College Football Top 25 Week 11 - It's Roll Tide & Then Everyone Else

Before the CFP committee releases their second official rankings later today, check out our official top 25 after another busy week in the world of college football. There is a lot to cover, so let's dive right into it. We start in Baton Rouge, where we were supposed to witness what was shaping up to be the possible game of the year in college football between # 1 Alabama and # 3 LSU. What happened instead was a 29-0 domination by the top-ranked Crimson Tide.

LSU's vaunted rushing attack was unable to find any green whatsoever all night long as RB tandem Clyde Edwards-Helaire and Nick Brossette were held to just 19 yards on 13 carries. Throw-in the beating that QB Joe Burrow took and the Tigers managed a total of 12 yards rushing for the game. Yes, 12 yards! It was a catastrophic performance for LSU's offense and a complete domination by the Alabama defense. Quinnen Williams dominated the game for the Tide as he recorded 7 tackles and 2.5 sacks in the contest. Meanwhile, it wasn't just the Alabama defense that came to play, as the offense ran the ball at will (Damien Harris ran for 107yds and a TD, Najee Harris racked up 83 yards on just 6 carries, and QB Tua Tagovailoa added 49 yards and a score on the ground) and WR Jerry Jeudy proved too much for the talented LSU secondary, racking up over 100 yards receiving on 8 catches. About the only negative for Bama was Tagovailoa actually threw his first interception on the season. Take away that one blemish and it was as complete of a game as we've seen anyone play this season.

The Top-Ranked Crimson Tide were supposed to be tested at LSU, instead the big boys up front completely dominated the Tigers and the offense continued to soar

Heading into the game, the one knock on the Tide was their lack of a quality schedule to this point, and quite honestly those concerns were completely merited. However, Bama rolled into Baton Rouge and got a shutout in a ridiculously difficult environment, over the team who had the best resume in the country heading into last week, giving them the most impressive win out of anyone to date. The win guarantees that Alabama will be in the SEC Title game, and the rest of the country should just root for them to win out at this point, because it is looking far more likely that even if Alabama were to stumble and drop one game closing out the season, they will still be in the playoff. After-all, they made the playoff last year as a 1-loss team, and no disrespect to last year's squad, but this version looks even better.

Believe it or not, there were other games played this weekend, including another huge matchup in the SEC - where the Georgia Bulldogs took to the road to face the Kentucky Wildcats in a battle for the SEC East. Not surprisingly, the Georgia offense was just too much for Kentucky to try and keep up with, and the Bulldogs got their second straight impressive victory with a 34-17 win over the Wildcats. The win clinched the East for Georgia for the second year in a row and sets-up a huge showdown in the SEC Title game with Alabama looming. A loss by the Bulldogs in the SEC Title game would give them 2 losses and knock them from the playoff, as one important note to keep in mind is this: no team to date has lost in their Conference Champion game and still made the playoff. That being said, Georgia seems to be peaking at the right time, and moved up a spot this week to # 5, just outside of the top 4. My feeling is that it is just a matter of time before the Bulldogs work their way into the top 4 by the time the SEC Title game rolls around. We shall see.

Georgia ran past Kentucky in Lexington and into their second consecutive SEC Title game with the win

Moving on, # 2 Clemson has been on a mission in recent weeks to seemingly destroy everyone by scoring as many points as humanly possible. This week it was 77 on poor Louisville, as the Tigers hammered the Cardinals 77-16. The win keeps Clemson firmly entrenched at # 2. The overall perception of the ACC is very weak, however, and seems to be supported by the fact that a 5-4 Pittsburgh team is now in first in the ACC Coastal, ahead of Virginia, whom the Panthers just upset on the road. This development is interesting for two reasons - 1 it displays how weak the ACC is overall and hints at the fact that it doesn't matter if Clemson wins every game by 80, they can not afford a loss and still feel good about making the playoff and 2 - it actually helps Central Florida tremendously. The Knights demolished Pitt earlier in the season 45-14.

Rounding out the top 5 are the Notre Dame Fighting Irish up a spot to # 3, as they were able to pull-away from a gritty Northwestern squad late to win 31-21, and Michigan, the newcomer to the top 4, after they completely crushed what was supposed to be a quality Penn State squad 42-7 in Ann Arbor. The Wolverines are peaking at the right time, as they have been getting better and better each week. A home game against crap-tacular Rutgers, and a road game at Indiana should be plenty easy for the Wolverines to maneuver through, setting up a huge potential showdown with Ohio State to close out the regular season. At the moment, Michigan represents the best chance, and perhaps only chance for the Big Ten to get a representative in the playoff. Ohio State's struggles the last two weeks may be too much for them to overcome.

Michigan has plenty to be excited about as they thrashed Penn St. 42-7 and jumped into the Top 4

The previously mentioned Bulldogs are in at # 5, and the Oklahoma Sooners won an absolute shootout on the road over Texas Tech, 51-46. The win jumped the Sooners up two spots from 8 to 6 in this week's rankings. The top 6 seems to be pretty easy to put together at this point, but after 6 is where it starts to get really interesting...

UCF remains locked into their spot at # 7, as they once-again proved the haters wrong by defeating a very solid Temple squad last week, 52-40 at home. As more and more teams continue to lose each week and we are left with more 2 and 3-loss teams, UCF will continue to look better and better. Wins are important, they are the reason you play the game to begin with, and at some point they need to be rewarded. Before everyone references the schedule again, let us make two points - 1 - The American Athletic Conference just isn't nearly as bad this year as everyone is making it out to be. UCF, Cincinnati, South Florida, and Houston will all be going to a Bowl game, and four other squads all have a good chance at making a bowl game as well. That is a potential for 8 teams to go bowling. Look it's not the Big TEN or SEC, but it actually stacks up pretty good against the Pac-12 and even this year's ACC. 2 - They still have two difficult games remaining (South Florida & Cincinnati) and a potential matchup with Houston (who's 7-2 currently) in the AAC Title game, so they will get a boost to their strength of schedule right at the end of the year. Furthermore, with Ohio State struggling mightily to defeat a terrible Nebraska team at home last week, the Buckeye's aren't making much of a case to move much higher than 10.

The Buckeyes have a big matchup on-tap for this week at Michigan State - they will need to play much better than they have the past two weeks if they are to escape with a W

Speaking of the Buckeyes, it's fair to start picking apart their resume to this point as well. If you actually look at their schedule they have only 1 victory to date over a team with a winning record - Penn State, and that win looks a lot less sparkly after the Nittany Lions just suffered their 3rd loss of the season - a 35-point route at the hands of Michigan. The Buckeyes have a 1-point come-from-behind win over PSU, and that's it. Wins over Oregon State, Rutgers, Indiana, Tulane, Minnesota, Nebraska, and even a now 4-5 TCU, offers nothing to the Buckeye's overall resume. The Committee needs to follow their own guidelines, as Ohio State and UCF now have the same amount of victories over teams with winning records - 1. OSU rounds out the top 10 this week, up two spots to # 10.

Sandwiched between UCF and OSU are Washington State, up a spot to #8 after holding off Cal 19-13, and West Virginia, up two spots to # 9 after getting a thrilling last-second victory over Texas in Austin. The Mountaineers scored late in the game with just seconds remaining, and instead of kicking an extra point to send the game to OT, they went for two and the win. QB Will Grier's keeper gave WVU an exhilarating 42-41 victory and kept their playoff hopes alive.

Elsewhere, the Florida Gators showed they were ranked way too high in the initial CFP rankings, as the # 11 Gators (according to the committee) were shellacked at home by a previously 4-4 Missouri squad, 38-17. The Gators are a good football team, but with losses now to Georgia, and Kentucky and Missouri both at home, they have shown that they are not a great team. The loss drops Florida 7 spots in our rankings this week, from 15 down to # 22. Meanwhile, LSU settled in at # 11, Kentucky right behind at 12, Fresno State shot up 5 spots to #13 after demolishing UNLV, Utah State also moved up 5 spots, to #14 after routing Hawaii in the islands, and the Syracuse Orange are one of the big movers of the week, shooting up six spots to round-out the top 15. The Orange are now the second-highest ranked ACC team behind just Clemson.

The Syracuse Orange "jumped" 6 spots this week and into the Top 15

There was a ton of movement once again, and as noted there was a lot to digest this past week, so without any further ado, here is week 11's college football top 25:

TOP 25

1 ALABAMA (9-0)

2 CLEMSON (9-0)

3 NOTRE DAME (9-0)

4 MICHIGAN (9-0)

5 GEORGIA (8-1)

6 OKLAHOMA (8-1)

7 UCF (8-0)

8 WASHINGTON ST. (8-1)

9 WEST VIRGINIA (7-1)

10 OHIO ST. (8-1)

11 LSU (7-2)

12 KENTUCKY (7-2)

13 FRESNO ST. (8-1)

14 UTAH ST. (8-1)

15 SYRACUSE (7-2)

16 TEXAS (6-3)

17 MISSISSIPPI ST. (6-3)

18 WASHINGTON (7-3)

19 BOSTON COLLEGE (7-2)*

20 IOWA ST. (5-3)*

21 N.C. ST. (5-2)*

22 FLORIDA (6-3)

23 AUBURN (6-3)*

24 MICHIGAN ST. (6-3)*

25 UAB (8-1)*

Dropped Out: 13 Penn St., 16 Utah, 17 Houston, 20 Iowa, 23 Virginia, 24 GA SO

* - New to the rankings this week

Once again, there was a ton of movement at the backend of the rankings as Utah lost 38-20 at Arizona State and dropped from the top 25, Houston jumped into the rankings last week for the first time this season and promptly lost at SMU 45-31, to dropout this week, Iowa lost on the final play at Purdue, Virginia was upset at home by Pitt, and Georgia Southern looked awful in a 44-25 home loss to UL-Monroe. All of those developments opened the door for Boston College to jump into the rankings at 19, followed by Iowa State, who is in for the first time this year at 20 (and owns an impressive win over West Virginia by the way), N.C. St. back into the rankings at 21, the Gators at 22, Auburn moved their way back into the top 25 after dropping out back at the beginning of the season, getting to 6-3 and # 23, Michigan St. jumped back in as well at 24, and UAB got the nod at 25 over a plethora of other squads that could certainly make a claim to jump into the rankings as well. In the end, we like what the surprising 8-1 Blazers have been able to do to this point.

Iowa State bursts into the top 25 for the first time season. The Cyclones are the only team to hand West Virginia a defeat to this point

Right behind them are Cincinnati (8-1), Penn St. (6-3), Wisconsin (6-3), Iowa (6-3), and Army (7-2), representing the next group of teams just outside of the rankings. Looking ahead to this week, the playoff picture is starting to come into focus, as conceivable pathways for all 10 of the top 10 teams seem to be out there, and each game the rest of the way out will have a massive impact on shaping who will be in and out of the final 4. # 13 Fresno State visits 7-2 Boise State in what should be a great matchup in the Mountain West, # 10 Ohio State gets a chance to boost their resume as they go on the road to face # 24 Michigan St., top-ranked Alabama will welcome # 17 Mississippi St. to town in another marque game in the SEC, the Oklahoma State Cowboys will battle # 6 Oklahoma in the Bedlam rivalry showdown, # 8 Washington State visits Colorado in a tricky game, Northwestern and Iowa will battle in a game with huge implications in the Big TEN West, # 23 Auburn visits # 5 Georgia, as the Bulldogs will partake in a big-time showdown once again this week in the SEC, # 3 Notre Dame hosts a disappointing Florida State squad, and # 2 Clemson finally gets a road test in conference play, with a trip to # 19 Boston College. Will the Tigers be able to keep up their incredible play of late, or can the Eagles pull off the upset in Chestnut Hill? It's going to another busy and action - packed weekend of college football, enjoy all of the games, and be sure to check back next week for an updated top 25!