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Here's a little treat for all you early risers. My tardiness may have deprived the site of some of its regular coverage during the work week, but it means this entry will serve as the unofficial kickoff to Saturday's game action.
(Note: This entry does not take into account the results of Thursday night's games, which will be factored in next week. So if a certain team's appearance at No. 21 confuses you, that's the reason why. Blame my procrastination.)
I present to you Week 12 of the Bring On The Cats Top 25 Poll, in which the No. 1 team is dead — long live the new No. 1 team, which is actually the old, old No. 1 team:
Bring On The Cats Top 25 Poll — Week 12
| Rank | AP | CFP | Team | Record | Points | Delta |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | 3 | Florida State Seminoles (8) | 10-0 (7-0) | 243 |
 1 |
| 2 | 3 | 2 | Oregon Ducks (2) | 9-1 (6-1) | 231 |
1 |
| 3 | 2 | 1 | Alabama Crimson Tide | 9-1 (6-1) | 230 |
2 |
| 4 | 5 | 5 | TCU Horned Frogs | 9-1 (6-1) | 215 | — |
| 5 | 4 | 4 | Mississippi St. Bulldogs | 9-1 (5-1) | 213 |
 4 |
| 6 | 6 | 7 | Baylor Bears | 8-1 (5-1) | 207 | — |
| 7 | 7 | 6 | Ohio State Buckeyes | 9-1 (6-0) | 186 |
1 |
| 8 | 10 | 11 | Michigan State Spartans | 8-2 (5-1) | 171 |
3 |
| 9 | 12 | 12 | Kansas State Wildcats | 7-2 (5-1) | 161 |
1 |
| 10 | 8 | 8 | Ole Miss Rebels | 8-2 (4-2) | 154 |
2 |
| 11 | 11 | 9 | UCLA Bruins | 8-2 (5-2) | 132 |
6 |
| 12 | 9 | 10 | Georgia Bulldogs | 8-2 (6-2) | 131 |
8 |
| 13 | 15 | 15 | Arizona Wildcats | 8-2 (5-2) | 120 |
6 |
| 14 | 22 | NR | Colorado State Rams | 9-1 (5-1) | 107 |
4 |
| 15 | 13 | 13 | Arizona State Sun Devils | 8-2 (5-2) | 105 |
8 |
| 16 | 18 | NR | Marshall Thundering Herd | 10-0 (6-0) | 103 |
2 |
| 17 | 14 | 16 | Wisconsin Badgers | 8-2 (5-1) | 92 |
6 |
| 18 | 17 | 18 | Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets | 9-2 (6-2) | 67 |
7 |
| 19 | 16 | 14 | Auburn Tigers | 7-3 (4-3) | 63 |
10 |
| 20 | 19 | 20 | Missouri Tigers | 8-2 (5-1) | 53 |
8 |
| 21 | 25 | NR | Duke Blue Devils | 8-2 (4-2) | 46 |
6 |
| 22 | 28 | NR | Boise State Broncos | 8-2 (5-1) | 39 |
4 |
| 23 | 20 | 17 | Utah Utes | 7-3 (4-3) | 32 |
4 |
| 24 | 21 | 23 | Nebraska Cornhuskers | 8-2 (4-2) | 30 |
11 |
| 25 | 26 | NR | Notre Dame Fighting Irish | 7-3 (1-0) | 25 |
9 |
| Dropouts: Clemson Tigers, LSU Tigers, Minnesota Golden Gophers | ||||||
| Others Receiving Votes: Air Force 21, Oklahoma 21, Northern Illinois 11, USC 10, North Dakota State 7, Coastal Carolina 4, Minnesota 4, Utah State 4, West Virginia 4, Georgia Southern 3, Harvard 3, Memphis 1, Texas A&M 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!
If the week before last ended in Separation Saturday, then last week ended in Shakedown Saturday.
Things were relatively unchanged at the top end, with only Auburn dropping out of the top 10 and K-State moving in, plus Mississippi State's inevitable four-spot decline. But further down? Sheer chaos.
Notre Dame dove nine spots. UCLA, Arizona and Wisconsin jumped six places.
Arizona State fell eight spots. Georgia and Missouri jumped eight spots.
Auburn plummeted 10 levels. Colorado State, Boise State and Utah rose four places.
Duke fell six spots. Georgia Tech jumped seven places. Nebraska skydived a whopping 11 spots.
And Missouri and Utah rejoined the poll, while Boise State made its first appearance of the season. Man, we'll take anyone at this point...
- The BOTC voters agree with the Associated Press on the rankings of No. 1 Florida State, No. 6 Baylor, No. 7 Ohio State and No. 11 UCLA. Pretty dissimilar week, all things considered.
- The biggest positive AP divergences were a three-spot boost for Kansas State (duh) and a whopping eight-place increase for Colorado State (no idea why).
- On the negative side, Georgia, Wisconsin, Auburn, Utah and Nebraska all were punished equally with three-spot deficits for recent or, in the case of the first two, older losses.
- The BOTC voters agree with the College Football Playoff selection committee on the rankings of No. 18 Georgia Tech and No. 20 Missouri. So much for being on the same page, huh?
- Most of our rankings were within one or two places for most of the top 25 teams. The exceptions are Michigan State (+3), Kansas State (+3), Auburn (-5) and Utah (-6). Colorado State, Marshall, Duke, Boise State and Notre Dame are not ranked in the CFP Top 25.
- Marshall reclaimed its variance title from Nebraska after a week off, ranging anywhere from eighth (JT) to 23rd (Luke). Among the 15 teams ranked on all 10 ballots, Mississippi and Georgia were the only other two in double figures, and they were in a dead heat. The Rebels checked in from fifth to 18th and the Bulldogs from 10th to 17th (two ballots).
- Those teams also had the most variance overall, with Colorado State sneaking in ahead of the two SEC teams. The Rams were left off one ballot and ranged from eighth (me) to 24th (Luke).
- The highest-ranked teams not to appear on every ballot are Colorado State and Arizona State, each left off one ballot. So was Wisconsin.
- Oklahoma was the only unranked team to appear on more than four ballots.
- Clemson and LSU received votes last week, but not this week. Those falling Tigers were replaced by the rising Missouri Tigers.