What we're facing here is the very real possibility that Division I-A football could finish its regular season with five undefeated teams. Five. To all those advocating for a 'plus-one' model, essentially a four-team playoff, well, I hope this season convinces you that any playoff consisting of fewer than eight teams is destined to fail. Personally, anything that breaks the BCS is a good thing, and I'm hoping for more chaos in the future.
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| Rank | Team | Delta |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Alabama |
 2 |
| 2 | TCU |
 1 |
| 3 | Texas |
1 |
| 4 | Florida | |
| 5 | Cincinnati | |
Not much change at the top. The move by Alabama to the top of our poll has nothing to do with last week's events (both Texas and 'Bama barely survived in rivalry games, while Florida beat down a clearly inferior Florida State and TCU proved nothing in blowing out New Mexico). Instead, an Alabama fan last week convinced me, on the basis of strength of schedule, to move the Tide ahead of Texas, and just such a tiny change was enough to move Alabama above both Texas and TCU.
| 6 | Boise State | |
| 7 | Oregon |
1 |
| 8 | Ohio State |
2 |
| 9 | Oregon State |
2 |
| 10 | Virginia Tech |
4 |
With Pitt and Georgia Tech being upset last weekend, everyone else gets to move up. It's interesting that, beyond the six undefeated teams, there isn't a single one-loss team in division I-A, which is why two-loss Oregon and Ohio State follow close on Boise's heels.
| 11 | Georgia Tech |
4 |
| 12 | Iowa | |
| 13 | Miami (Florida) |
3 |
| 14 | Brigham Young |
6 |
| 15 | Southern Cal |
At this point in the season, it's hard to drop Georgia Tech too far for being upset; after all, Iowa lost to Northwestern, Miami to North Carolina, BYU to Florida State, USC to Washington. It happens to just about everyone; it's important not to penalize GT too much for having the audacity to be upset during the last weekend in November.
| 16 | Pittsburgh |
7 |
| 17 | Stanford |
6 |
| 18 | California | |
| 19 | Penn State | |
| 20 | LSU |
4 |
Stanford probably gets too much credit for their win over Notre Dame, but perhaps they dropped too far last week. Their pair of wins over Oregon and USC are what are propping them up this high; other than that, it's a fairly ordinary résumé.
| 21 | Houston | |
| 22 | Nebraska | |
| 23 | Arizona |
1 |
| 24 | West Virginia | |
| 25 | Oklahoma State |
12 |
| Last week's ballot | ||
|---|---|---|
Oklahoma State barely hangs on in our rankings after getting shut out by Oklahoma. The Sooners aren't that bad, but the Cowboys aren't that good, apparently, as is the rest of the Big XII.
Dropped Out: North Carolina (#17), Utah (#21), Clemson (#25).
And some lower-ranked teams lost, and dropped out. Whoo. Not a good week for the ACC, with Georgia Tech, Clemson, North Carolina and Florida State all losing and looking bad in doing so.