Josh’s College Football Rankings 2024–Week 13

A crazy weekend for ranked teams! Alabama, Ole Miss, Texas A&M all lost to weaker SEC foes. Fortunately the other ranked SEC teams had tough games against teams like UTEP, UMass, and Wofford. Penn State almost lost to Minnesota, Rutgers came close to taking out Illinois. Colorado and BYU lost, and probably ruined the Big XII’s playoff hopes. Army found out that Notre Dame is for real. Ohio State silenced Indiana. Clemson beat The Citadel. 

Okay, I think something people forget is that winning on the road against conference opponents can be difficult. Throw records out the window when two conference rivals battle. The talking heads on ESPN keep blathering about resumes and quality losses, but ignore just how difficult it is to win each week. Crazy things can happen, players can have a bad day. If Notre Dame did not have a terrible week against Northern Illinois, we would all be talking about how it is insane that the best the Irish can do in the playoffs is a fifth seed. Since then, they have been dominant. I am sure if they played NIU again, it would be 66-3. 

I think what frustrates me is that people keep shitting on the Big Ten, but they play nine conference games (same with the Big XII), as opposed to the eight played by the SEC and ACC. I hope the playoff committee thinks about that when doing their rankings. I am sure they do, and if they do not, they should call me, I will happily join the committee. 

1. Oregon (11-0)–#1–BYE
2. Ohio State (10-1)–#2–W 38-15 #4 Indiana. The defense dominated the Hoosiers. The Buckeyes added a late TD, so the score looks more lopsided, but OSU controlled this game.
3. Texas (10-1)–#3–W 31-14 Kentucky. At least the Longhorns handled their conference opponent with ease.
4. Penn State (10-1)–#5–W 26-25 Minnesota. I thought about dropping the Nittany Lions due to their poor performance against the Gophers, but all those losses kept them in the top four.
5. Notre Dame (10-1)–#7–W 49-14 #16 Army
6. Georgia (9-2)–#6–W 59-21 UMass
7. Miami (10-1)–#10–W 42-14 Wake Forest. The Hurricanes benefit from a bunch of losses, but I am not convinced they are a top ten team.
8. SMU (10-1)–#11–W 33-7 Virginia. What a crazy year it would be if all four P4 conference champs are new teams (Oregon, Arizona State, SMU, Texas)…
9. Tennessee (9-2)–#12–W 56-0 UTEP
10. Indiana (10-1)–#4–L 38-15 #2 Ohio State. Win next week and they should be in the playoffs.
11. Boise State (10-1)–#15–W 17-13 Wyoming
12. Ole Miss (8-3)–#8–L 24-17 Florida
13. Clemson (9-2)–#17–W 51-14 The Citadel
14. Arizona State (9-2)–#21–W 28-23 #14 BYU
15. Alabama (8-3)–#9–L 24-3 Oklahoma
16. South Carolina (8-3)–#19–W 56-12 Wofford
17. Tulane (9-2)–#20–BYE
18. Illinois (8-3)–#23–W 38-31 Rutgers
19. Texas A&M (8-3)–#13–L 43-41 4OT Auburn
20. Iowa State (9-2)–#22–W 31-28 Utah
21. BYU (9-2)–#14–L 28-23 #21 Arizona State
22. Missouri (8-3)–#24–W 39-20 Mississippi State
23. Duke (8-3)–HM–W 31-28 Virginia Tech
24. Colorado (8-3)–#18–L 37-21 Kansas
25. Army (9-1)–#16–L 49-14 #7 Notre Dame

Honorable Mentions

• Kansas State (8-3)–HM–W 41-15 Cincinnati
• Syracuse (8-3)–HM–W 31-24 UConn
• UNLV (9-2)–HM–W 27-16 San Jose State
• Louisville (7-4)–NR–W 37-9 #25 Pitt
• Georgia Tech (7-4)–HM–W 30-29 NC State
• Baylor (7-4)–HM–W 20-10 Houston
• LSU (7-4)–NR–W 24-17 Vanderbilt
• Iowa (7-4)–NR–W 29-13 Iowa
• Pitt (7-4)–#25–L 37-9 Louisville
• Washington State (8-3)–HM–L 41-38 Oregon State

Watch List 
The final week of the regular season, which means we have some fantastic rivalry games. But, I need to mention the big games on Tuesday night…Kent State at Buffalo. The Golden Flashes have the chance to end up 0-12, which would be the first team to go winless since Akron did it in 2019 (I do not count 2020 since that was a weird year, and a bunch of teams played like five games). Only 15 teams have gone 0-12 in FBS history (lots of winless teams, especially in the earlier era of 10 or 11 games). Try to avoid this prestigious club Kent State.

Thursday night there is a solid AAC matchup of Memphis at #17 Tulane. Then on Friday Oregon State heads to #11 Boise State. The Broncos have the chance to beat both Pac-02 teams, does that make them the champs of that conference too? 

Here are some of the rivalry games:
Egg Bowl–Mississippi State at #12 Ole Miss
Clean, Old-Fashioned Hate–Georgia Tech at #6 Georgia
The Game–Michigan at #2 Ohio State
Palmetto Bowl–#16 South Carolina at #13 Clemson
Duel in the Desert–#14 Arizona State at Arizona
Notre Dame-USC–#5 Notre Dame at USC
Tennessee-Vanderbilt–#9 Tennessee at Vanderbilt (can we get a fun name for this? Comedians Cup-Nate Bargatze vs. Josh Mancuso)
Iron Bowl–Auburn at #15 Alabama
Farmageddon–Kansas State at #20 Iowa State
Battle on the Bayou–Louisiana at ULM
Battle Line Rivalry–Arkansas at #22 Missouri
Kentucky-Louisville–Louisville at Kentucky
Florida-Florida State–Florida at Florida State (should probably call this the Letdown Cup)
Battle for Nevada–Nevada at UNLV (winner gets the Fremont Cannon!)
Oregon-Washington–Washington at #1 Oregon (considered one of the great rivalries, yet no fun name or trophy–LAME)
Lone Star Showdown–#3 Texas at #19 Texas A&M

Coaching Hot Seat
Kalen DeBoer will not be fired, but fans will are not going to be happy after that loss to Oklahoma. All three of his losses this year have come to teams ranked lower than the Crimson Tide. Nick Saban only had 23 losses against lower/unranked teams. The Sooners had a rough season (I think injuries took the toll early on, but they are starting to get players back), and this is a game the Tide should have won easily, and yet they lost. Not only that, they were dominated. Oklahoma rushed for 257 yards. Milroe threw three interceptions. It was a bad game for ‘Bama.

Awful Losses
Washington State lost to Oregon State by a field goal. The Cougs had a chance to get to 9-2, but they fumbled the ball and gave the Beavers a chance to get into field goal range. The worst part? It was 4th and 6 at the 45, Oregon State completes a pass for seven yards to get the first down. If the Cougs stop that play, they get the ball back and go to overtime. Or have a chance to score themselves with a minute to go.