, which can boost them back into the LUCK NUNU top 5.