Congrats to Georgia for winning the National Championship! They completely destroyed TCU last night, and finished undefeated, as well as being back-to-back champs. An impressive season. Also, a fantastic season for TCU. I keep seeing people say they should not have been in the playoffs because of that lopsided loss, but who knows, Georgia may have done the same thing to Alabama in the finals. They just seemed to be playing perfect football last night. When we expand to a 12-team playoff, people will complain about the 13th team being left out. Can you imagine a scenario where a team wins it all, but their only loss that year was to the team that ends up being left out of the playoffs at 13? It will happen…
Anyways, on to my final rankings of the year. I should probably start this off by saying that this is a ranking of how good the teams played at the end of the year, including the bowl game. I am not taking opt-outs into consideration. If a team lost because their QB skipped the bowl game, oh well. Also, this is not a ranking on next year’s potential (that is what a preseason ranking is for). Although, when I get to my watch list, those teams are getting a mention because of something I saw that has me excited for next season. Okay, enough talking, onto the rankings!
- Georgia (15-0)–#1–W 42-41 #4 Ohio State, W 65-7 #3 TCU
- TCU (13-2)–#3–W 51-45 #2 Michigan, L 65-7 #1 Georgia
- Michigan (13-1)–#2–L 51-45 #3 TCU
- Ohio State (11-2)–#4–L 42-41 #1 Georgia
- Alabama (11-2)–#5–W 45-20 #9 Kansas State
- Penn State (11-2)–#6–W 35-21 #8 Utah
- Tennessee (11-2)–#7–W 31-14 #11 Clemson
- Tulane (12-2)–#15–W 46-45 #10 USC
- USC (11-3)–#10–L 46-45 #15 Tulane
- Washington (11-2)–#12–W 27-20 #19 Texas
- Utah (10-4)–#8–L 35-21 #6 Penn State
- Florida State (10-3)–#13–W 35-32 Oklahoma
- Oregon (10-3)–#14–W 28-27 UNC
- Clemson (11-3)–#11–L 31-14 #7 Tennessee
- Kansas State (10-4)–#9–L 45-20 #5 Alabama
- LSU (10-4)–#16–W 63-7 Purdue
- Oregon State (10-3)–#17–W 30-3 Florida
- Troy (12-2)–#20–W 18-12 #21 UTSA
- Notre Dame (9-4)–#23–W 45-38 #18 South Carolina
- South Carolina (8-5)–#18–L 45-38 #23 Notre Dame
- Texas (8-5)–#19–L 27-20 #12 Washington
- Pitt (9-4)–NR–W 37-35 #22 UCLA
- UTSA (11-3)–#21–L 18-12 #20 Troy
- Mississippi State (9-4)–#24–W 19-10 Illinois
- UCLA (9-4)–#22–L 37-35 Pitt
Honorable Mention
Louisville (8-5)–NR–W 24-7 Cincinnati
East Carolina (8-5)–NR–W 53-29 Coastal Carolina
Fresno State (9-4)–NR–W 29-6 Washington State
Maryland (8-5)–NR–W 16-12 NC State
Texas Tech (8-5)–NR–W 42-25 Ole Miss
Watch List
Toledo (9-5)–NR–W 21-19 Liberty
Ohio (10-4)–NR–W 30-27 OT Wyoming
Minnesota (9-4)–NR–W 28-20 Syracuse
James Madison (8-3)–HM–NO BOWL
Boise State (10-4)–NR–W 35-32 North Texas
I was really stumped with what to do with the PAC-12 teams. The Trojans went up a spot in my rankings even though they lost. This is more because of who else lost in bowl games. I think that was my only quirk from the previous rankings. Other than that, I think my rankings capture where teams ended the year. Pitt finally made it back into the rankings, which should make a few of you happy.
How did each conference do in my final rankings?
ACC: 4
Big Ten: 5
Big XII: 4
SEC: 6
PAC-12: 6
AAC: 2
Sun Belt: 2
MAC: 2
MWC: 2
C-USA: 1
Ind: 1
Fun fact, there were 19 teams in my preseason rankings that did not make the final rankings (so out of the 35 teams in my preseason ranking, only 16 ended the year ranked). If my counting is correct, there were 63 different teams that made it into my rankings this year (again, counting Top 25, HM, and WL).
My favorite quote has to come from my week four post when TCU finally made the Watch List at 3-0…
The Horned Frogs have had it easy so far, but the next four weeks should be a tough gauntlet (Oklahoma, Kansas, Oklahoma State, Kansas State). If they stay undefeated, then put them in the top five.
So where do my rankings go from here? I will obviously keep doing this next season. I loved it. I may change up some formatting stuff to make it easier for myself. The hard part now is looking at recruiting class rankings, transfers, and the draft. This is like a full-time job just preparing for the preseason rankings.
