This week’s college football AP Top 25 Poll was released this past Sunday featuring a few unexpected surprises. Amid both the Big Ten and Pac-12 announcing they will be returning to college football, both conferences have been included in the new AP poll ranks.
The release of the new ranks came with questions from many people. With the Big Ten not playing games until the weekend of Oct. 24 and the Pac-12 returning even later starting Nov. 6, how will the polls justify keeping them ranked in the next two to three weeks?
After the loss against Kansas State, Oklahoma football now sits ranked 18th in the AP Poll. The drop in the ranks shouldn’t be a shock to anyone as most people were probably expecting it after such an early loss in the season. However, Penn State and Ohio State sit ranked in the top 10, higher than many teams who already played one or more including teams who haven’t lost yet.
The new rankings leave not only Oklahoma football fans, but college football fans all over the country wondering what does this mean for our team? In short, most people don’t know how the ranks will go for the next few weeks except for the people doing the ranking themselves. Will teams be able to jump over a team that hasn’t even played? Or do the new rankings mean no team that is below a team that isn’t going to play until late fall will have an opportunity to jump ahead?
Placing teams in the top 25 of the AP Poll who haven’t played and didn’t intend on playing until as of late is not justified.
The Sooners now currently sitting toward the bottom of the AP Poll can feel discouraging. However, it is still very early on in the season with plenty of room to move up and down on the poll. With that being said, the ranks as a whole must be mobile for teams who have intended on playing from the start to have an equal opportunity to build their way up the ranks.
