At the conclusion of each week’s games, the staff at the Student Section will team with writers from other Bloguin sites to publish a Top 25 poll. Here’s the latest installment, with some notes and analysis about our panel’s choices.
| Rank | Team | Points |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ohio State (7) | 195 |
| 2 | Clemson (1) | 185 |
| 3 | LSU | 172 |
| 4 | TCU | 171 |
| 5 | Michigan State | 170 |
| 6 | Baylor | 169 |
| 7 | Alabama | 147 |
| 8 | Stanford | 135 |
| 9 | Iowa | 132 |
| 10 | Oklahoma State | 123 |
| 11 | Notre Dame | 121 |
| 12 | Utah | 117 |
| 13 | Memphis | 108 |
| 14 | Florida | 88 |
| 15 | Houston | 80 |
| 16 | Florida State | 71 |
| 17 | Oklahoma | 70 |
| 18 | Temple | 68 |
| 19 | Toledo | 57 |
| 20 | Michigan | 55 |
| 21 | Duke | 32 |
| 22 | Pittsburgh | 30 |
| 23 | Mississippi | 28 |
| 24 | UCLA | 18 |
| 25 | North Carolina | 16 |
| Others receiving votes: California 15, Texas A&M 8, Wisconsin 8, Northwestern 4, USC 2, Navy 2, Appalachian State 2, Mississippi State 1 | ||
| Voters: Scott King, Bart Doan, Joe Dexter, Kevin Causey, Kevin McGuire, Andrew Coppens, Allen Kenney, Terry Johnson | ||
Notes and Observations
- Managing Editor Matt Zemek will vote in this poll, but will not cast a ballot until the first Monday in November.
- Our voters were impressed with what J.T. Barrett did under center against Rutgers, as the Buckeyes captured seven of eight first-place votes and moved up significantly on the ballots where it wasn’t ranked No. 1.
- Similarly, Clemson moved up to second after it throttled Miami, 58-0.
- According to our panel, strength of schedule and quality wins are more important than overall record. That’s why Alabama and Stanford remain in front of undefeated Iowa.
- Likewise, strength of schedule matters more than margin of victory, which explains why TCU is in front of Baylor, even though the Bears’ record against common opponents looks a little bit better.
- Baylor is the most polarizing team in the rankings. Half of our voters listed the Bears in the top 4, while the other half had them lower than 10.
- Utah suffered the deepest drop this week, falling to No. 12 after getting manhandled by USC.
- Interestingly, the Utes remained in front of unbeaten Memphis. We’ll be debating whether that’s correct or not on tonight’s Blog Talk Radio Show at 10 p.m. Eastern / 7 Pacific.
