Week 9, of the college football season is in the books, and we have one more week of games before the release of the first Playoff rankings. Each week during the season our panel of experts will rank the Top 12 teams in college football. This season our panel includes:  Rob Shields, Mike Lowe, Zack Kiesel, Brian (Pedro Cerrano) McGuire, Chris (Ricker Says) Ricker, Steve Birrer, and Chris Stoner. We are looking forward to another exciting season of college football and race to the College Football Playoff.

Week 9 Saw another big upset in the top half of the Deified Dozen, features a new #1 team, and a first-ever Dozen entrant. LSU is our third top-ranked team of the season, and interestingly enough the two previous #1s (Alabama and Clemson) remain unbeaten, but lack LSU’s impressive resume. The Tigers were powered to the top spot by a big win over Auburn. The loss did not hurt the ‘other’ Tigers too badly in our rankings, dropping only three spots to #11; though it almost certainly ended their Playoff hopes. Oklahoma was the victim of a surprise upset this time around, falling at unranked Kansas State and dropping to #10. Meanwhile, Notre Dame got walloped at Michigan, and that one did cost the Irish dearly in the voters’ eyes, dropping them out of the rankings for the first time this season. Notre Dame’s downfall opened a spot for the surprise Minnesota Golden Gophers (8-0) to move into the #12 spot.

Week 10 features a big head-to-head Dozen matchup, that being The World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party; a.k.a. the annual Florida (#6) vs Georgia (#7) meeting in Jacksonville. Not much else of note in this week, as six teams have byes. Looking further ahead, four of those bye teams will square off in head-to-head matchups the following week (LSU at Alabama and Penn State at Minnesota). Do keep an eye on the two Pac-12 teams in the Dozen, as both will hit the road for tricky matchups; #8 Oregon at USC and #9 Utah at Washington.

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Mike Lowe
Mike Lowe

College Football Analyst

Mike is a Baltimore native living in Portland, OR since 2007. He currently runs his own business specializing in video production and online marketing. Prior to that he was a legal technology consultant, worked for 9 years at Johns Hopkins University and served 6 years in the Air Force. He also enjoys travel, food, beer, and is a volunteer at the Oregon Humane Society.

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