Ohio State, Clemson, and LSU, each with an 11-0 record continue to expand the distance from them to the rest of the pack in our system’s Top 25 rankings for Week 14. In fact, the margin of those top three is nearly twice what it was for the leaders last season at the same time.
All three are ranked the same as last week as are the next four except that #6 Utah (10-1) and #7 Oklahoma (10-1) are up two spots after #10 Penn State (9-2) and #12 Oregon (9-2) each lost.
Utah’s path to the National Football Playoff is still cluttered but much less than before and it is clear enough that upsets in conference championship games might push the Utes into the College Football Playoff.
Baylor’s (10-1) win over Texas (6-5) was predicted by our system and the benefit for BU fans is that the Bears made the biggest jump in our rankings, going from 20th to 15th.
Wake Forest (8-2), USC (8-4), and Virginia (8-3) re-entered the top 25 this week, displacing SMU (9-2), which lost in a predicted upset, San Diego State (8-3), a team that will lose twice more before the season ends, and Louisiana Tech (8-3) since the Bulldogs have notched eight negative performance trends in just the past two weeks.
In the PAC-12 . . .
Last week, we said that while our system had Oregon higher ranked, Utah was the only PAC-12 team with metrics worthy of the NFP.
This week, Utah is the only PAC-12 team with a chance to even get there after Oregon stumbled at Arizona State (6-5) and the only other Conference team in the rankings is #24 USC.
After that, it’s a long fall to #38 Washington and #41 Washington State, both at 6-5.
Our full PAC-12 rankings:
| 1 | Utah | 10 | 1 |
| 2 | Oregon | 9 | 2 |
| 3 | USC | 8 | 4 |
| 4 | Washington | 6 | 5 |
| 5 | Washington St. | 6 | 5 |
| 6 | Arizona St. | 6 | 5 |
| 7 | California | 6 | 5 |
| 8 | Colorado | 5 | 6 |
| 9 | Oregon St. | 5 | 6 |
| 10 | Stanford | 4 | 7 |
| 11 | UCLA | 4 | 7 |
| 12 | Arizona | 4 | 7 |
Our Index was 49-15 in predicting games last week and now stands 592-180 (77%) for the season.
To see all of our rankings, predictions, and commentary, please visit us here.
Our national Top 25
- Ohio State 11-0
- Clemson 11-0
- LSU 11-0
- Alabama 10-1
- Georgia 10-1
- Utah 10-1
- Oklahoma 10-1
- Notre Dame 9-2
- Michigan 9-2
- Penn State 9-2
- Florida 9-2
- Oregon 9-2
- Minnesota 10-1
- Boise State 10-1
- Baylor 10-2
- Memphis 10-1
- Wisconsin 9-2
- Cincinnati 10-1
- Appalachian State 10-1
- Iowa 8-3
- Auburn 8-3
- Virginia Tech 8-3
- Wake Forest 8-2
- USC 8-4
- Virginia 8-3
