The Southeastern Conference (SEC) is always seen as a football powerhouse, and usually it is, but 2015 is showing a lot of weaknesses so far. The latest Associated Press Top 25 Poll has now been released, and the SEC saw three teams fall out of the NCAA football rankings. Not only that, Auburn ended up falling 12 spots even though they picked up a win (barely) over Jacksonville State.
Pac-12 Post did show that five teams from the Pac-12 are now ranked in the AP Top 25 for the second consecutive week, and that’s a very strong showing for the conference. USC ended up moving to number six with UCLA taking the number 10 spot.
As ESPN reported, it was rough all around for the SEC even though the Alabama Crimson Tide did land at number two behind only Ohio State. Even with three teams (Arkansas, Tennessee, and Mississippi State) falling out of the Top 25, the SEC still leads all conferences with seven ranked teams.
After week two, the top four teams that would be in if the playoffs started today are:
1. Ohio State 2. Alabama 3. Michigan State 4. Baylor
The next four teams in contention are TCU, USC, Texas A&M, and Notre Dame. It’s still very early in the season though, and Notre Dame dealt with a scare of their own on Saturday by just squeaking out a 34-27 victory over Virginia.
Then number six-ranked Auburn was behind 20-13 to Jacksonville State before tying the game up with just 39 seconds to go. They were able to win 27-20 in overtime, but Auburn head coach Gus Malzahn was not happy with his Tigers.
“We’ve got some growing up to do — there’s no doubt about that. A lot of times in the course of a season, it’s how you win. Today we faced major adversity, and we faced major adversity at home.”
Even though they won, the voters were not impressed with Auburn and dropped them 12 spots in the rankings. The Associated Press Top 25 Poll, after all the action of week two, looks like this:
1. Ohio State 2. Alabama 3. TCU 4. Michigan State 5. Baylor 6. USC 7. Georgia 8. Notre Dame 9. Florida State 10. UCLA 11. Clemson 12. Oregon 13. LSU 14. Georgia Tech 15. Ole Miss 16. Oklahoma 17. Texas A&M 18. Auburn 19. BYU 20. Arizona 21. Utah 22. Missouri 23. Northwestern 24. Wisconsin 25. Oklahoma State
The NCAA football rankings after week two show that the SEC still has some strength, but there are weaknesses in the conference. The AP Top 25 Poll showed a lot of changes after teams got through their second game of the season, but there is still a lot of football left to play.
[Image via Getty Images – Michael Chang]
