2006 NCAA Football Rankings

Voters do not look too kindly to 17 point defeats, but when they come at home, you can expect a precipitous fall. That is exactly what happened.

Auburn’s loss turned out to be Florida’s gain. Florida moved from 5th all the way up to second, after an impressive 23-10 win over a very good LSU team. As we have it, these two teams meet this week at Auburn in what is shaping up as the early game of the week. The spread for this contest is currently Auburn -1.5.

The Gators are right behind top ranked Ohio State, who has remained at the top of the polls the entire season so far. The Buckeyes are on the road this week against a Michigan State team that is in free-fall mode. Ohio State is 14.5 point favorites.

Number three ranked, USC fell behind the Gators after two lackluster performances in a row. Two weeks ago, they survived at Washington State, 28-22. This past Saturday, they only beat Washington by six points at home, 26-20. The Trojans get Arizona State at home this week, and are favored by 19 points with receiver Dwayne Jarrett likely in the line-up.

Rounding out the top five are two undefeated teams, Michigan (6-0) and West Virginia (5-0). Michigan is playing as good as any team in the country. They are at Penn State this week and are 6.5 point favorites.

West Virginia got their running game going last week in a 42-14 win at Mississippi State. Running back, Steve Slaton had 185 yards on the ground. They play Syracuse at home this week and are 25.5 point favorites.

The rest of the top 10 teams are Texas, Louisville, Tennessee, Notre Dame and California.

Watch out for Texas, as they are likely to go undefeated the rest of the way. They are hoping that enough teams in front of them lose a game so they can squeak into the national championship game. It would be interesting to see the Longhorns play Ohio State given how the Buckeyes handled them so easily in Austin back in Week Two.

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