The Athletic: Ranking 134 college football teams after Week 6: Chaos hits the SEC, and the debate begins

[MisterGopher]

Gophers Up form xx to 74 to 67.

Rank	Team	Record	Prev
51	Duke	5-1	45
52	Oklahoma State	3-3	37
53	Florida	3-2	66
54	Liberty	4-0	53
55	Virginia Tech	3-3	56
56	Northern Illinois	3-2	55
57	Army	5-0	62
58	Louisiana-Monroe	4-1	101
59	James Madison	4-1	42
60	UCF	3-2	50
61	Western Kentucky	3-2	60
62	Toledo	4-1	61
63	Fresno State	3-2	57
64	Oregon State	4-1	67
65	Wisconsin	3-2	72
66	North Carolina	3-3	58
67	Minnesota	3-3	74
68	Sam Houston	5-1	68
69	Michigan State	3-3	59
70	Maryland	3-2	70
71	Texas State	3-2	69
72	Auburn	2-4	65
73	Cincinnati	3-2	73
74	San Jose State	4-1	75
75	Louisiana	4-1	84

Oklahoma State continues to tumble to No. 52 after a 38-14 loss to West Virginia. Florida makes a jump up to No. 53 after handling UCF. Army is 5-0 and on the rise after handling Tulsa 49-7. The difference between Navy’s and Army’s rankings comes down to Navy’s impressive win against Memphis.

One of the biggest jumps comes from ULM, which is 4-1 and up to No. 58 from No. 101 after beating red-hot James Madison 21-19. Minnesota moves up to No. 67 after beating USC, but the Gophers stay behind North Carolina for now due to their head-to-head result.

Louisiana slides up to No. 75 due to Wake Forest’s win against NC State, one week after the Ragin’ Cajuns beat Wake

 

[MisterGopher]

Every college football season contains a Chaos Week that throws these rankings up in the air. This year’s was bigger than any we’ve had in a long time.

Four top-10 teams lost on Saturday, three of them to unranked opponents. Vanderbilt beat Alabama for the first time in 40 years, one week after I said the Tide were Thanos (whoops). Tennessee lost to Arkansas. Missouri got whipped by Texas A&M 41-10, and Michigan lost to Washington in a national title rematch.

This is also the point where we have the impossible conversation about the SEC: Is the league good because it beats up on itself, or is that potential parity actually a sign of weakness? Ultimately, despite major upset losses, Alabama and Tennessee stick in the top 10 in this week’s Athletic 134.
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The carnage of Saturday could have a big trickle-down effect on the SEC over the back half of the season. Everyone in the league, other than Texas, has a loss, and almost all of these teams still have to play each other. We’re going to see a lot of two- and three-loss SEC teams around that CFP bubble, and I expect that to be a civil and calm conversation. That’s also the point when people will realize the battle for seeding will be as important as the battle to get into the field.

But if you think I’m being too favorable to the SEC here, fire away. The reality is we may not have dominant teams this year because the transfer portal has created more depth across the board, and the expanded power conferences are going to create more losses for top teams. As that happens, an emphasis on who you’ve beaten could emerge, rather than who beat you.