Southeastern Conference (average rating 9.42):
Auburn (#1 122 points, 4 first place votes)
Miss State (tied for #2, 114 points)
Ole Miss (#5, 108 points)
Alabama (#8, 84 points)
Georgia (#14, 55 points)
Texas A&M (#15, 54 points)
Missouri (#21, 23 points)
Both divisions of the SEC this year are a war, the SEC West is undefeated outside of their division and the if you want to bet on who will win the SEC East, we wish you good luck. This week, the wars continue in the SEC. Texas A&M plays Ole Miss, Auburn and Mississippi State will battle it out and in the East, Georgia goes to Missouri.
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Big-12 (average rating 10):
Baylor (tied for #2, 114 points)
TCU (#7, 86 points)
Oklahoma (#11, 74 points)
Oklahoma State (#13, 56 points)
Kansas State (#17, 46 points)
This conference feels like it’s teetering on the brink of disaster. Baylor and TCU fight it out for the inside track on the conference title but the Oklahoma teams are just waiting for both of them to slip up. With the rise of the shotgun spread in this conference any team can beat any other at any time in any stadium. Except Texas. They’re a total mess.
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ACC (average rating 10):
Florida State (#4, 112 points)
Georgia Tech (#16, 47 points).
If you include Notre Dame, their average ranking jumps above the SEC but they’re not an official part of the conference. Sort of. Kind of. Obviously this conference’s rating is totally about FSU, but that upcoming FSU-Notre Dame game is schrodinger’s conference game. It’s a conference game and somehow not one.
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Big-10 (average rating 13.67):
Michigan State (#9, 80 points)
Ohio State (#18, 40 points)
Nebraska (#24, 16 points)
The craziness of the past weekend in college football should have been Michigan State (and the Big-1G)’s gain. They did rise in the rankings 1 point and spot, but they’re going to have to win out to have a chance at a playoff spot.
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Pac-12 (average rating 17):
Oregon (#10, 76 points)
Arizona (#12, 69 points)
UCLA (#20, 28 points)
Utah (#22, 21 points)
Arizona State (#23, 17 points)
The Pac-12 was rocked by upsets to Oregon, UCLA and Southern Cal but they saw some of the winners shoot up into the poll. Like the SEC, it’s almost impossible to see who will win this conference or even who will make it to the conference title game. Expect more craziness and something like a Stanford-Utah conference title game.
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AAC (average rating 19):
East Carolina (#19, 35 points).
ECU is the only team from this conference who registered in the poll. ECU might be a fun, harmless team but they’ll be playing in a big bowl game come January and your favorite team probably won’t.
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C-USA (average rating 25):
Marshall (#25, 13 points).
Amazing that them, Middle Tennessee State, Rice or FIU could make their way into a major bowl game.
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Notre Dame (#6, 101 points): They’re not really in a conference but sort of are in the ACC. It’s hard to really count them as anything in this analysis.