Bleacher Report
The top of the newest Associated Press Top 25 poll remains unchanged following a Week 12 that failed to shake up the college football hierarchy.
Oregon occupies the No. 1 spot for the fifth straight week. The Ducks are followed by Ohio State, Texas, Penn State and Indiana.
Just outside of that group, though, losses by Tennessee and BYU reshaped the Top 10 a bit.
Georgia fans were left fuming with the most recent College Football Playoff rankings. While sitting 12th, the Bulldogs would’ve gotten bypassed by Boise State for the final CFP spot if the season had ended there.
That won’t be a problem now.
Georgia moved up from 11th to eighth after beating the Vols 31-17 at home on Saturday, which foreshadows how the newest CFP poll is going to look.
The performance of quarterback Carson Beck will also have a lot of people believing the Dawgs are a serious national title contender again, too.
The senior finished 25-of-40 for 347 yards and two touchdowns. He snapped his streak of four straight games with an interception, and his 98.0 QBR was a season high.
This is the version of Beck who warranted early Heisman Trophy buzz, and Georgia can stack up with any team in the country when he’s playing this well.
On a related point, Oregon’s 16-13 win over Wisconsin points to how the national championship race is wide open without one team clearly elevating itself above the rest.
Ducks head coach Dan Lanning made the bold call of running a fake field goal inside the final two minutes. The Badgers weren’t caught sleeping and forced the turnover on downs.
Oregon’s defense, which was great all game, stepped up to secure the victory, though. Braedyn Locke’s pass was tipped at the line and intercepted by Ducks linebackker Matayo Uiagalelei.
At 11-0, Oregon is the easy pick for the top spot in the polls. Whether the team is the championship favorite is another matter. Wins are wins, but beating Wisconsin, Boise State and Ohio State by seven combined points will likely have fans looking a little skeptically upon the Ducks’ overall résumé.
One power conference team did fall from the ranks of the unbeaten.
A three-yard touchdown run by Devin Neal lifted Kansas to a 17-13 victory over BYU. The Cougars had moved up to seventh in the AP poll, their highest position since 2009, on the strength of a 9-0 start. Now, they’re in 14th place and could find themselves on the CFP bubble for now.
Another potentially consequential game unfolded in Manhattan, Kansas, as Kansas State suffered a decisive 24-14 loss to Arizona State. Sun Devils quarterback Sam Leavitt went 21-of-34 for 275 yards and three touchdowns and added another 42 yards on the ground.
The result propelled Arizona State to 21st in the newest AP poll, and the team is just one game behind BYU and Colorado for the best record in the Big 12. The Sun Devils host the Cougars in Tempe in Week 13.
Win or lose, ASU has made massive progress in Kenny Dillingham’s second season.
Indiana is also playing with house money at this point after winning its first 10 games.
This Saturday will be one of the biggest games in Hoosiers history as they challenge Ohio State at the Horseshoe. They’ve already made history by hitting double-digit wins. Taking down the Buckeyes on their home turf will serve as validation for Indiana’s perfect start.
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