College football conference power rankings

ByESPN ESPN logo
Monday, October 28, 2019

How would you rank all 14 teams in the SEC? Or all 10 in the Big 12? Here's a full ranking of every team in every Power 5 conference.

Jump to a conference:

SEC | Big Ten | Big 12 | Pac-12 | ACC

SEC

On paper, it's really no contest.

If you had any doubt before, then LSU beating Auburn at home on Saturday should have made it crystal clear. With three wins against top-10 teams, LSU is the definitive No. 1 team in the SEC, if not all of college football.

Alabama just doesn't have a comparable resume at this point. The Tide get the benefit of the doubt as unbeaten defending conference champs, but when your quarterback is in a walking boot and your best win is against a three-loss, 24th-ranked Texas A&M team, then you don't really have that much to hang your hat on.

The good news is that in two weeks this debate won't matter. Both teams have this week off, and then it's full steam ahead to Nov. 9 when Alabama plays host to LSU in a game that will likely decide the winner of the West.

In the meantime, we should find out who will represent the East in the SEC championship game as Florida and Georgia head to Jacksonville on Saturday. -- Alex Scarborough

1. LSU

2. Alabama

3. Georgia

4. Florida

5. Auburn

6. Texas A&M

7. Kentucky

8. Missouri

9. Tennessee

10. South Carolina

11. Ole Miss

12. Mississippi State

13. Vanderbilt

14. Arkansas

Big Ten

Ohio State continued its dominance in the conference, this time knocking off Wisconsin in a convincing win. The way the Buckeyes are playing, it's going to be tough for any Big Ten team to beat them. If anyone has a shot at this point, it looks to be Penn State, who is heading toward a potential meeting with Ohio State as two undefeated teams. Michigan has changed its trajectory, though, with a dominant win over Notre Dame only a week after a narrow loss to Penn State. The Wolverines look much different than they did in the beginning of the season, and if the improvement continues, Michigan could have a strong finish to the season. -- Tom VanHaaren

1. Ohio State

2. Penn State

3. Wisconsin

4. Michigan

5. Minnesota

6. Iowa

7. Michigan State

8. Indiana

9. Illinois

10. Nebraska

11. Maryland

12. Purdue

13. Northwestern

14. Rutgers

Big 12

For the first time this season, we have a change at the top. No longer is Oklahoma in control of the conference lead. That distinction belongs to Baylor. One of the season's most surprising and impressive starts belongs to the Bears and as we near November, they are the lone ones left without a loss, after Kansas State upended Oklahoma on Saturday. The Sooners still very much control their destiny, but questions abound after a poor defensive performance and their playoff hopes definitely took a hit. Texas continues to tumble after TCU handled the Longhorns, Oklahoma State scored a nice win over Iowa State and Kansas got a wild win over Texas Tech to remove itself from the power rankings cellar. -- Sam Khan Jr.

1. Baylor

2. Oklahoma

3. Kansas State

4. Iowa State

5. Oklahoma State

6. TCU

7. Texas

8. West Virginia

9. Kansas

10. Texas Tech

Pac-12

In the Pac-12, it's Utah, Oregon and everyone else. The Utes and Ducks, with one loss each, still remain a part of the playoff conversation, even if both would require a lot to happen elsewhere to eventually move into the top four. The problem both teams are going to run into is a lack of what the selection committee will define as quality wins: Neither has a win against a team in the latest AP Top 25. Oregon has a better loss (Auburn) than Utah (USC), but the Utes have been the more dominant team over the course of the season. In fact, other than the bizarre USC loss, Utah has won by at least 18 points in every other game. The dream scenario for the Pac-12 is for both to win -- moving up into the top-10 in the process -- and meet in the Pac-12 title game. Since its inception in 2011, the game has only had two matchups of top-10 teams. -- Kyle Bonagura

1. Utah

2. Oregon

3. Washington

4. USC

5. Stanford

6. Washington State

7. Arizona State

8. Oregon State

9. UCLA

10. Arizona

11. Colorado

12. Cal

ACC

There's a genuine magic in this year's incarnation of Coastal Chaos. Sure, we talk every year about how the ACC Coastal is the wildest (though far from the best) division in college football, but this year -- this year really is something special.

On Saturday, Miami-Pitt and UNC-Duke came down to dramatic endings, and for the season, eight of the 13 intradivisional games have been decided by a TD or less. There are only four teams in FBS with five games or more decided by a TD or less, and three of them reside in the Coastal. Favorites in Coastal matchups have lost more than they've won. And Virginia, a team that was handled by Louisville on Saturday, somehow remains the favorite to win the division.

It's a sad, beautiful, dramatic mess. And with it, so are our power rankings. -- David M. Hale

1. Clemson

2. Wake Forest

3. North Carolina

4. Louisville

5. Virginia

6. Pitt

7. Florida State

8. Duke

9. Virginia Tech

10. Miami

11. Boston College

12. NC State

13. Georgia Tech

14. Syracuse

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