Texas Tech finally overcame the Crimson Tide, and it looks like the Red Raiders can thank their Big XII comrades and the Florida Gators for it happening. Tech, which didn't even play last week prior to its showdown against Oklahoma this Saturday, moved up to No. 1 for the first time ever. The Red Raiders did it with only seven first place votes - half that of Alabama - and two less first place votes than last week.
The groundswell against the Tide had been growing. Over the past three weeks, Texas Tech went from trailing Alabama by seven total points, than by one, to finally leading the Tide by eight points in this week's poll. The big difference appears to be the respect given
to Florida and the other Big XII South teams, as the Gators topped six pollster's ballots, the most Florida has ever received.And just as important as Florida taking away those first place votes, Alabama was ranked outside of the top 2 in six of the 27 polls, with their lowest ranking coming in at No. 6. Texas Tech's lowest ranking was No. 3, which only showed up in two polls. This disparity allowed for the Red Raiders to finally overtake the Tide.
Other than the change at the top, the rest of the top 9 stayed the same, as Florida comes in at No. 3, followed by Texas, Oklahoma, USC, Penn State, Utah and Boise State. Ohio State moved up two spots to round out the top 10.
Oklahoma State fell one spot to No. 11, followed by Missouri. Georgia, which narrowly held off an upset bid by rival Auburn 17-13, fell two spots to No. 13. Ball State held the No. 14 ranking for the second straight week. The Cardinals travel to Central Michigan on Wednesday to face one of it's biggest challenges of the season. BYU jumped into the poll for the first time since losing to TCU in week 8. Michigan State remained in the poll at No. 16.
North Carolina, which fell to Maryland 17-15, dropped from the rankings.
The SEC is simply not as good as it has been over the past few years, yet it still gets the same respect that it was getting when Tennessee, Georgia, and LSU were tearing things up. The fact is those three teams are not “great” this year, and Tennessee is just flat out bad.
ReplyDeleteAlabama eventually put away a way below average Mississippi State squad in the second half Saturday night. But they definitely didn’t look like a #1 team. In fact, they haven’t looked like a #1 team on multiple occasions this season. (Tulane, Kentucky, Ole Miss). The dominating wins over Georgia and Clemson do not look as impressive now as they did then and LSU is definitely not firing on all cylinders (Troy).
Texas Tech is having one hell of a season so far. That win over Texas was very impressive even though UT basically shot itself in the foot on multiple occasions; and to come back the next weekend and HAMMER Oklahoma State like it did definitely puts them in the top spot for me. If they can beat Oklahoma this weekend EVERYONE should put them in the top spot.
I’m still not jumping on the Tebow/Florida bandwagon. Big f’n deal…they hammered an extremely overrated South Carolina squad. The media love-circus is annoying. We’ll see how good they really are when they play this weekend against……The Citadel. Seriously though, if they smoke FSU and Alabama then I’ll hop on. But until then they will continue to be the team that lost to Ole Miss at home.
1. Texas Tech
2. Alabama
3. Florida