Beaten an AAC team at home. Think they would have moved up two places to seventh? Are you kidding me? The fucking "Leprechauns" would be in the playoff right now. Michigan moved up five places by beating Wisconsin! Ohio State moved up four by rupturing Rutgers! For beating Notre Dame in South Bend, we'll give you two, Cincinnati. Sucks.
Cincinnati has to hope for multiple losses by the teams ahead of them. If it's close, I don't expect the loser of Iowa-PSU to fall far--below Cincy, but just temporarily. Cincinnati has to hope PSU loses two of Iowa, Michigan, Ohio State and Michigan State. Certainly, if PSU loses only one in that daunting gauntlet, and having already beaten Auburn, they will be far worthier...You know PSU probably would have to lose three. Or lose one and then get upset by Rutgers or Maryland or Illinoise. Fat chance of that. Cincy has to hope Iowa loses to PSU, and then to Purdue or Wisconsin or Nebraska, Northwestern, Minnesota or Illinoise. In a vacuum that would do it, lose to a very good team and then a mediocre or worse team.
In a vacuum:
-I think voters are disgusted enough with Oklahoma that Cincy is safe from them, although the "Sooners" are right behind them at sixth. OU's marquee games are next weekend against #21 Texas, and that is a game underserving of a marquee, and then the last game of the year at twelfth Okie State. If the "Cowboys" remain unbeaten and OU beats them, shit, yeah, that would probably send OU into the playoff ahead of Cincy. Two losses, to anybody, by this Oklahoma team would disqualify them.
-Ohio State, with one loss and right now seventh, would leap Cincinnati if they win out (#4 PSU, #11 MSU, #9 Michigan). A second loss to a biggie? You know, they might. As with PSU and Iowa though, a loss to one of their dreck, Maryland, Indiana, Nebraska, Purdue would do it.
I don't see any other team with a realistic chance to supplant Cincinnati if the "Bearcats" go undefeated.
The rest of the top 25. Georgia picked up five additional first place votes from last week. It would be incorrect to say that the "Bulldogs" are "gaining" on Alabama, however. The "Tide" have fifty-three.
Bad win department: Clemson's players can celebrate their win over Boston College all they want but AP voters are not. Today, for the first time since 2014 Clem is out of the top twenty-five.
Oregon deservedly fell five places off a bad loss at Stanford.
Oklahoma State jumped seven places from beating Baylor at home. (?) Because the "Raping Bears" were ranked twenty-first. Get outta here.
Arkansas fell five, deservedly, to thirteenth.
Florida fell ten to twentieth, by far the biggest drop and still remaining in the top twenty-five.
Five teams dropped out: A&M, Clemson, Fresno, UCLA, and Baylor. Which means five moved in. Kentucky rose from unranked all the way to 16th (!) by holding off FU in Deliverance. You're not supposed to do this but I will: Kentucky was sixth among "others receiving votes" last week, which kinda sorta made 'em ranked 31st. So, a fifteen spot advance by the "Colonels."
Oh. Pisses me off. Texas moved back into the top twenty-five at 21st. Off beating TCU by five in Fort Worth. Fuck you, Texas.
Arizona State is the third newbie at 22nd. I think that's deserved. The "Devils" have one loss on the road to BYU and have trounced the Colorado "Raping Buffaloes" and yesterday the supposably number twenty UCLA "Bruins" in La-la.
Smoo entered at 24th and San Diego State 25th. The "Aztecs" didn't even play and they moved in, such is the state of things in 2021. I still think the ranking is deserved. They have beaten Power 5 Utah and admittedly awful Arizona in Tempe.
What if department: The futile, counterfactual "what if" hypothetical is one of the means invented by
Mankind to torture itself. It is also irresistible. If Pitt had won
that game, they would be in the top twenty-five right now, absolutely. And with the way this season has gone with the remaining teams on their schedule, they really should beat those on their own "Murderer's Row," Va Tech, Clemson, and Miami. If they did beat those three they'd be 8-0 heading into Duke, in the top ten, and favored to win out and go undefeated, a perfect 12-0.
that game, they would be in the top twenty-five right now, absolutely. And with the way this season has gone with the remaining teams on their schedule, they really should beat those on their own "Murderer's Row," Va Tech, Clemson, and Miami. If they did beat those three they'd be 8-0 heading into Duke, in the top ten, and favored to win out and go undefeated, a perfect 12-0. But see if they did that they wouldn't be Pitt. They wouldn't have gone an average six-and-fucking-five every year for the last forty years, they wouldn't be coached by Pat Narduzzi, Mark Whipple wouldn't be their O-coordinator, they'd have a running game, they'd have a good defense, and they'd have a roster glittering with four and five star recruits falling all over themselves to play for savant coaches. They'd be Georgia, or at least Cincinnati, and then they wouldn't be Pitt.
