Oklahoma tops Sports Illustrated’s Week 14 power rankings

Clemson will enter the final regular-season weekend as the No. 1 team in the poll, but the Tigers are anything but a consensus choice. SC shook up the polls. Clemson received 27 first-place votes and No. 2 Oklahoma had 24.

Alabama dropped from its former perch atop the rankings to No. 5, while Auburn is No. 4. With recent wins over Alabama and Georgia, you could argue Auburn deserves to be ranked higher, but it also has two losses. The Hurricanes were knocked off by the University of Pittsburgh Panthers, who really controlled “The U” the whole ball game.

The Tigers are up three spots after the top two teams, Alabama and Miami lost conference road games this weekend. Then, No. 1 OR lost to No. 14 Stanford and No. 2 Kansas State went down to Baylor. Oklahoma led the way at No. 2, TCU came in at No. 12 and Oklahoma State at No. 18.

The college football landscape underwent a major adjustment over the weekend, with top-ranked Alabama and second-ranked Miami both losing.

— Wisconsin has its best ranking since the Badgers were No. 2 on October 21, 1963. Washington 14. Stanford 15. The Cougars, on the short end of the rivalry showdown at Washington, saw their league title hopes slip away and took a seven-spot plunge to No. 22. Mississippi State, after losing the Egg Bowl to Ole Miss, fell to No. 24 in both polls. Welcome to the club Fresno State. The Bulldogs are the first team outside the Top 25 in the Coaches Poll. This week, I have Auburn by the slimmest of margins but a convincing win for Wisconsin over Ohio State (combined with a close win for Auburn over Georgia) may change that.

One other thing to note is that there are financial issues here as well.

No. 1 Clemson vs.

Look at that. The defending national champions are back on top, and they have a chance to play their way into the top seed in the College Football Playoff with a victory against Miami in the ACC championship game.

Tom “Goz” Goslowski is both a Heisman Trophy voter and College Football Hall of Fame Voter.

No. 2 Oklahoma vs. Three were in Atlanta and three were at the Dallas Cowboys’ stadium in Arlington, Texas.

No. 3 Wisconsin vs. But for now, we know where the chalk sits with one game to go before the bowls.

– The loser of Clemson-Miami; Georgia, if it is defeated again by Auburn; and Oklahoma could be two-loss power-conference runners-up. The Tide’s fate is no longer in their own hands, as their loss to Auburn ceded the SEC West. No. 14 Stanford, Pac-12 championship in Santa Clara, California.