Final 2011 College Football Rankings

1Alabama (12-1) – After dominating the championship game, its impossible to not put Alabama number one. Shutting out LSU is the most valuable win anyone has this season.

2LSU (13-1) – It was still the best regular season run in recent memory.

3Oklahoma St. (12-1) – I still think Oklahoma St. should have gotten a shot. Deserve should get the nod over best, even if only to ensure preseason prognostication doesn't override on field accomplishment.

4Oregon (12-2) – With a BCS bowl win, finally, Oregon has truly arrived in a way it hadn't even last season when it played for all the Tostitos.

5Arkansas (12-2) – Only two losses to the top two teams. I'm not sure if anyone else could beat Arkansas, but I'm not sure because the wins are underwhelming.

6Stanford (11-2) – With Andrew Luck on his way out the door, an era of great football at Stanford closes on a bit of a low note with the OT FG miss.

7USC (10-2) – Look out next season. The Trojans have a one year window to go for the National Title with Matt Barkley before the scholarship losses kick in.

8South Carolina (11-2) – Another SEC team that proved how good it is in the bowl game. Of course the loss to Auburn still stings as it cost South Carolina a shot at LSU and the SEC Title.

9Boise St. (12-1) – One missed kick cost Boise St. a whole lot more this season than it did last year. This year it would have been a shot at the National Title.

10Wisconsin (11-3) – Another year, another Rose Bowl loss. Will they go for three next season (doubtful).

11Michigan St. (11-3) – Winning by Hail Mary and losing round two means Michigan St. isn't as good as Wisconsin, despite a better overall resume.

12Michigan (11-2) – Losing to Michigan St. means Michigan is ranked lower, despite a better overall resume capped with a Sugar Bowl win.

13Baylor (10-3) – Robert Griffin III was great in his Heisman campaign, but how the heck did Baylor win so many games with that defense?

14Oklahoma (10-3) – Oklahoma wasn't as good as advertised in the preseason, but it was also short circuited by injuries. Maybe next year in what appears to be a down Big 12.

15Kansas St. (10-3) – And still, nobody knows how this team won 10 games. It has Colin Klein and basically nothing else.

16TCU (11-2) – Oh what might have been. TCU probably would have beaten Michigan in the Sugar Bowl, but losing to SMU cost it the opportunity.

17West Virginia (10-3) – Where was that offense all season? Or was Clemson just that bad? Either way, great performance in the Orange Bowl for West Virginia, presumably on the way out of the Big East.

18Southern Miss (12-2) – Beating Houston turned out to have some legs when the Cougars toasted Penn St. in the Zombie Cotton Bowl.

19Houston (13-1) – Case Keenum went out the way prolific quarterbacks should: in a blaze of glory against a great defense in a podunk bowl game.

20Georgia (10-4) – Georgia proved a lot this season without really proving anything. It beat the 10 worst teams it played and lost to the four best (all ranked in top 11).

21Clemson (10-4) – And thus you're still Clemson, even with a conference championship.

22Virginia Tech (11-3) – Ditto Georgia except the wins (other than the blowout over Virginia) and the losses are all worse.

23Auburn (8-5) – Somehow survived losing pretty much everyone of the National Title team of last season in one piece. Winning eight with the youth on this roster is an accomplishment.

24Nebraska (9-4) – Has a few good wins (Washington, Michigan St. and Penn St.) to go with the bizarre losses. Rankings just feels right.

25Penn St. (9-4) – Likely happy to just be done with this season.

Week 6 College Football Top 25

This is a resume ranking. I am only looking at what teams have accomplished thus far, not at what they might do ahead or what I think they will do. Believe me, if this were a traditional ranking system of the the power poll variety, Auburn wouldn't be within 20 miles of the top 25 and Kansas St., Michigan and Illinois would be ranked somewhere in the teens and maybe lower in some cases.

1 LSU (6-0) – Another week, another blowout win. Given the schedules, there is no way LSU drops out of the top spot before the Alabama game unless they lose and that's not going to happen (at Tennessee, Auburn before that)

2 Alabama (6-0) – Ole Miss and Tennessee all that remains before the big game. Just playing the string out here until then.

3 Oklahoma (5-0) – Sooners clocked Texas to move back in front of Clemson and control their own destiny in the national title chase. Win out (including the title game) and win the national title.

4 Clemson (6-0) – Poor Clemson. Finally over the yips and they are pretty much in Boise St. territory. At least should enjoy their moment the next two weeks until College Gameday shows up in Atlanta for their game against Georgia Tech.

5 Wisconsin (5-0) – Given Nebraska's struggles with Ohio St. the question must still be asked, who has Wisconsin beaten. The answer is nobody until Penn St., Illinois stretch in November (never thought I would type those words).

6 Kansas St. (5-0) – Remember that this is a resume ranking. Wildcats aren't this good in a power poll. Remember that they started 4-0 last season before being taken behind the woodshed against Nebraska.

7 Boise St. (5-0) – If Boise St. wants to win the National Title, they need to schedule more aggressively. Playing Georgia (good) and 4 non-AQs from weaker league (ouch) just won't cut it for a non-AQ team in the title chase. Only ranked in front of AQ undefeateds now because many haven't hit the meat of their schedules yet.

8 Michigan (6-0) – Wolverines have shown some vulnerabilities, but the collapse of their league means they might actually be title contenders.

9 Oklahoma St. (5-0) – The schedule actually kind of kicks in this week with the trip to Texas. Blow them up like Kansas was blown up last week, and this ranking will be much higher next week.

10 Illinois (6-0) – The fact that Zook is 6-0 just shows the sorry state of the Illinois schedule.

11 Georgia Tech (6-0) – Other than North Carolina, the best win is against Kansas. I think that says enough.

12 Stanford (5-0) – The schedule so far would be an insult to the Little Sisters of the Poor. Next week's game against Washington can't get here quick enough.

13 Arizona St. (5-1) – Sun Devils are one mind numbingly stupid loss to Illinois from a top 5 ranking (17-14 in a game that actually wasn't played at noon ET)

14 Baylor (4-1) – Defenseless Bears continue to win, blowing up Iowa St. I want to see them against a real defense though.

15 Arkansas (5-1) – Razorbacks are probably underranked here (resume or power ranking it doesn't matter). They appear headed to 10-1 going into the LSU game.

16 Oregon (4-1) – Ducks have gotten the offense in gear since the LSU debacle. The schedule gets into gear Saturday (Arizona St. visits Autzen with College Gameday along for the ride).

17 West Virginia (5-1) – Mountaineers continue to play only one half of football. That one half usually is enough, especially in the Big East.

18 Texas (4-1) – While bad, that beating was no worse than the ones suffered in 2000 or 2004 when Oklahoma was cruising to the title game.

19 Penn St. (5-1) – I can't believe they have won enough to force me to rank this team given the state of the offense (Nittany Lion games are totally unwatchable, possibly even for fans of the team).

20 Nebraska (5-1) – Well that was ugly. Take the win Nebraska and be thankful the comeback at the end was being led by Bauserman and not Braxton Miller. The defense has some major issues.

21 Washington (4-1) – Huskies are surprisingly very good. Wins over Cal and Utah are nice and the Nebraska loss was at least a game.

22 Notre Dame (4-2) – Now that the turnover machine has been fixed, Notre Dame looks really good. I expect them to be 9-2 when they head to Stanford on Thanksgiving weekend.

23 North Carolina (5-1) – Tar Heels have done well working through another year of adversity. I'm actually kind of rooting for these guys now, dirty program though it was.

24 Auburn (4-2) – Anybody with half a brain could see these guys had little chance against Arkansas. That they still might somehow cobble together 8 wins is a testament to the weakness of the SEC this season.

25 South Carolina (5-1) – With Stephen Garcia gone entirely, maybe this team can finally just play football, especially on offense where the team struggled all season until last week's 54-3 win over Kentucky.

Others

Florida (4-2) – With Tennessee's demise against Georgia, the Gators have no quality wins. The losses aren't really black marks though.

Houston (6-0) – The only win of note is a home game that was a struggle against UCLA. This will continue to be the case until the SMU game in mid-November. Despite the weakness, this schedule is not a total abomination though like the Hawaii 2007 undefeated schedule was.

Georgia (4-2) – Four straight wins, but they have been unimpressive on offense and playing against a ton of bad offenses, pumping their defensive rankings up. Probably will be in with another win this weekend though (despite playing Vanderbilt's awful offense).

Virginia Tech (5-1) – Beating Miami was a start, but the Hurricanes have a losing record at this point.

Wake Forest (4-1) – The loss to Syracuse hasn't quite been canceled out yet. Win this week and a ranking is assured (plays Virginia Tech, that ultimatum also goes for the Hokies)

Week 5 Top 25

Now that we have a few weeks of games in the books, its time for a new Top 25. I rank teams according to what they have done (resume ranking) looking only at scores, who they beat and how they have looked while doing it.

1 LSU (5-0) – Wins over Oregon, Mississippi St. and West Virginia all away from home are the best collection of wins in the country. Also, teams seem to have no hope going against the defense, even though both Oregon and West Virginia scored some points on it.

2 Alabama (5-0) – Alabama's collection of wins is nearly as good as LSU's with a road wins against Penn St. and Florida and a win over Arkansas. The Crimson Tide are edged out by a slight margin mostly because it seems they have no deep threat. Based on what we have seen so far (independent of expectations and talent level), that lack of a deep threat could be a big problem against LSU.

3 Clemson (5-0) – The big surprise of the early season, Clemson had beaten Auburn, Florida St. and Virginia Tech. The Tigers have a great offense (despite the uneven game in Blacksburg) and showed their defense is pretty good too by shutting down the Hokies on the road. Given the rest of the schedule, the question must be asked” Could schizophrenic Clemson actually go undefeated?

4 Oklahoma (4-0) – Another week, another ho hum win. The Florida St. and Missouri wins look like high quality wins and the Sooners get a shot at another this week with the Red River Shootout against Texas. That said, Missouri was way too close for comfort and could have beaten the Sooners had they played even average in the middle two quarters.

5 Wisconsin (5-0) – The Badgers are the most dominant team in the country, but other than Nebraska, Wisconsin has played a steaming pile of poo for a schedule (not entirely their fault that the wheels fell off of Oregon St. this season) and will continue to do so. Just know that Ron Zook is the biggest obstacle between the Badgers and a perfect record entering the B1G Championship Game.

6 Boise St. (4-0) – Another week, another ho hum win where the starters were out early. Sadly for Boise, the schedule is not what it has been in previous years. Georgia is not the level of Virginia Tech from last year or Oregon the year before. TCU is not what they were. There is no Oregon St. this year. There is also no real credible challenger in the Broncos new league. Given that, other than the Georgia game, non-conference games against Toledo, Nevada, Fresno St. and Tulsa aren't good enough to get this team to the National Championship barring a total collapse at the top of the polls.

7 Michigan (5-0) – The Notre Dame win is good and destroying teams 58-0 always looks good. I think they are really good, but not top 10 good in reality.

8 Oklahoma St. (4-0) – Texas A&M win looks good, but not great given the Aggies collapse against Arkansas. Arizona win looks terrible. The wheels have come off the bus there, leaving no non-conference victory of note on the resume.

9 Illinois (5-0) – The fighting Zooks have one huge win (Arizona St., my top one-loss team) and collection of unimpressive wins against middling competition and blowouts over bad teams. Given the garbage many teams have played to this point, that's good for a high ranking here even if I don't believe there is any way this keeps up.

10 Kansas St. (4-0) – Beating Miami on the road and Baylor looks very good given the lack of quality wins out there from many teams. As long as you do like I do and write off the 10-7 win over Eastern Kentucky as first game jitters and an aberration, things look good here even if there is no way the Wildcats will be beating any of the top Big 12 teams.

Rest of the Top 25 after the jump