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Yeah, you are right, Maryland should totally be in the Top 5.

Clemson plays Florida State on October 9th. If Florida State beats them, do you think they will still be ranked ahead of Georgia, whom they beat? And, would a then undefeated Florida State team still be ranked below one-loss Georgia?

Basically, the polls have left no way for the undefeated teams below Georgia to get ahead of them, since Georgia is ranked so high even with a loss (assuming they win out).

Yeah, you are right, Maryland should totally be in the Top 5.

What if Maryland goes undefeated the whole year, which would include wins over Florida State, Clemson, and Virginia Tech. Should they still be ranked below Georgia?

Georgia is ranked so high because they have had the hardest schedule so far. Things will balance out later (presumably) after other teams get through their difficult matchups.

Kirk

forgive me for trying to spark conversation on this Message Board

Nope. Sorry. You are not Forgiven. You changed your board name a long time ago...

I think that the polls' "love affair" with the SEC is warranted, to a large degree. The SEC has largely dominated the best schools from other conferences for quite a few years now, when it comes to major bowl games and early-season made-for-TV matchups. So SEC teams have the advantage of pedigree, just as the preseason NFL polls will always have teams like the Patriots, Packers, Giants (lol), and in more recent years the Broncos, 49ers and Seahawks all near the top of the rankings. And just as teams in the NFL with better records early in the season will usually be ranked below those kind of teams in Power Rankings, the same kind of thing will naturally happen in college football.

The downside of course (and where the comparisons to the NFL don't hold up) is that the rankings is the way that the teams that play in the National Championship are determined. Fortunately that is set to change. But as it is, the pedigree of the conference is always going to matter, and I think that it should. As a Big 10 fan, it's kind of sad for me to think that Ohio State has a good chance of winning out, and still be ranked #3/#4 and not be in contention for a National Championship. But that's because Ohio State has a much easier road to an undefeated season than Oregon/Stanford or Alabama especially after defeating what many thought would be their most legitimate challenger (Wisconsin) on Saturday. They play current #16 Northwestern next week, current #19 Michigan later on (yes, the Michigan that almost lost to the other major Ohio School, Akron. Owait.), but the rest of the schedule is played among the lower half of the Big Ten, and should be laughably easy for them. Of course, if any of the teams ahead of them do lose at some point, then OSU has a good chance to play in the National Championship, but if they do, my prediction is that they would once again get drilled (just as they did by Florida and LSU in their last two National Championship appearances).

It appears the new question is whether a 2-loss SEC team stays in the Top 25, even with so many no-loss and one-loss teams in the other conferences. How far can a #7 team like Georgia fall? Make your predictions here! 

GA will probably fall to around 13-16. And that's only because it was a two possession game.

Yeah, because they deserve props for beating powerhouses like Murray State, Vanderbilt, Arkansas St, or even Toledo and Indiana.

Missouri is lucky they got ranked at all before this.