Baylor Rises to #13 in Coaches, #14 in AP Polls

It’s Sunday afternoon around 1 PM Central, so that means both sets of major pre-CFB Playoff rankings are out. Both also have the Bears, sitting at 7-1 (4-1) and coming off three straight wins, inside the Top 15, as well. The Coaches Poll has the Bears 13th, two spots behind Oklahoma State and nine behind Oklahoma, while the AP Poll has the Bears 14th, three spots behind OSU and ten behind OU. Interestingly, Baylor is right behind A&M in each because good things happen when you beat Alabama regardless if you lose to two unranked teams with a combined four conference wins between them.

Also of note in the rankings (and we’ll use the AP) are Cincy at #2, undefeated UTSA at #16; BYU at #17; UH at #20 after beating now-#23 SMU; Iowa, somehow, still hanging around in the top 20 at #19 despite getting dumptrucked by unranked Purdue and unranked Wisconsin in successive games; and Penn State at #22 despite three straight losses. I’m not suggesting the last two inclusions are intentional by people that want to bolster the B1G’s chances at getting into the Playoff, but if I was trying to do just that, I’d make sure to pack that 18-25 range as best I could (and I’d try really hard to keep Penn State around because they play Michigan and Michigan State in November). It’s not like we haven’t seen that happen with the SEC every year in recent memory.

The first CFB Playoff Committee rankings of this season will be released Tuesday and probably make very little sense. I, for one, can’t wait to see how they screw over Cincinnati!