College Football Rankings: B/R's Top 25 After Week 10

After waiting more than two long months to finally get the first College Football Playoff rankings of the 2022 season, Week 11 came along and set the whole thing ablaze.

We knew either No. 1 Tennessee or No. 3 Georgia would lose in that head-to-head showdown in the SEC East.

But No. 4 Clemson losing to unranked Notre Dame?

No. 6 Alabama falling at No. 10 LSU?

What a chaotic way to start out November.

Georgia, of course, climbs back up to No. 1 in our Top 25 after its big win over the Volunteers. (Ohio State getting a scare on a windy afternoon at Northwestern helped make it a unanimous decision for us.) And Tennessee merely slips from No. 1 to No. 4—aka still in the College Football Playoff picture.

Alabama and Clemson weren't so lucky, plummeting to Nos. 11 and 12, respectively, and likely both out of the CFP mix altogether, at least until more chaos transpires down the stretch.

Beyond the playoff picture, ranked Kansas State, Illinois, Oklahoma State, Syracuse, Wake Forest and Oregon State all suffered losses this week. So it was shake-up city throughout the Top 25.

Votes for this poll were cast by B/R college football experts David Kenyon, Adam Kramer, Kerry Miller, Morgan Moriarty and Brad Shepard.

Bleacher Report's Post-Week 10 Top 25:

1. Georgia (Previous Week: 3)
2. Ohio State (2)
3. Michigan (4)
4. Tennessee (1)
5. TCU (7)
6. Oregon (8)
7. LSU (15)
8. USC (9)
9. UCLA (11)
10. Ole Miss (10)
11. Alabama (6)
12. Clemson (5)
13. Utah (12)
14. North Carolina (17)
15. Penn State (16)
16. Tulane (19)
17. Liberty (21)
18. NC State (25)
19 (tie). Notre Dame (Not Ranked)
19 (tie). Texas (Receiving Votes)
21. UCF (Receiving Votes)
22. Washington (Receiving Votes)
23. Illinois (13)
24. Kansas State (14)
25. Coastal Carolina (Not Ranked)

Others Receiving Votes: Cincinnati, Kansas, Kentucky

For the fifth consecutive week, undefeated TCU found itself in one heck of a battle early in the second half.

Back on October 8, the Horned Frogs trailed Kansas 17-10 with seven minutes remaining in the third quarter.

One week later, they were down by 14 at that same juncture against Oklahoma State.

Against Kansas State on Oct. 22, TCU trailed by 18 late in the first half and was still down by four with five minutes to go in the third.

Last week, the team did at least have a lead for a change, but only by four points against sub-.500 West Virginia.

But the Horned Frogs rallied to win each of those four games and did not panic when—yet again—they fell behind 17-13 midway through the third quarter against Texas Tech. TCU scored touchdowns on three consecutive possessions to begin the fourth quarter, turning what looked like a potentially monumental upset into a relatively convincing victory.

At some point, these close calls might doom the Horned Frogs to miss the College Football Playoff.

Then again, after Clemson's ugly loss to Notre Dame and Alabama taking an L at LSU, maybe style points don't really matter for TCU.

If they keep it going and finish 13-0, the Horned Frogs should find their way into the Top Four. Could get a little hairy if 11-1 Ole Miss beats 12-0 Georgia in the SEC championship, if Tennessee finishes 11-1 and if either Oregon or USC is a one-loss Pac-12 champion, but a zero in the loss column should be enough for TCU.

Regardless of where things end up a month from now, though, these Cardiac Frogs are just plain fun to watch. They effectively didn't even have star wide receiver Quentin Johnston Saturday after he reaggravated an ankle injury early in the first quarter, but they still got a ton of chunk gains, led by Kendre Miller reaching 1,000 rushing yards for the year in this one.

Kermit the Frog told us it ain't easy being green, but it definitely wasn't fun being orange in Week 10.

For the first time since opening the 2013 season ranked 25th and immediately losing to FCS school Eastern Washington, Oregon State finally made its way back into the AP Top 25 this week. But the No. 23 Beavers immediately lost at Washington on Friday night and will surely drop right back out of the poll—with the Huskies probably jumping back into it.

And then things got really bad for ranked orange teams in the afternoon slate Saturday.

No. 18 Oklahoma State got drilled by Kansas, as Devin Neal went off for 334 total yards from scrimmage as the Jayhawks became bowl-eligible for the first time since 2008.

At least Oklahoma State scored a couple of touchdowns in its 37-16 loss. No. 20 Syracuse wasn't so lucky, losing 19-9 at Pittsburgh behind a woeful 145 yards of total offense. The Orange managed just 10 first downs while failing to reach the end zone en route to a third consecutive loss.

No. 16 Illinois outgained unranked Michigan State, won the time of possession battle and committed fewer penalties, but it wasn't enough to get the W at home. That's largely because the Illini went just 1-of-6 on fourth down and because they twice in the third quarter set the Spartans up with a short field after a botched punt and a fumble on consecutive possessions. The race for the Big Ten West title is at least slightly open once again.

The biggest orange-colored loss of the afternoon was No. 1 Tennessee falling 27-13 at No. 3 Georgia.

The final margin was respectable, which will help the Volunteers' case for still sneaking into the College Football Playoff. But Georgia dominated this game, especially in the trenches on defense, resulting in six sacks of Hendon Hooker—whose Heisman bandwagon may have just come to a screeching halt.

But the biggest loss of all was No. 4 Clemson getting blown out at Notre Dame by a score of 35-14. (It was 28-0 before the Tigers managed to do anything.)

Had it been a close one, maybe there was still a path for Clemson to make the playoff if it bounced back and won out for a 12-1 finish. But the Tigers were already covered in question marks before no-showing in South Bend, and they're going to need quite a bit of help in order to sneak back into the Top Four now.

No. 24 Texas did survive by the skin of its teeth at No. 13 Kansas State, though, so at least a burnt orange team managed to win a game.

Prior to the start of the regular season, we had highlighted Tulane as a team that might become bowl-eligible in 2022 after falling short of that mark in 2021.

In the Green Wave's case, it fell well short with a 2-10 record. But they brought a ton of key contributors back from what was a terribly unlucky team in 2021, both in terms of lost fumbles and close losses.

As such, the optimistic preseason stance was that Tulane would go 6-6, maybe 7-5, and be the sixth-best team in the AAC.

Yet, there the Green Wave sat at No. 19 in the first College Football Playoff rankings of the season Tuesday, the highest-ranked Group of Five team. Coming into this season, they had not been ranked once in the AP poll since the end of an undefeated campaign in 1998.

Sometimes it feels like 1998 wasn't all that long ago, but y'all, that was the year Ricky Williams won the Heisman Trophy.

It's been a minute.

1998 was also the last time Tulane won at least eight games in a single regular season, but the Green Wave improved to 8-1 this week with a road win over Tulsa.

Can they finish the fight and make an appearance in the Cotton Bowl that no one could have possibly predicted three months ago?

Tulane probably doesn't even need to win out in order to get there. If it goes 2-1 down the stretch against UCF, SMU and Cincinnati, that would be enough to secure a spot in the AAC championship. And a win there should do the trick, because in all likelihood, the AAC champion will be the highest-ranked Group of Five champion, which is worth a spot in the Cotton Bowl.

Even if they were to lose out, though, what an impressive turnaround this has been. The only other time in program history that Tulane improved by at least six wins in a single year was from 1947-48, when it went straight from 2-5-2 to 9-1.

Of the current CFP Top 25 teams, 14 will be playing at home against unranked opponents in Week 11. One of them (Washington at No. 8 Oregon) figures to be a ranked-against-ranked showdown after the poll updates. But for the most part, those should be relatively easy wins for the home teams.

There are seven other big games, though, as we creep into the final stages of the 2022 regular season.

The biggest one on the docket is No. 7 TCU traveling to No. 24 Texas, hoping to keep that undefeated season going.

It's still rather unlikely that the Horned Frogs complete their quest for 13-0, but it becomes a much more realistic proposition if they can get to 10-0 with a victory over the Longhorns. Conversely, Texas still has a pulse in the race for the Big 12 championship and a possible trip to the Sugar Bowl, but it needs to win out in order to pull that off.

Of near equal importance is No. 6 Alabama at No. 11 Ole Miss.

If Lane Kiffin and the Rebels win, there's still a chance they win the SEC West and have a pulse for the College Football Playoff. (They would need to win out and have LSU lose to either Arkansas or Texas A&M, but it could happen.) But if Nick Saban and the Crimson Tide prevail on the road, it means every team in the division will be saddled with two losses. And we have yet to see a two-loss team make the playoff.

Week 11 also features a colossal game in the AAC with No. 25 UCF traveling to No. 19 Tulane in the race for the Cotton Bowl. The Green Wave are currently undefeated in league play and could just about punch their ticket to the conference championship by winning at home. But a UCF win would just about lock the Knights into that game, provided they can close out the regular season with wins over sub-.500 Navy and South Florida.

Elsewhere, No. 17 North Carolina at No. 21 Wake Forest could have major Orange Bowl implications.

And in all three instances of a ranked team playing on the road against an unranked team—No. 3 Georgia at Mississippi State, No. 10 LSU at Arkansas and No. 13 Kansas State at Baylor—the road team could be in some hot water against a foe with a winning record.

All in all, it should be another great week. No individual game with the magnitude of Tennessee-Georgia or Michigan-Ohio State, but there is plenty at stake.