Week 3 is done, and we are nearly at the quarter-pole of the 2019 college football season. 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.
There was not much movement between Weeks 2 and 3, as most of the upsets involved teams ranked lower in various Top 25 polls. No one dropped out of our Dozen, and thus no new teams are in. In fact, our 1-8 teams are in the exact same order as last week. We did see Florida and Penn State drop a bit due to less-than-inspiring wins at home against lesser opponents. Michigan and Utah were the beneficiaries, inching up one and two spots, respectively.
Week 4 will feature several attractive matchups, the most anticipated being #3 Georgia hosting #8 Notre Dame. The result of the 2017 matchup between the two was a 1-point game, and many hope this will be just as close. If our rankings were a baker’s dozen, we’d have two head-to-head matchups this week when #9 Michigan travels to Wisconsin, but the Badgers fell short a few votes of cracking our rankings. Still, it should be a very interesting game. Auburn faces a big test when they go to College Station to face former Dozen member Texas A&M. Finally, if you are looking for some Friday night viewing, keep an eye on Utah as they head to LA to face USC. The formerly-ranked Trojans fell in OT to BYU, who Utah beat in Week 1, but this still figures to be the biggest test the Utes have faced so far in a season where they likely must go undefeated to make the College Football Playoff.
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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.