Welcome to another installment of the Cross Poll. The season continues in its wacky way, but the picture is growing ever clearer. There were some changes this week, of course, but as you'll see, several teams who lost didn't fall far (Kansas, LSU, Boise State), while others did (Oregon, Texas, Virginia). There is method to my madness, I assure you.
The Cross Poll is not an attempt to predict how good teams will be at the end of the season. Instead, it ranks the teams based on how well they’ve played to this point. It takes more than just win-loss record into account when determining teams’ rankings, factoring in who teams beat and who they lost to.
With that preface out of the way, here’s the Cross Poll rankings, with last week’s rankings in brackets:
Missouri (11-1) [3]
West Virginia (10-1) [4]
Ohio State (11-1) [5]
Kansas (11-1) [1]
LSU (10-2) [2]
Hawaii (11-0) [7]
Georgia (10-2) [9]
Virginia Tech (10-2) [8]
Oklahoma (10-2) [11]
USC (9-2) [12]
Boston College (10-2) [13]
Florida (9-3) [18]
Arizona State (9-2) [6]
Illinois (9-3) [19]
Tennessee (9-3) [20]
Brigham Young (9-2) [23]
Boise State (10-2) [14]
Wisconsin (9-3) [21]
Cincinnati (9-3) [22]
South Florida (9-3) [24]
Clemson (8-3) [25]
Oregon (8-3) [10]
Texas (9-3) [15]
Virginia (9-3) [16]
Connecticut (9-3) [17]
Auburn (8-4) [26]
Texas Tech (8-4) [27]
Michigan (8-4) [28]
Penn State (8-4) [NR]
Oregon State (7-4) [NR]
Fallen from the Ranks: Kentucky [29]; Florida State [30]
