Implications of Week 2 AP Poll for Big 12 Teams

The SEC reigns supreme in this week’s AP Poll, but that’s unsurprising, and the ACC took some massive hits to its top hopes.

With Alabama holding steady as the top team in the country, coming off a shellacking of Miami, the Top 5 experienced some seismic movement with the defensive slugfest between Clemson and Georgia. Alabama, Georiga, Ohio State, Oklahoma and Texas A&M.

Georgia, off of a dominating defensive performance in a 10-3 win over Clemson, rose from fifth to second and received four first place votes. Ohio State rode a kinda close win over a solid Minnesota team to a one spot rise to third, and Oklahoma’s very close win over Tulane enabled a one spot drop to fourth. Texas A&M rode a blowout win over Kent State to a fifth place spot.

In terms of a Big 12 impact, Oklahoma — the cream of the crop — dropped two spots after an iffy performance against a gutsy Tulane team. As the fourth-ranked team in the country, Oklahoma is still in good position for a playoff push this season. With Western Carolina and Nebraska on the slate in the next two weeks, Oklahoma isn’t likely to sweat much. Redshirt sophomore Spencer Rattler will still put up a massive season in head coach Lincoln Riley’s offense.

Iowa State, the second highest ranked team in the Big 12, also dropped two spots in the Week 2 poll. Iowa State’s performance against Northern Iowa didn’t garner much respect, a 16-10 win in which no one played particularly well, and Cincinnati and Notre Dame both bypassed the Hawkeyes.

A massive matchup between Iowa State and Iowa — the first Top 10 matchup ever — looms this weekend, so Iowa State doesn’t have any time to work out kinks heading forward.

Texas’s ascent up the rankings began Saturday with a 38-18 victory over then-No. 23 Louisiana in which the Longhorns cruised to an easy victory. Texas jumped from 21 to 15, and an SEC matchup against Arkansas comes next.

TCU (80 points), Oklahoma State (39 points), Kansas State (13 points) and Texas Tech (two points) round out the Big 12 teams in the “Also Receving Votes” category.

After a Week 1 loss to Maryland, West Virginia slipped out of the receiving votes category. It’ll likely be a while before the Mountaineers jump back into the category — if at all.