1. Southeastern Conference (Average rating 7.4)
#1 Mississippi State (123 points, 3 First place votes)
#4 Ole Miss (113 points)
#9 Georgia (84 points)
#11 Alabama (76 points)
#12 Auburn (69 points)
It borders on amazing that nearly half of the top 12 are SEC teams, but then again the SEC West is undefeated outside of their own division. And most of the SEC east's losses on the season have been against the SEC west.
2. Big 12 (average rating 11.4)
#2 Baylor (115 votes, 1 first place vote)
#7 Oklahoma (96 points)
#10 TCU (79 points)
#14 Oklahoma State (53 points)
#16 Kansas State (39 points)
The Big 12 is nothing to sneeze at this year, even with the decline of the Texas teams outside of Baylor. And even despite the crazy upsets, there’s still a lot of power in this bunch.
3. The American (average rating 15)
#15 East Carolina (40 points)
They survived against South Florida but circle that game against Central Florida. That could be for a major bowl game.
4. Big 10 (average rating 15.5)
#5 Michigan State (112 points)
#13 Ohio State (65 points)
#20 Nebraska (18 points)
#23 Iowa (14 points)
Iowa is 5-1 and gathering votes and Ohio State is slowly rising, but this conference is mostly harmless.
5. Atlantic Coast Conference (average rating 16)
#3 Florida State (114 points, 1 first place vote)
#22 Clemson (15 points)
#23 Duke (14 points).
They’re still being carried by the Seminoles, but the rest of the conference is an utter joke.
6. Pacific 12 (average rating 17.8)
#8 Oregon (93 points)
#17 Arizona (37 points)
#18 Arizona State (31 points)
#21 Utah (21 points)
#25 Stanford (13 points)
Unless Oregon wins out, and even they do, its a fair question whether the Pac 12 will get a playoff spot.
7. Conference USA (average rating 19)
#19 Marshall (19 points)
There’s a lot of speculation that Marshall’s head coach is aiming to replace West Virginia’s head coach.
Independent: #6 Notre Dame (105 points).
Also receiving votes: Kentucky (11), Texas A&M (8), LSU (7), Southern Cal (7), Georgia Tech (4), Colorado State (4), Wisconsin (3), Central Florida (3), Louisville (2), South Carolina (2), Minnesota (2), and Arkansas (1)