It’s time for Notre Dame fans to start caring a lot more about the order of this and other polls. Last week we found our first lively discussion about the slotting of teams with just another week to go until the first official College Football Playoff Poll is unveiled. Let’s get to it.

Top 11

1 Alabama (E, 8-0, 45-7 W vs. Tennessee) 

The Tide embarrass the Vols and are closing in on +300 point differential already.

2 Georgia (E, 7-0, Bye)

The Dawgs best win on the road against Notre Dame keeps them in my second spot.

3 TCU (E, 7-0, 43-0 W vs. Kansas)

Quietly moving into place as a playoff team with 2 ranked wins at the moment.

4 Penn State (E, 7-0, 42-13 W vs. Michigan)

You wish it was anybody else but that win over Michigan was sweet, sweet nectar.

5 Clemson (+2, 6-1, Bye)

Heck of a bye week! Move up two spots giving them the benefit of the doubt with their injured QB plus a pair of Top 20 wins in their back pocket.

6 Notre Dame (+6, 6-1, 49-14 W vs. USC)

Choo, choo! The Irish have wins over 2 ranked teams and a close loss to No. 2 this feels right.

7 Wisconsin (-1, 7-0, 38-13 W vs. Maryland)

Using whatever metrics you’d like they may not have faced a Top 50 team yet. It’s pretty ridiculous.

8 Miami (-3, 6-0, 27-19 W vs. Syracuse) 

Haven’t looked great very much, best win is Georgia Tech, but they are No. 11 in S&P rankings.

9 Ohio State (-1, 6-1, Bye) 

The Buckeyes have the opportunity to shoot back up the rankings this weekend.

10 Oklahoma (E, 6-1, 42-35 W at Kansas State)

Struggled all day in the Little Apple and were nearly upset by the Wizard.

11 Oklahoma State (E, 6-1, 13-10 W at Texas)

Also struggled on the road but picked up the win.

Next 2

Virginia Tech (+1, 6-1, 59-7 W vs. North Carolina)

Only 3 wins from Power 5 teams, that opener against West Virginia looking solid.

NC State (NR, 6-1, Bye)

Visited Five Guys this weekend prior to their trip to South Bend.

Dropped out: USC

G5 Top 3

1 UCF (E, 6-0, 31-21 W at Navy)

Very solid win at Annapolis could lead to a boring stranglehold on this top spot.

2 USF (E, 7-0, 34-28 W at Tulane)

Tough and gritty win on the road against secretly not-terrible Tulane.

3 Memphis (E, 6-1, 42-38 W @ Houston)

Perhaps a season defining big comeback on the road against a top conference foe.

You Were Bad

Michigan & USC

Kansas

Averaged a strong 0.43 yards per play this weekend.

North Carolina

Demolished by Va Tech and might have to fight hard late in the season against Western Carolina to prevent 1-11.

Colorado

Shut out by Washington State and looking like a bottom feeder in the Pac-12 again.

Arkansas 

Blown out by Auburn and have lost their last 5 SEC games dating back to last year.

Purdue

The Jeff Brohm hype train is humbled by Rutgers.

Virginia

For allowing Boston College to defeat them by 31 points.

BYU

Lost heavily to East Carolina, have score over 20 just once this year, and are 3rd worst nationally in scoring.

Week 9 Preview

Enemy Watch

#20 Stanford (-23) at Oregon State
Florida State (-3) at Boston College
#8 Miami (-20.5) at North Carolina
Louisville (-3) at Wake Forest
#3 Georgia (-14) at Florida
#16 Michigan State (-1.5) at Northwestern
#21 USC (-3) at Arizona State

How appealing is that Oregon State job right now? This might be their worse year by record since 1980. Over/under on the Love rushing yards?

Florida State was the pre-season No. 3 team and is favored by just 3 in Chestnut Hill. Don’t you just love college football’s twists and turns?

I feel like there’s a lot of rivalry involved in that Georgia line. Surely, the Dawgs are good enough to cover and then some, I think.

Too Close for Comfort

Rutgers (+23.5) at Michigan

Would you trade a loss for Notre Dame this weekend in exchange for a win by Rutgers? You had to think about it, didn’t you?

Upset Pick of the Week

California (+3) at Colorado

Cal started off the year well enough and has really slowed down lately. So too has Colorado. I’ll take the Bears’ decent defense to get the underdog road win.

National Spotlight

#11 Oklahoma State (-7.5) at #22 West Virginia
#2 Penn State (+6) at #6 Ohio State
#4 TCU (-6.5) at #25 Iowa State
Houston (+10.5) at #17 USF
Georgia Tech (+14.5) at #7 Clemson
#15 Washington State (-2.5) at Arizona

I am here for Holgo hosting Oklahoma State on Saturday at noon eastern.

Kind of a big game this weekend in Columbus, one that seems to have Urban Meyer win all over it. The Nittany Lions can’t possibly be this good, right?

***Iowa State is ranked for the first time since 2002.***

Arizona has won 3 straight and only dropped one game in Pac-12 play thus far. That winning streak has come with Khalil Tate at quarterback whose only run for 700 yards over that stretch.