clock menu more-arrow no yes mobile

Filed under:

Alligator Army Power Rankings, Week 9: Gators are No. 3

After pounding the OBC and South Carolina, the Gators move up to third, while Alabama and Notre Dame hold on to the top two spots. Could Lane Kiffin and Southern Cal be a darkhorse BCS candidate?

Kim Klement-US PRESSWIRE

Following the Gators; big win over South Carolina, the Gators vault into third place in this week's Alligator Army Power Rankings.

Just a quick refresher on how the rankings work: scoring offense (SO) plus scoring defense (SD) plus win/loss record (WL) times strength of schedule (SoS). For details about how we arrive at these rankings, please see our first power rankings.

Rank (Delta) Team Score
1 (0) Alabama 1.5605
2 (0) Notre Dame 1.511
3 (3) Florida 1.4495
4 (-1) Texas Tech 1.3541
5 (4) Oregon 1.3269
6 (-1) Oklahoma 1.315
7 (5) Kansas St. 1.2727
8 (2) Cincinnati 1.2096
9 (-2) Texas A&M 1.196
10 (-2) Oregon St. 1.1924
11 (5) Florida St. 1.1626
12 (-8) West Virginia 1.1313
13 (2) LSU 1.1178
14 (3) Stanford 1.0786
15 (-2) Ohio St. 1.0591
16 (5) Rutgers 1.0219
17 (-3) South Carolina 1.0134
18 (7) Nebraska 0.9798
19 (9) Arizona 0.9735
20 (2) Penn St. 0.9638
21 (12) Mississippi St. 0.9632
22 (-3) Texas 0.9505
23 (3) Michigan 0.9354
24 (6) Clemson 0.9119
25 (-14) Iowa St. 0.899

Other teams on the Florida schedule:

  • 37. Georgia
  • 41. Tennessee
  • 52. Missouri
  • 74. Vanderbilt
  • 81. Kentucky
  • 82. Louisiana-Lafayette
  • 86. Bowling Green

Other Florida schools:

  • 49. Miami
  • 56. USF
  • 67. UCF
  • 101. FIU
  • 114. FAU

Pitiful Auburn, after the loss to Vanderbilt, is still pulling up the rear in the SEC at No. 97, and Idaho is still at the bottom overall with a ghastly score of 0.2715.

The Gators just keep grinding, and that helps them move up in the power rankings. LSU, South Carolina, and Texas A&M keep boosting the Gators' strength of schedule, but after the Georgia game next week, that will likely take a hit: Florida faces the lightest part of its schedule leading up to the FSU game.

After a poor showing at Kentucky, Georgia continues its freefall in our power rankings. Georgia fans had to have mixed emotions over the weekend: The South Carolina loss puts the Dawgs in a position to win the East with a win in Jacksonville on Saturday, but the Gators' performance, coupled with the inability of the Bulldogs' defense to stop Kentucky's running game, has to make them queasy.

Texas A&M stays in the top 10 despite the loss to LSU due to offense and strength of schedule.

The Big 12 is starting to take shape. Baylor dropped out of the top 25, barely, but Kansas State finally made a move with a big win over West Virginia.

The tire fire that is the ACC this year had just two teams in the top 25 (No. 11 FSU, and No. 24 Clemson), but N.C. State (No. 33) and Duke (No. 39) are on pace to play for the league championship.

Making the ACC look good by comparison is the Big Ten, whose three ranked teams are all in the bottom half of the top 25, two of them (Ohio State and Penn State) on probation and ineligible for postseason play.

The Pac-12 may be decided by the Civil War at the end of the season, when Oregon and Oregon State clash. Southern Cal may be leading in the South Division, but in the next three weeks they go to Arizona and play Oregon and Arizona State at home, three teams ranked above them in our power rankings. While the Trojans may be getting love from the pollsters thus far, their resume doesn't back it up.