Oh, the humanity of it all! Clemson, SwampSwami’s #1 team, went down to defeat on Friday-the-13th by a score of 34-27 at Syracuse. As a result, the #1 baton in my poll is handed to Alabama beginning this week. The “lucky” 13 unbeaten teams in college football’s FBS top division were sliced and diced (pun intended, Freddy Krueger) to just eight.
It wasn’t a good week for the state of Washington as both the UW Huskies and the Washington State Cougars played uninspired football and went down to defeat for the first time Saturday. Also, San Diego State was pummeled at home 31-14 by 4-2 Boise State while Navy’s previously unbeaten fleet was torpedoed by 5-1 Memphis. Thus ends the unbeaten dreams for five teams this weekend.
For those who aren’t familiar with my rankings (it’s getting easier now), I give preference to any currently-unbeaten team who was ranked in the final AP poll at the end of last season. After that, I give any remaining unbeaten teams preference over the 1-loss teams (which have been whittled down to 19 after this week). That is why it is a such a good week for teams not named the University of Florida (who should be burning those gawd-awful uniforms they played in Saturday night) and Florida State. Miami, South Florida, and Central Florida remained unbeaten and still reside (for this week, at least) in SwampSwami’s top echelon.
Waiting in the bullpen are 34 teams currently with two losses. Sure, a suddenly inspired 5-2 LSU beat 5-2 Auburn on Saturday, but Louisiana’s Tigers lost two weeks ago to Troy (who was beaten Saturday by 2-5 South Alabama). Nope – no teams with two losses are allowed into this poll this week!
Without further ado, below are this week’s SwampSwami Top 25 College Football rankings!
| # | Team | W | L | 2016 Final Rank | Best win this season |
| 1 | Alabama | 7 | 0 | 2 | |
| 2 | Penn State | 6 | 0 | 7 | |
| 3 | Wisconsin | 6 | 0 | 9 | |
| 4 | South Florida | 6 | 0 | 19 | |
| 5 | Miami (Fla) | 5 | 0 | 20 | |
| 6 | TCU | 6 | 0 | Beat 5-1 Okie State 44-31 @ OSU | |
| 7 | Georgia | 7 | 0 | Beat 5-1 Notre Dame 20-19 @ ND | |
| 8 | UCF | 5 | 0 | Beat 3-3 Maryland 38-10 @ MD | |
| 9 | Notre Dame | 5 | 1 | Beat 5-1 Michigan St. 38-18 @ MSU | |
| 10 | Clemson | 6 | 1 | Beat 5-1 Virginia Tech 31-17 @ VT | |
| 11 | Oklahoma | 5 | 1 | Beat 6-1 Ohio State 31-16 @ Ohio St | |
| 12 | Michigan State | 5 | 1 | Beat 5-1 Michigan 14-10 @ Mich. | |
| 13 | Washington State | 6 | 1 | Beat 5-1 USC 30-27 at home | |
| 14 | Oklahoma State | 5 | 1 | Beat 4-2 Texas Tech 31-24 @ T.Tech | |
| 15 | Virginia Tech | 5 | 1 | Beat 4-2 W. Virginia 31-24 at home | |
| 16 | USC | 6 | 1 | Beat 5-2 Stanford 42-24 at home | |
| 17 | San Diego State | 6 | 1 | Beat 5-2 Stanford 20-17 at home | |
| 18 | Kentucky | 5 | 1 | Beat 5-2 S.Carolina 23-13 @ S.Car. | |
| 19 | Ohio State | 6 | 1 | Beat 4-2 Army 38-7 @ home | |
| 20 | NC State | 6 | 1 | Beat 4-3 Louisville 39-25 at home | |
| 21 | Michigan | 5 | 1 | Beat 3-3 Purdue 28-10 @ Purdue | |
| 22 | Memphis | 5 | 1 | Beat 5-1 Navy 30-27 at home | |
| 23 | Navy | 5 | 1 | Beat 3-3 Tulane 23-20 at home | |
| 24 | Washington | 6 | 1 | Beat 4-3 Cal 38-7 at home | |
| 25 | Virginia | 5 | 1 | Beat 4-2 Duke 28-21 at home |