2017-18 NCAA Football (Week 11)

(1) Georgia 17-40 (10) Auburn
Wow, Georgia got drilled! Auburn moved the ball at will and dominated on defense. Auburn still has a shot to get past Alabama and set up a re-match with Georgia. Georgia faced their toughest opponent all year and did not look good. Still on track to get to the SEC championship, so still in the playoff hunt.

(2) Alabama 31-24 (16) Mississippi State
This Alabama team isn't as good as the classic Bama vintages but that doesn't mean they're not better than everyone else in the NCAA right now. Back to #1, still well on their way back to the national title. Game effort from Mississippi State, man, that SEC West is brutal! (Keep an eye on State to destroy some overrated squad in whatever bowl they end up in)

(3) Notre Dame 8-41 (7) Miami
I was skeptical of the Hurricanes but in the last two weeks they've made two good squads look pretty sorry. Fluke or is Miami really this good? The ACC is pretty much theirs. Notre Dame drops to the top of the 2-loss tier, still on track for a competitive high profile appearance.

(6) TCU 20-38 (5) Oklahoma
The Sooner offense was really impressive, I'm warming up to the Sooner chances of mixing it up in the playoff. TCU had their opportunities and couldn't convert.

(20) Iowa 14-38 (8) Wisconsin
The Badgers took a while to get going but once they did they pretty well smothered the Hawkeyes--good god, if they had avoided the turnovers they would've won by 50! If Wisconsin puts a beatdown on Ohio State in the Big 10 final then maybe I'll be ready to put them in the playoff but so far I haven't seen them play anybody. Still wondering how Iowa pulled off last week's shellacking of the Buckeyes, I saw nothing today that would make me think that was even possible.

(12) Michigan State 3-48 (13) Ohio State
The Buckeyes got back on the right track, still a Big 10 final ahead for them, if they can get some breaks in the form of other teams stinking it up in the last month, I think they can still weasel their way into the playoff. The Spartans probably overachieved for much of this season, but they got worked here: couldn't move the ball, couldn't get stops on D.

(15) Oklahoma State 49-42 (21) Iowa State
Fun game! Back and forth but in the end the Cowboys piled up more points. Both squads are pretty far down the dance card in the Big 12 though.


Top 25
Handled their business
(2) Alabama, (4) Clemson, (5) Oklahoma, (7) Miami, (8) Wisconsin, (10 ) Auburn, (11) Southern Cal, (13) Ohio State, (14) Penn State, (15) Oklahoma State, (18) Central Florida, (19) Washington State, (23) North Carolina State, (24) LSU, (25) Northwestern


Not so good
(1) Georgia. Still on the road to the SEC final.
(3) Notre Dame. Still gonna get a good bowl game.
(6) TCU. Definitively out of the mix in the Big 12.
(9) Washington. Who knows what's up with the Pac 12?
(12) Michigan State. Back to earth.
(16) Mississippi State. Best test Bama's had yet this year.
(17) Virginia Tech. Back-to-back disappointing performances.
(20) Iowa. Why were they ranked #20?
(21) Iowa State. Fun team, the wild card-i-est team of the season.


Next week's interesting games:
Uh....none. This past Saturday was pretty amazing in the notable matchups, guess the college football regular season is downhill from here. Beautiful stroke of luck that that so many scheduled contests were so compelling; and yet, so many of them turned out to be slaughters. Really surprised that Auburn and Miami laid such beatdowns on Georgia and Notre Dame, less surprised that Oklahoma, Wisconsin and Ohio State were able to run away from their opponents.  I'm still convinced Clemson is probably in the top two but it doesn't look like they'll get a shot to get back into the playoffs. Darn shame.