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Who would have thought that an 18-15 road win at SMU early in the football season would lift 6-0 Brigham Young into the #1 spot in my SwampSwamiSports.com College Football Top 25 rankings?
That’s because SMU hasn’t lost a game since then and is now 5-1. With a road win over a 1-loss SMU team, Brigham Young has become number one for the first time in my Top 25’s seven year history.
The Cougars blasted 3-3 Arizona 41-19 in Provo, Utah on Saturday. With the exception of a November 2nd road trip to conference rival Utah, Brigham Young’s remaining schedule looks very positive for the Cougars in its quest for a College Football Playoff berth.
Moving into the #2 position this week, the 6-0 Texas Longhorns derailed Oklahoma’s Boomer Schooner 34-3 on Saturday. Texas (which owns a win over 5-1 UL-Monroe) will now host 5-1 Georgia this Saturday night at 6:30PM CDT on ABC in its inaugural season in the SEC.
Meanwhile, OU fell to 4-2 and still has SEC games remaining with hard-luck South Carolina, at Ole Miss, at Missouri, Alabama, and at LSU. Ouch.
LSU celebrates 100th year of Tiger Stadium with a wild overtime win over Ole Miss
After a century of memorable college football games at LSU’s Tiger Stadium, Saturday night’s homecoming game against long-time rival Ole Miss featured a delicious ending for 102,000 loud and enthusiastic fans.
Ole Miss (4-2) took the early lead and never trailed in regulation during Saturday night’s game at LSU.
Overtime, though, was another matter.
The 5-1 Tigers prevailed 29-26 on a walk-off touchdown pass on LSU’s first offensive play and triggered a wild celebration by fans on the Tiger Stadium turf.
The Rebels had several early chances to put LSU into a big hole. However, 110 yards in penalties, missed scoring opportunities, and untimely turnovers allowed LSU to stay close in this game. Despite a sub-par passing game, LSU quarterback Garrett Nussmeier connected on two late touchdowns and keyed the Tigers’ late game heroics.
LSU (now 2-0 in SEC play) travels to play surprising 4-2 Arkansas this Saturday. The Tigers also broke into the SwampSwami rankings for the first time this season at #22.
Close shaves galore last Saturday for many top college football teams
In addition to LSU’s overtime win over Ole Miss, there were several other close finishes on Saturday.
Also in the SEC, it took overtime for this week’s #23 Tennessee (5-1) to take down improving Florida (3-3) by a 23-17 final score.
Likewise, this week’s #19 Alabama (5-1) team was fortunate to preserve a 27-25 win over the hard-luck South Carolina Gamecocks (now 3-3) on Saturday afternoon. The Gamecocks outgained Bama 374 yards to 313 but committed four untimely turnovers in this game. Alabama travels to Rocky Top this week to play the Volunteers on Saturday at 2:30PM on ABC.
There was a trio of close shaves in the Big Ten this week as well.
Oregon jumped to 6-0 by holding on for a 33-32 win over 5-1 Ohio State. Penn State rallied to improve to 6-0 with a 33-30 overtime win on the road over slumping 3-3 USC. Illinois (now 6-1) had to kick a game-tying field goal at the buzzer and won in overtime 50-49 against plucky 1-5 Purdue.
Army and Navy finally appear in the AP Top 25 together for first time since 1960
Those stuffy Associated Press voters finally included 6-0 Army and 5-0 Navy into their poll for the first time this week at #23 and #25 respectively.
The two service academies are now competing in the American Athletic Conference and have been a part of my rankings for the past three weeks.
I moved the Army Black Knights up to #9 and Navy’s Midshipmen at #10 this week.
Amaze your friends with this gem! Army’s current ten-game winning streak (dating back to last season) is now the nation’s longest.
This year’s annual Army vs. Navy game won’t be played until Saturday, December 14.
It would be interesting to see if both of these programs remain unbeaten and become the top two teams competing for the lone “Group of Five” slot in the 12-team College Football Playoffs.
The opening round of playoff games begins on the following Friday, December 20.
UL-Monroe wins again and enters the SwampSwami’s Top 25 for the first time ever!
Last week, we told you that UL-Monroe had improved to 4-1 for the first time since the school entered the FBS division in 1994. On Saturday in Monroe, Louisiana, the Warhawks defeated long-time foe Southern Miss 38-21 to notch another program milestone with their 5-1 start.
With that victory and the ULM’s recent win over 5-1 James Madison, the Warhawks have entered my rankings for the first time ever this week at #20.
ULM is currently alone atop the Sunbelt Conference this week with the league’s only 3-0 conference mark. The Warhawks have the week off prior to traveling to Mobile, Alabama for a Friday night, October 25th road game at 2-4 South Alabama.
With just one more victory, UL-Monroe will become eligible to play in a post-season bowl game for just the second time in the past 30 years.
Welcome to our six Top 25 newcomers this week!
In addition to #20 UL-Monroe, let’s welcome five additional 5-1 newcomers into my Top 25 this week.
The Boise State Broncos enter the rankings at #17, while Syracuse and LSU are tied at #21, Kansas State is #24, and #25 now belongs to Arizona State of the Big 12 Conference.
As a reminder, my rankings give more credit toward road wins over a team with the same record whose top victory came at home. Additional ties are broken based on the number of points in which your favorite team has defeated its top opponent of the season (through last week’s action).
Time to unveil the SwampSwamiSports.com College Football Top 25 for the week ending Saturday, October 12, 2024:
