Blue Through and Through is the only rating service that has had Oregon ranked #1 in each of our released Top 25's.  The Ducks weathered a storm on the road at Wisconsin, pulling out a 16-13 victory.

BYU dropped from the list of the unbeatens with a stinging 17-13 loss at the hands of Kansas.  That bad loss forces the Cougars to take a pretty harsh tumble in the rankings.  That loss is as bad as any one-loss team except for Notre Dame, which lost to Northern Illinois.  SMU, because they lost to BYU, must also fall with the Cougars' loss and be ranked behind them (SMU's loss was worse than originally factored in.)

Washington State found out something Boise State has known for a long time, that the Mountain West is a pretty good conference, one in which any team can beat you in any given week.  The Cougars tumbled from #10 to #22 with their loss to New Mexico and Boise State would have fallen as a result if not for the BYU loss.  Logic tells us that the Broncos should not be ranked as high now that their biggest win lost some of its luster.  Still, Boise State owns two wins over Top 25 teams without any bad losses.

Georgia's victory over Tennessee also did something very interesting in the rankings, requiring us as well as any person voting in a national poll to take another look at which order they rank the teams.  You remember that logically, teams with the same record have to be ranked below any team they lost to.  However, sometimes the results show mixed results within a triangle--in other words, Team A beat Team B and Team B beat Team C, but Team C beat Team A.

Logic would tell us that Team A should be ahead of Team B and Team B should be ahead of Team C, however Team C threw a monkey wrench into making things too easy with it's win over Team A.  That is what we have with Tennessee, Alabama, and Georgia.  Tennessee beat Alabama and Alabama beat Georgia.  But Georgia beat Tennessee.

The head-to-head results don't resolve the tie among those three teams.  So logic would tell us that in ranking those three teams, one has to evaluate them the way one would any other three teams with the same record--not their head-to-head results but the quality of their overall resumes.  Namely, that means looking at how good their impressive wins are and how bad their bad losses are, if any.  Georgia's win over Clemson does require ranking the Bulldogs ahead of the Tigers, however.

The regular tie-breaker of head-to-head results applies to all others except Tennessee, Alabama and Georgia.

Alabama is the team that benefits most from this, as their loss to Tennessee necessitated being ranked below the Volunteers, who are kept down by their loss to Arkansas.  The circular reasoning of the three teams' results now frees up Alabama to be ranked much higher, as the Tide has two impressive wins and no bad losses, even allowing them to pass up one-loss teams Texas (without any impressive wins) and Miami of Florida (with a bad loss).

LSU's fourth loss drops them out of consideration and thus takes away impressive wins from anyone who beat them and penalizes anyone who lost to them.

The nation's coaches and media were surprised that Kansas State lost to Arizona State, not realizing that the Wildcats had a bad loss to Houston this year and should not have been ranked all the way up at #16.We had them at the more logical #21.

It's a sign of accurate rankings when #26 Missouri loses and yet moves up to #25 as six teams around them lost as well and no one behind the Tigers was strong enough to pass them.

Pittsburgh, LSU, Navy and Louisville all dropped out of consideration--wise pollsters will now go back and diminish wins over all four and penalize teams that lost to them.  Affected teams in the rankings are Alabama, Miami of Florida, SMU, Texas A&M, Notre Dame, Mississippi, South Carolina, Tulane and Memphis.

1-1-1-1-1-1.  Oregon 10-0, held off Wisconsin 16-13, (Impressive Wins:  Beat #2 Ohio State, #4 Boise State, and #27 Illinois, Losses:  None, Bad Losses:  None) 

10-13-9-6-3-2.  Ohio State 9-1, pounded Northwestern 31-7, (Impressive Wins:  Beat #5 Penn State, Lost to #1 Oregon, Bad Losses:  None)

4-5-4-4-5-3.  Indiana 10-0, was idle this week, (Impressive Wins:  None, Biggest Win:  Beat Nebraska, Losses:  None, Bad Losses:  None)

7-7-7-7-4-4.  Boise State 9-1, impressively came from behind for a 42-21 win over San Jose State, (Impressive Wins:  Beat #19 UNLV and #22 Washington State, Lost to #1 Oregon, Bad Losses:  None)

3-3-3-9-7-5.  Penn State 9-1, ripped Purdie 49-10,  (Impressive Wins: #27 Illinois, Lost to #3 Ohio State, Bad Losses:  None)

17-19-16-13-8-6.  Army 9-0, did not play, (Impressive Wins:  None, Biggest Win:  Beat North Texas, Losses:  None, Bad Losses:  None)

22-32-21-17-12-7.  Alabama 8-2, beat up on Mercer 52-7, (Impressive Wins:  Beat #15 Georgia and #25 Missouri, Lost to #17 Tennessee and #18 South Carolina, Bad Losses:  None)

6-18-17-14-10-8.  Texas 9-1,downed Arkansas 20-10, (Impressive Wins:  None, Biggest Win:  Beat Oklahoma, Lost to #15 Georgia, Bad Losses:  None)

2-2-2-2-2-9.  BYU 9-1, lost a heartbreaker to Kansas, 17-13, (Impressive Wins:  Beat #10 SMU and #28 Kansas State, Lost to Kansas, Bad Losses:  Kansas)

11-14-12-5-6-10.  SMU 9-1, prevailed over Boston College 38-28, (Impressive Wins:  None, Biggest Wins:  Pittsburgh and Louisville, Lost to #9 BYU, Bad Losses:  None)

14-6-6-3-13-11.  Miami of Florida 8-1, did not play,,  (Impressive Wins:  None, Biggest Win:  Beat Louisville, Losses:  Lost to Georgia Tech, Bad Losses:  Georgia Tech)

32-25-19-16-14-12.  Notre Dame 9-1, took care of Virginia 35-14 (Impressive Wins:  Beat #13 Texas A&M, Lost to Northern Illinois, Bad Losses:  Lost to Northern Illinois)

33-26-20-18-16-13.  Texas A&M 8-2, throttled New Mexico State 38-3,  (Impressive Wins:  Beat #25 Missouri, Lost to #12 Notre Dame and #18 South Carolina, Bad Losses:  None)

37-36-33-28-19-14.  Mississippi 8-2, did not play, (Impressive Wins:  Beat #15 Georgia 28-10 and #18 South Carolina, Lost to LSU and Kentucky, Bad Losses:  LSU and Kentucky)

23-12-11-11-20-15.  Georgia 7-2, beat #17 Tennessee, (Impressive Wins:  Beat #8 Texas, #16 Clemson and #18 Tennessee, Lost to #7 Alabama and #14 Mississippi, Bad Losses:  None)

24-21-18-19-21-16.  Clemson 8-2, beat Pittsburgh 24-20, (Impressive Wins:  None, Biggest Win:  Beat #31 Pittsburgh, Lost to #15 Georgia and Louisville, Bad Losses:  Louisville)

21-17-14-12-11-17.  Tennessee 8-2, lost to #15 Georgia, (Impressive Wins:  Beat #7 Alabama, Lost to Arkansas, Bad Losses:  Arkansas)

_-37-34-29-29-18. South Carolina 7-3, outlasted #25 Missouri 34-30, (Impressive Wins:  #13 Texas A&M and #25 Missouri, Lost to #7 Alabama, #14 Mississippi and LSU,  Bad Losses:  LSU)

31-28-30-26-18-19.  UNLV 7-2, ripped San Diego State 41-20,  (Impressive Wins:  None, Biggest Win:   Kansas, Lost to #4 Boise State and Syracuse, Bad Losses:  Syracuse)

_-_-_-32-26-20. Tulane (9-2) blanked Navy 35-0,  (Impressive Wins:  #26 Louisiana, Lost to #28 Kansas State and Oklahoma, Bad Losses:  Oklahoma

_-31-25-24-25-21 Colorado 8-2, blasted Utah 49-24, (Impressive Wins:  None, Biggest Wins:  Beat Cincinnati and Texas Tech, Lost to #28 Kansas State and Nebraska, Bad Losses:  Nebraska)

8-10-10-10-9-22.  Washington State 8-2, was shocked by New Mexico 38-35, (Impressive Wins:  None:  Biggest Win:  Beat Texas Tech, Lost to #4 Boise State and New Mexico, Bad Losses:  New Mexico)

19-35-32-27-32-24.  Arizona State 8-2, surprised #28 Kansas State 24-14, (Impressive Wins:  Beat #28 Kansas State, Lost to Cincinnati and Texas Tech, Bad Losses:  Cincinnati and Texas Tech)

34-29-26-21-26-25. Missouri 7-3, fell to #19 South Carolina 34-30 (Impressive Wins:  None, Biggest Win:  Beat Vanderbilt, Lost to #7 Alabama, #13 Texas A&M and #18 South Carolina, Bad Losses:  None)

Dropped Out of Top 25: 

Louisiana, Kansas State, Pittsburgh, Louisville

Also Considered:

_-_-_-31-15-26. Louisiana (8-2) lost to South Alabama 24-22 (Impressive Wins:  None, Biggest Win:  Wake Forest, Lost to #20 Tulane and South Alabama, Bad Losses:  South Alabama)

12-8-15-34-30-27.  Illinois 7-3, beat Michigan State 38-16,  (Impressive Wins:  None, Biggest Wins:   Beat Nebraska, Lost to #1 Oregon, #5 Penn State and Minnesota, Bad Losses:  Minnesota)

18-15-13-23-24-28.  Kansas State 7-3, lost to #24 Arizona State 24-14,   (Impressive Wins:  Beat #20 Tulane and #21 Colorado, Lost to #10 BYU, #24 Arizona State and Houston, Bad Losses:  Houston)

Dropped Out of Consideration:

Pittsburgh, LSU, Navy and Louisville