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After the horrible damage done by Hurricane Helene a little more than one week ago, there is yet another hurricane gaining strength in the Gulf of Mexico this week.
By late Wednesday, Hurricane Milton appears to be on a collision course with the west coast of Florida.
With all of this tragic weather news, a different type of Hurricane was actually welcomed back to the state of Florida on Sunday.
The University of Miami made its triumphant return to the Sunshine State after beating California 39-38 with a lightning-quick second half comeback late Saturday night at Berkeley.
Playing on the road and down 35-10 to Cal in the third quarter, the Miami Hurricanes rallied to score 29 more points and win the game. The victory moved the Canes to 6-0 on the year and into the top spot in this week’s SwampSwamiSports.com College Football Top 25.
This is Miami’s first week ever to be #1 in the seven-year history of my rankings. Congratulations!
Why did Texas drop from #1 to #5 this week?
My #1 team for the past two weeks, the Texas Longhorns, slid all the way back to #5 this week. The 5-0 Horns had a bye week as they get ready to play long-time foe Oklahoma (4-1) in the annual State Fair Game this coming Saturday in Dallas.
My ranking system gives the most credit to unbeaten teams which have the highest number of wins at the end of every week. That means that 6-0 Miami and surprising 6-0 Indiana jumped ahead of 5-0 Texas after last weekend’s games.
The Longhorns also lost ground after Michigan lost its second game this season to drop to 4-2. The road win by Texas at Michigan early this season has lost importance. Texas has to fight for position within this week’s group of nine 5-0 teams. In my rankings, ties are broken by examining the record of each team’s “best win” so far this season.
The group evaluation has 5-0 BYU (which has defeated 5-1 SMU) moving to the #3 slot. Oregon (which won at 4-1 Oregon State earlier this season) climbed up to #4. The Ducks are one place ahead of Texas as the Longhorns’ top win is now a home victory over surprising 4-1 UL-Monroe.
Vandy and Arkansas are still celebrating their huge SEC wins
The Vanderbilt Commodores outplayed the AP’s #1 team, Alabama, from start to finish in a 40-35 shocker in Nashville Saturday afternoon. If you missed this gem of a college football game, Vanderbilt quarterback Diego Pavia flawlessly engineered the Vandy offense from start to finish. The Commodores led throughout and had the ball for 42 minutes to just 18 for Bama.
After the game, jubilant Vandy fans tore down one of the goal posts and then carried it three miles from the campus to the Cumberland River near downtown Nashville.
The win by Vanderbilt (now 3-2) was their first in school history over a top-5 team in 60 tries. Alabama dropped to 4-1 and has joined seven other SEC teams with one loss through last weekend’s play.
Another formerly unbeaten team, the Tennessee Volunteers apparently left their offense in Knoxville as Arkansas (now 3-2) completed a 19-14 win at Fayetteville Saturday night. Like Vanderbilt, the Hogs outplayed their opponent and deserved the win. Tennessee dropped to 4-1.
What’s happened to 1-5 Kansas and 1-5 Florida State?
Both of these two teams were expected to compete for their respective conference championships before the start of the 2024 college football season.
After Kansas won its first game against small division Lindenwood, the Jayhawks have now lost five consecutive games by margins of just 6, 3, 4, 11, and 4 points. Kansas has gone from a pre-season favorite to a late-season spoiler entering its final six games.
Meanwhile, Florida State’s football season continues to spiral out of control, too.
Last year’s 13-1 Seminoles are now just 1-5 in 2024 after last Saturday’s 29-13 home loss to 4-1 Clemson. Despite playing five of its first six games at home in Tallahassee, Florida State’s only win of the year came in a close 14-9 victory over 3-2 California.
With games including 6-0 Miami, 5-1 Duke, 5-1 Notre Dame, and intrastate rival Florida still remaining, Florida State is quite likely to finish 2024 with a losing record and a very disappointing season.
On a happier note, let’s hear it for 4-1 UL-Monroe!
The Warhawks from Monroe, Louisiana moved up into the FBS large school division beginning in 1994. They have played in just one bowl game during that 30-year span.
On Saturday night, ULM took down previously unbeaten James Madison 21-19 to move to 4-1 for the first time since the school moved up in football classification.
The team formerly known as the Northeast Louisiana Indians finished the 2023 season with a woeful 2-10 record after losing ten straight games to finish the year. The team fired head coach Tommy Bowden and replaced him with a relatively unknown coach named Bryant Vincent.
Vincent was a long-time offensive coach at South Alabama, UAB, and New Mexico. With the coach’s background on offensive, it is a bit surprising that the Warhawks’ defense has been the primary reason for this program’s vast improvement in 2024. Other than the team’s $1 million “payday game” road trip loss at the University of Texas, ULM’s defense has allowed just 14 points per game in its four wins.
UL-Monroe (a fast-rising #28 in my rankings this week) plays its homecoming game this Saturday afternoon at 4PM CDT at Malone Stadium against long-time Sunbelt foe, Southern Miss. The game will be televised nationally on ESPN+.
In summary…
There are now just 12 unbeaten football programs in the 134-team FBS major college group after six weeks of the 2024 season.
Four teams (Indiana, Oregon, Penn State, and Ohio State) reside in the Big Ten Conference. Another two hail from the ACC (Miami and Pitt), two from the Big 12 (BYU and Iowa State), and two are in the American (Navy and Army). Who would have believed that only one team (Texas) hails from the SEC, while the other unbeaten team (Liberty) plays in Conference USA.
There are currently 36 more teams sporting just one loss.
With 12 spots up for grabs in the College Football Playoffs, a 2-loss team like Michigan may have trouble receiving one of those dozen invitations even if it runs the table in the second half of the year.
Since the AP Poll is a glorified beauty contest, its voters still think 4-2 Michigan (losses to 6-0 Texas and 4-2 Washington) is deserving of a #24 ranking ahead of unbeaten teams like Navy, Army, and Liberty. Go figure.
Let’s reveal the latest SwampSwamiSports.com College Football Top 25 rankings for the week ending Saturday, October 5, 2024:
