September 2nd 2024
For all of the college football fans out there, I decided to create a weekly Top 12 ranking this year for this site. I limited my ranking to 12 teams as it correlates well with the new 12-team playoff format. In addition to this Top 12 ranking, I will also note which Group of Five team I think is the best in the nation.
Here are my Top 12 College Football Rankings after week 2:
- Georgia 1-0 (SEC)
- USC 1-0 (Big 10)
- Notre Dame 1-0 (Indep)
- Texas 1-0 (SEC)
- Alabama 1-0 (SEC)
- Ole Miss 1-0 (SEC)
- Penn State 1-0 (Big 10)
- Miami 1-0 (ACC)
- Missouri 1-0 (SEC)
- Ohio State 1-0 (Big 10)
- Tennessee 1-0 (SEC)
- Oklahoma 1-0 (SEC)
The best Group of Five team: Boise State 1-0 (Mountain West)
These rankings will change quite a bit in the coming weeks. I decided to reward teams like USC and Notre Dame for scheduling tougher opponents in Week 1. They could have played a cupcake right out of the block but instead chose to play quality programs. This needs to be rewarded more as I thoroughly enjoyed the Notre Dame-Texas A&M game Saturday night as well as last night’s LSU-USC game.
As you may notice, I didn’t include Oregon and Michigan in my Top 12 who were ranked #3 and #9 respectively in the preseason AP Poll. In my opinion, both had underwhelming performances. Oregon was 49.5-point favorites to beat Idaho (an FCS team) and only managed a 24-14 point victory at home in Eugene. Michigan was a 21-point favorite to beat Fresno State in Ann Arbor but had to rally in the 4th quarter with two touchdowns to put the Bulldogs away in a 30-10 victory.
As the season unfolds, I will probably post some college football betting recommendations at the end of these rankings each week. Right now for Week 2, I kind of like the Texas Longhorns to cover the 6.5-point spread in Ann Arbor over the Michigan Wolverines. But I prefer to wait a few more weeks for teams to develop a track record before wagering and giving betting advice. My focus will primarily be on SEC games as the SEC announced recently that they are going to require teams to provide weekly injury reports like the NFL.
–Michael
Cox Sportsnet 