No major shake-up in Ryan Aber’s Top 25

There wasn’t too massive of a shake-up this week, with no major upsets among the top 25.

My top six — Alabama, Georgia, TCU, Penn State, Wisconsin and Miami — remained unchanged. I shuffled a bit after that, putting Clemson at No. 7 and slotting Notre Dame, Oklahoma, Ohio State and Oklahoma State after that.

Clemson gets the nod thanks to its strength of schedule to this point. Yes, it lost to Syracuse, but the Tigers also have plenty of impressive wins on the schedule already. Notre Dame continues to impress, with its only loss coming in a close one to Georgia. The Fighting Irish’s schedule is difficult the rest of the way, though.

Oklahoma, Ohio State and Oklahoma State are bunched up tight. OU gets the nod thanks to its win over Ohio State. OU has the worst loss of the three by a clear margin, but it also has the best win of the three, again by a large margin. Strength of victory plays bigger than putridness of loss, so the Sooners get the edge.

I continue to be surprised that LSU is ranked by many — and stands at No. 23 in this week’s poll — while Mississippi State remains unranked.

Not only did the Bulldogs beat the Tigers, they blew them out, winning 37-7.

They have the same number of losses and though LSU does have the win over Auburn on its resume, it also has a loss to Troy. Mississippi State lost to Auburn, true, but the Bulldogs’ only other loss came to Georgia.

Mississippi State doesn’t figure to have to fight for its ranking next week if it can win. The Bulldogs travel to face Texas A&M on Saturday. If the Aggies win that game, they’ll move back into my poll for sure.