2009 Week 9 Preliminary College Rankings

I don't ordinarily like to post rankings before having all the data, but since all the FBS games are done and I have most of the FCS games and it appears we will have a new #1, I wanted to get at least what will likely be the new top-25 in the computer's rankings posted.  I preface the rankings and comments below with the statement that they are not final and could change a bit, but I doubt much.

Yes, there is a new #1 and it is Florida moving up from #2.  They finally played and won like a #1 team should handling a decent Georgia team, and couple that with prior opponents Arkansas and LSU winning big and prior opponents Tennessee and Troy doing better than expected, they make the move.

Perhaps a bigger surprise is that there is a new #2 in Texas also passing idle Alabama.  They handled a very good Oklahoma State and prior opponent Texas Tech had a better than expected win.

Alabama falls to #3 and while they were idle, they lost ratings points due to prior opponents Virginia Tech, Mississippi, and Kentucky all losing when expected to win.

And with their impressive win over USC, Oregon moves to #4 passing up undefeateds Cincinnati, Boise State, and TCU.  How can Oregon be ahead of Boise State you might ask?  Well, the game was in Boise and very early in the season making it not as bad a result as it otherwise might be, and more importantly Oregon has faced and beat far better competition.

Another notable movers is LSU moving to #9 a week ahead of their visiting Alabama in the game that will most likely decide the SEC West.

The computer also had a very good week going 34-19 against the spread and 40-13 picking winners versus Vegas's 38-15.  The lock of the week, Oregon plus the points over USC also came through.

I'll post the full/official rankings on the web-site soon and will blog again here too.

Rank	Team	Rating	Record	Schedule	Change
Rank	Team	Rating	Record	Schedule	Change
1	Florida	89.293	8-0	71.284	+1, +0.744
2	Texas	88.880	8-0	69.442	+4, +2.449
3	Alabama	88.544	8-0	70.382	-2, -2.176
4	Oregon	87.871	7-1	73.498	+3, +1.867
5	Cincinnati	87.272	8-0	66.489	-2, -0.290
6	Boise St	86.681	8-0	65.391	-2, -0.682
7	TCU	86.331	8-0	68.212	-2, -0.908
8	Oklahoma	82.362	5-3	67.995	+2, -1.492
9	LSU	81.772	7-1	68.888	+4, +0.280
10	Virginia Tech	81.650	5-3	75.502	-2, -3.207
11	Georgia Tech	81.614	8-1	72.896	+1, -0.537
12	Southern Cal	81.535	6-2	74.138	-3, -2.685
13	Clemson	81.287	5-3	70.526	+1, -0.022
14	Iowa	80.781	9-0	70.429	-3, -1.735
15	Penn State	80.234	8-1	64.597	+0, -0.756
16	Pittsburgh	79.637	7-1	67.620	+2, +0.544
17	Tennessee	79.612	4-4	71.421	+7, +1.339
18	Arizona	79.377	5-2	73.214	-2, -1.290
19	Texas Tech	79.183	6-3	66.153	+9, +2.557
20	Miami FL	78.927	6-2	73.599	-3, -1.511
21	California	78.407	6-2	70.921	-2, -0.487
22	Ohio State	77.975	7-2	65.597	-2, -0.667
23	Stanford	77.886	5-3	70.698	-1, -0.559
24	Oklahoma St	77.414	6-2	67.040	-1, -0.909
25	Oregon St	77.399	5-3	71.533	+0, -0.748