Lucky 13 Week 7

1. Texas - Beating a VERY good OU team on the road qualifies them, and only them as #1
2. Penn St - They are legit. Wisconsin is pretty bad, but they absolutely killed them. That game in Columbus will be crazy exciting.
3. OkSt - I know, this is crazy, but they looked that good on Saturday. Mizzou was legitimately at #2 last week and the Cowboys beat them on the road!
4. 'Bama - new policy...a team should never move (up or down) on a bye week. It's unfair to everyone involved. Hopefully they come out a little more spirited against an Ole Miss team that has proven it can beat the "big boys".
5. Oklahoma - I still think they would beat any team listed 6-13. Until they prove otherwise, losing to #1 in a classic game isn't that bad.
6. BYU - They rank #2, (no that's not a typo) IN THE COUNTRY in points allowed per game! Their D is hugely underrated and their offense will average 30+ for the season...not a bad combo!
7. Florida - They finally showed up! These are the Gators I've been waiting for all year. Or are my astute observations about LSU's D (see previous weeks) seeing fruition against a talented offense that finally played well? The game in Athens will really show what they are made of.
8. TTU - I am now convinced that if they played BYU they would lose. After needing OT to beat a hopeless Nebraska team (at home no less), they've got to move down.
9. Utah - Another solid win. Their offense for whatever reason seems very sporadic though...this will haunt them against TCU or BYU.
10. USC - a 28-0 win against ASU is good, but not worthy of the 5-6 spot jump they received in the other polls. ASU is falling fast and knows it, plus their best player shouldn't have even played. If they had won 49-7, then I'd move them up. Still waiting for the "it" factor/game with these guys
11. Missouri - Their weaknesses were brutally exposed. A quick, athletic team will beat them everytime. Their secondary is vulnerable and Chase Daniel can be flustered by a good D-line and blitz packages.
12. Ohio State - Their win against Purdue was less than convincing. After a big win against a good Minnesota team, they've sort of sputtered. We'll learn how tough they are this week.
13. Michigan State - I really like this team. They're tough, physical and I believe have a great shot at beating the Buckeyes on Saturday.

I didn't rank LSU because their game against UF confirmed my worries. I knew I ranked them too high. When Auburn is so frustrated they fire their OC you know their offense SUCKS. And who was their season high against (until last week)? Oh...LSU! No wonder UF (a team previously having struggles of their own) posted 50 on them!

Starting next week I am going to instigate a pretty strict policy of ranking a team based on who they can and can't beat. In other words the rankings will be less and less based on which team had a great week and looked good, and what teams are really actually GOOD. Many times this goes hand in hand. However wherever I rank a team can be interpreted as: Team X would probably beat any team ranked below them and would probably lose to any team above them. I believe 8 weeks gives me a good enough gage to make these kinds of assessments. What does "probably" mean...that's open to interpretation, but for someone who is the 95th percentile in the ESPN college Pick 'em, I'm pretty confident in my judgment.