‘Prove it’ Indiana, LSU & USC + McElroy’s Top 15 teams | Always College Football

Greg McElroy (0:00)

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I want every Big Ten fan to hear me out. I want every College Football fan to hear me out, by the way. The Big Ten is deeper than their historically significant logos.

Hello and welcome in. It's Always College Football. I'm your host, Greg McElroy. So happy to have you here with us today. We are just a few days away from week six kicking off. We have a lot of really exciting football. And we've got football even midweek now, man. We've made it. We got Conference USA games coming up. We're all over the place. It's a lot of fun. And we also have very much appreciated putting the previews out on Tuesdays for you the last couple of weeks. The numbers have been through the roof and I think you guys understand that we put a lot of time and effort into those previews, so we hope you're enjoying it as much as we have enjoyed putting them together. Before we get into today's show, I want to just take a moment to acknowledge greatness.

Jeremiah Smith has played five games this season. He has 823 receiving yards. He has nine touchdown catches that's tied for the most in the country. And in the last two Saturdays, he's gone for 217 against Illinois and 206 against Iowa. In the process, he's become Ohio State's all-time leader in touchdown catches. And here's the part that I absolutely love, is that the Heisman odds are going crazy all the time. And you think earlier on Saturday afternoon, Alabama rolls Mississippi State, Keelan Russell immediately becomes the Heisman favorite at plus 350 Then that lasted about an hour until Smith went to Kinnock and went bananas.

By the time he was at half time and he had a hundred plus yards, he was sitting already at plus 110 So it's amazing just to watch greatness on display. And if he wins it, he'll be the second primary wide receiver this century to take home the trophy. The last was Devontae Smith in 2020 But I just in watching and preparing for some of the games this weekend and watching tape from last week, it's just, I can't believe what that guy's doing right now. I just can't. We are so happy to have you here with us. Today we'll do our typical midweek show. We have our SEC logjam right now in our rankings. And we have to figure out a way to break the tie amongst five different teams. The Big Ten has a team right now that is painfully underrated. We'll tell you who. We also are going to talk to you a bit about the 2014 College Football Playoff and the change that will totally adjust our line of thinking as it relates to how we assess the rankings and what they should mean for us. We're also going to do five what-ifs for this upcoming Saturday. Then we'll get back to our best-bets card that's coming off a rock-solid four-in-one week, which by my count, that means that best-bets is, I think, nine and six so far this season, which is pretty good. We'll take 60% all day long. Hopefully, we can back it up again this week with a five-in-o week. Let's kick things off with our rankings. Well, here's what the rankings should be.

We'll apply the same rules as we do every single week, strength of record tells you what you've actually earned on the field. We'll also weigh in efficiency and game control. Those metrics kind of tell us how well you're actually playing. And this week, for the very first time, we have a group of teams that the numbers just flat out refuse to separate. So when we get there, we're going to show y'all exactly how we broke the tie. It's tough, I might add, and there will be some disagreement with this week's rankings. We will kick things off at the top with the number one ranked Texas Longhorns. Yes, they didn't play on Saturday. They didn't need to. They remained first in strength of record, second in strength of schedule played, and second in defensive efficiency. And Texas is the only team in the country with two wins that are currently over teams that are power rated in the top 10 with Ohio State and Tennessee. Everyone else right now is still kind of auditioning. Texas has already showcased a level of greatness so far this season that can go with anyone in college football. At number two, big change here, the Alabama Crimson Tide. They are up from number five last week. They are number one in overall efficiency. They are second in strength of record. They are second on offense in efficiency, fifth on defense in efficiency, and on Saturday in Starkville, they won by 30 plus points. Dylan Russell continues to ascend. He was 16 to 22 for 285 and three touchdowns this past weekend. Mississippi State had 95 total yards in the second half of that football game. So Alabama didn't just win the second half, they completely dominated the second half. Now the knock on Bama is that their best win right now is against Mississippi State. That team right now is around 27th in the power ratings, but they still have two road wins over teams that are both four and one, and nobody in the country has a better efficiency number than the Crimson Tide. At number three, it's Ohio State. Now we told y'all last week that our ballot was on the line in Iowa City, and the ballot, by the way, is totally fine. Thanks for asking. Thanks for your curiosity.