BRING ON THE CATS TOP 25 POLL: Week 11

I present to you Week 11 of the Bring On The Cats Top 25 Poll, in which Separation Saturday brings a new world order to the way things were:

Bring On The Cats Top 25 Poll — Week 11

Rank	AP	CFP	Team	Record	Points	Delta
1	1	1	Mississippi St. Bulldogs (8)	9-0 (5-0)	247	—
2	2	3	Florida State Seminoles (2)	9-0 (6-0)	242	—
3	3	2	Oregon Ducks	9-1 (6-1)	219	1
4	5	4	TCU Horned Frogs	8-1 (5-1)	218.5	1
5	4	5	Alabama Crimson Tide	8-1 (5-1)	209	2
6	6	7	Baylor Bears	8-1 (5-1)	196.5	4
7	7	6	Arizona State Sun Devils	8-1 (5-1)	187	4
8	8	8	Ohio State Buckeyes	8-1 (5-0)	175	5
9	9	9	Auburn Tigers	7-2 (4-2)	159	6
10	13	13	Kansas State Wildcats	7-2 (5-1)	149	4
11	12	12	Michigan State Spartans	7-2 (4-1)	146	2
12	10	10	Ole Miss Rebels	8-2 (4-2)	138	—
13	11	16	Nebraska Cornhuskers	8-1 (4-1)	129	1
14	21	NR	Marshall Thundering Herd	9-0 (5-0)	115	3
15	19	21	Duke Blue Devils	8-1 (4-1)	114	3
16	15	18	Notre Dame Fighting Irish	7-2 (1-0)	101	8
17	14	11	UCLA Bruins	8-2 (5-2)	78	2
18	23	NR	Colorado State Rams	9-1 (5-1)	77	4
19	17	14	Arizona Wildcats	7-2 (4-2)	73	2
20	16	15	Georgia Bulldogs	7-2 (5-2)	64	5
21	18	19	Clemson Tigers	7-2 (6-1)	49	2
22	20	17	LSU Tigers	7-3 (3-3)	40	6
23	22	20	Wisconsin Badgers	7-2 (4-1)	27	4
24	30	25	Minnesota Golden Gophers	7-2 (4-1)	20	NR
25	24	22	Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets	8-2 (5-2)	16	NR
Dropouts: Oklahoma Sooners, Utah Utes, West Virginia Mountaineers
Others Receiving Votes: Boise State 15, Utah 13, Missouri 8, Oklahoma 7, Air Force 5, North Dakota State 5, Texas A&M 4, West Virginia 3, Coastal Carolina 1.

As always, your slate of voters is myself, Curtis Kitchen, EMAW 4 Ever, Jon Morse, JT VanGilder, Luke Thompson, nugget1224, PurpleBrunette, wildcat00 and KSUEMAW!

With the exception of the top two spots, Separation Saturday shook up the BOTC Top 25 like the earthquake that rocked south-central Kansas on Wednesday.

Winners Baylor, Arizona State and Ohio State slid into the top eight at the expense of losers Auburn, Kansas State and Michigan State, which complete the top 11.

Notre Dame and LSU also took plunges after completely dissimilar losses, and neither looks to threaten seriously to re-enter the top 10 at any point this season.

Disappointing losses by Oklahoma, Utah and West Virginia led to those teams' likely permanent ejections, making way for Wisconsin, Minnesota and Georgia Tech, the latter of which didn't even receive votes in the last two ballot cycles. Slim pickings, indeed.

Joining Baylor and Arizona State with four-spot increases were Colorado State and Wisconsin, while Georgia rose five places despite being just one week removed from a truly embarrassing loss. Such is the turbulent way of life in the BOTC Top 25.

Variance continues to stay low across the board, with all but one of the top 11 registering single digits. Only seven of the top 25 had double-digit variance, in fact.

• The BOTC voters agree with the Associated Press on the rankings of No. 1 Mississippi State, No. 2 Florida State, No. 3 Oregon, No. 6 Baylor, No. 7 Arizona State, No. 8 Ohio State and No. 9 Auburn. After that, it gets a bit fuzzier.
• The biggest positive AP divergences were a three-spot boost for Kansas State (duh), a four-spot increase for Duke (playing nobody pays off), a five-spot boost for Colorado State (ditto), a six-spot increase for Minnesota (double ditto) and a whopping seven-place increase for Marshall (triple ditto).
• On the negative side, Clemson (-3), UCLA (-3) and Georgia (-4) were not particularly popular. Each has looked questionable at times this season.
• The BOTC voters agree with the College Football Playoff selection committee on the rankings of No. 1 Mississippi State, No. 4 TCU, No. 5 Alabama, No. 8 Ohio State and No. 9 Auburn.
• As with last week, many of our rankings were within one or two places for most of the top 25 teams. The exceptions are Nebraska (+3), Wisconsin (-3), Georgia Tech (-3), Arizona (-5), Georgia (-5), LSU (-5), Duke (+6) and UCLA (-6). Marshall and Colorado State are not ranked in the CFP Top 25.
• Marshall cedes the variance title to Nebraska after four straight weeks at the top. The Huskers range anywhere from eighth (me) to 25th (JT). Nobody knows where to place this stupid team. Among the 20 teams ranked on all 10 ballots, Mississippi, Duke and Baylor and Marshall were next highest, with the latter two in a virtual dead heat. The Rebels checked in from sixth to 18th, the Blue Devils from 10th to 23rd, and the Bears from third to 15th and the Thundering Herd from 11th to 21st.
• Those teams also had the most variance overall, with Colorado State sneaking in ahead of Duke. The Rams were left off two ballots and ranged from 11th to 23rd.
• The highest-ranked teams not to appear on every ballot are Colorado State and LSU, which was left off three ballots.
• No unranked team appeared on more that four ballots. We're reaching the end of the line on consensus opinions.
• Louisville received votes last week, but not this week. That might be the fate of Oklahoma and West Virginia before too long, as well.