Computer Rankings: Alabama Jumps To 3rd Behind Oklahoma, Ohio State

September 16, 2018 by Dave Congrove

Alabama rose 6 spots in the Congrove Computer Rankings, from 9th to 3rd, after opening SEC play by demoralizing Ole Miss 62-7 in Oxford on Saturday. Oklahoma and Ohio State hold on to the Nos. 1 and 2 spots, respectively. Clemson stays at No. 4 while Penn State leaps from 8th to 5th.

Oklahoma won a 17th straight road game, 37-27 at Iowa State, and Ohio State was a 40-28 winner over TCU in Arlington.

Mississippi State made a significant climb up the ratings ladder, landing in 6th place after checking in at No. 10 a week ago. Notre Dame slips 1 spot to 7th, Stanford sinks 5 places to 8th, Georgia moves up to 2 spots to 9th and Michigan rounds out the top 10.

Oklahoma State leads off the next 10 teams. The Cowboys are ranked 11th after an easier-than-expected 44-21 win over Boise State. Idle Michigan State is 12th, followed by Missouri at 13 and Washington at 14.

Duke ran its record to 3-0 with a win at Baylor and stays at No. 15 this week. The Blue Devils climbed with their win at Northwestern a week ago, but that victory doesn't carry as much weight now as it did then. The Wildcats lost for the second straight week at home, bowing to mighty Akron 39-34.

Another ACC team, Boston College, takes 16th with a 4-spot climb this week.

Auburn fell from 7th to 17th with its 1-point home loss to LSU, but surprisingly is 1 space ahead of the Bayou Bengals who rocketed from 25th to 18th.

Two more ACC teams, Miami and Virginia Tech, are in the Nos. 19 and 20 slots.

Wisconsin nose-dived from 5 to 21st with a 34-31 loss at home to BYU.

The final 4 places in the top 25 go to Iowa, Kentucky, Texas A&M and TCU.

The Southeastern Conference this week has 8 representatives in the Top 25, followed by the Big Ten with 6, the ACC with 5, the Big 12 with 3, and the PAC-12 with 2. Notre Dame is the lone member of the Top 25 that doesn't have a Power 5 conference affiliation.

The highest-ranked Group of Five schools is still Mountain West member Boise State at No 41. UCF tops all American Conference teams at No. 45 while North Texas is the top CUSA entrant at No. 44. Akron takes the lead among all MAC squads at No. 59, and Appalachian State outranks all the other Sun Belt teams at No. 74.

View the full Top 130.