NCAA Football 2018 Week 9 results and Top 25

It was another week of upsets, although most of them affected non-ranked teams.  Some affected teams close to the Top 25, like Appalachian State's loss to Georgia Southern and Georgia Tech's upset of Virginia Tech (gee, the state of Georgia did really well this week).  South Florida lost their first game, leaving only four unbeaten teams and destroying any chance the Bulls had of reaching the rankings.

Upsets abounded in two conferences:  Big Ten and Pac-12.  Colorado gave up a large fourth quarter lead to Oregon State while Oregon never got anything going against Arizona.  As I will discuss in my Big Ten Report, that conference looked like the days of yore, when any team could beat any other team on any given Saturday.

Top 25 [Last week's position]
1.  Alabama Crimson Tide (8-0) [1]
2. Clemson Tigers (8-0) [2]
3. Notre Dame Fighting Irish (8-0) [3]
4. Michigan Wolverines (7-1) [4]
5. UCF Golden Knights (7-0) [5]
6. Oklahoma Sooners (7-1) [6]
7. Georgia Bulldogs (7-1) [7]
8. Ohio State Buckeyes (7-1) [8]
9. LSU Tigers (7-1) [10]
10. Penn State Nittany Lions (6-2) [12]
11. West Virginia Mountaineers (6-1) [14]
12. Washington State Cougars (7-1) [15]
13. Iowa Hawkeyes (6-2) [9]
14. Fresno State Bulldogs (7-1) [17]
15. Utah State Aggies (7-1) [18]
16. Florida Gators (6-2) [11]
17. Syracuse Orange (6-2) [23]
18. Cincinnati Bearcats (7-1) [19]
19. Texas Longhorns (6-2) [13]
20. Kentucky Wildcats (7-1) [22]
21. Houston Cougars (7-1) [24]
22. UAB Blazers (7-1) [NR]
23. Boston College Eagles (6-2) [NR]
24. Boise State Broncos (5-2) [NR]
25. Utah Utes (6-2) [NR]

Dropped off: Wisconsin Badgers [#16], Washington Huskies [#20], Miami Hurricanes [#21], Oregon Ducks [#25]
On the Edge: Buffalo Bulls (7-1), Virginia Cavaliers (6-2), Army Black Knights (6-2), North Texas Mean Green (7-2), Georgia Southern Eagles (7-1), Mississippi State Bulldogs (5-3), Appalachian State Mountaineers (5-2), Temple Owls (5-3)

With four weeks still to play, there are too many scenarios to accurately predict divisional races.  I'll start that next week.

Big Ten Report
Man, it felt like the 70's and early 80's, as records didn't matter and players threw themselves at opponents.  Aside from Maryland's rout of Illinois, all of the intra-conference games were close, and many surprising.  Wisconsin and Iowa lost, propelling Northwestern to the top of the West division. Minnesota won their first conference game, and Penn State held off a late Iowa attack to remain at least mathematically eligible for the division title.

Pac-12 Report
When the dust settled on Saturday, Washington State was the only team with a single conference loss, Utah had ascended to the top of the South, and Oregon was gone from the division title race. The Pac-12 will definitely not have a playoff team, and it has now become an interesting picture for the division titles.

SEC Report
Many teams had byes, which might be a good thing.  Florida got pulverized, A&M (who many of the national analysts were saying would not lose another game) was completely dominated by Mississippi State, and Vandy shocked Arkansas.  Kentucky needed a last-second push to win their game.  Now, the West will clearly be determined by next week's Alabama-LSU bout and the East will likely be owned by the winner of next week's Georgia-Kentucky battle.

ACC Report
Two weeks ago NC State was unbeaten, now they have lost two conference games.  Two years ago Florida State won ten games, now they suffered their worst loss in school history. Duke, Miami, and Virginia Tech all fell, making Virginia and Pitt the front-runners in the Coastal division.  Boston College has proven themselves a force in the conference, and will compete with Clemson for the Atlantic title.

Big XII Report
Texas' loss leaves no team in the conference with an unblemished conference record.  Texas holds the tiebreaker against Oklahoma, and could get one over West Virginia this week.  The Mountaineers control their own destiny, as they are yet to play both of their one-conference-loss rivals.