BTD Top 25 - Red Dawn

Overall Poll:

Individual Polls:

Thoughts:

Seven ranked teams lost over the weekend, Stanford, Georgia, Oklahoma, Washington, Florida, Michigan, and Northwestern. The only team to drop out was Northwestern but every team saw notable drops, Stanford and Georgia fell out of the top 10, Oklahoma dropped seven spots to 17, Washington fell five spots to 20, Florida fell four spots to 22, and Michigan dropped all the way to the very edge of the rankings, only sitting two points above Fresno State.

Missouri rocketed all the way up from unranked to 14th after defeating a depleted Georgia team. This is one where my opinion varied considerably from the other voters, as what I saw from Saturday did not impress me, neither team looked stupendous and Georgia has been ravaged by injuries right now. They absolutely deserve to be ranked but it feels like leapfrogging them above 11 other teams might be overvaluing one win a bit much.

Northern Illinois continues to climb as well, who went to a perfect 6-0 and should continue to be perfect until a showdown with Ball State later in the year. They are led by dual threat quarterback Jordan Lynch and they actually sit right above Oregon State in total offense at 16th in the country.

Louisville moved up a spot with Stanford's loss, but they saw a drop in one ranking after their mildly uninspiring win over Rutgers last Thursday. Sahr has held them at 10-12 for most of the season, and considering who they've played so far is not unjustified. To convince voters that they are more worthy style points are going to count for the Cardinals.

UCLA is also moving up with the two top ten losses, but only vote holds them down in this poll. Most of the votes were right around 10th, but Connor's vote continues to be right in the bottom of the ranks, actually moving them up to 20 this week. The top two tests for the Bruins have been Nebraska who they walloped in the second half of that game, and Utah who gave them all they could handle. They have a chance to prove themselves this weekend with a game at now 12th ranked Stanford, followed by a game at Oregon.

Wisconsin is also a subject of discourse, with three ballots at 14th, 14th, and 15th and then left off of two ballots. They have two losses, but one was a loss to Arizona State that was partially on the refs, and the other was a loss against a top 5 opponent in Ohio State. They obliterated Northwestern and moved up in the aforementioned polls, but there are not many more statement game opportunities for the Badgers.

The Beavers also made their first appearances on ballots, sitting at 25th on Andy's and meriting an "RVM vote" as well (which really just means consideration). In the AP and USA Today polls they are beginning to garner some votes, reaching 30th and 31st respectively. It is still a long road back to credibility.