The release of the first College Football Playoff rankings of the 2019 season is upon us after Week 10. 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 10 only saw one big game that was sure to impact our rankings, and that was Georgia defeating Florida in their annual border rivalry. The win put the Bulldogs at #6, back on the doorstep of the Top 4. Meanwhile Florida likely saw it’s Playoff hopes end and dropped to #10. Oregon and Utah also moved up one spot each as they scored important wins on the road against tough conference opponents. With half of the Dozen having a bye, there wasn’t much else to talk about in Week 10. Of course the big conversation following this week will be the release of the first College Football Playoff rankings. How close will the Deified Dozen voters be to the Playoff committee? History says we will have some differences (some maybe a surprise), but I think it’ll be pretty close.
What Week 10 may have lacked in noteworthy matchups, Week 11 should make up for. For starters, there is the much anticipated #1 vs #2 face-off when LSU travels to Alabama. The Tide are early TD favorites in Vegas, and if Tua Tagovailoa is healthy, that might be about right. If he isn’t, might want to think about taking the underdog Tigers. The other head-to-head matchup will see #5 Penn State travel to Minneapolis to take on #12 Minnesota. This will be the Gophers’ first real test of the season, and that it comes agains the 5th ranked team in the country is a tough way to try to get a barometer on them; but it’s a great opportunity for the Gophers to show they are for real. No other games jump off the screen, but at this time of year upsets always seem to lurk somewhere. Keep an eye on #9 Oklahoma hosting Iowa State. The last time the Cyclones went to Norman, in 2017, they left with a win.
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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.