College Football Power Rankings: Week 12 (2021)
Upsets have been all the rage this year in college football, but Week 11 was an outlier. Only Oklahoma was knocked from their lofty ranking, as Dave Aranda’s Baylor Bears handed the Sooners their first loss. The tail end of the power rankings is where all the fun happened this week. We have five newcomers – the most of any week this year – a few of whom began the season in our top 25 but fell out after a key loss.
There wasn’t a ton of movement after Week 11, so let’s take a look at how the 25 best teams in college football line up as we head into the season’s home stretch.
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College Football Power Rankings Week 12
| Team (AP Rank) | Rank (Δ) | Last Week | Next Week | Notes |
| Georgia (1) | 1 | W 41-17 @ Tennessee | vs. Charleston Southern | This was Tennessee’s second-lowest scoring output, yet the most points Georgia allowed all season. |
| Alabama (2) | 2 | W 59-3 vs. New Mexico State | vs. (21) Arkansas | That’ll get the Tide back on track. |
| Ohio State (5) | 3 | W 59-31 vs. Purdue | vs. (7) Michigan State | Finally, a top-five team beats Purdue. |
| Oregon (4) | 4 | W 38-24 vs. Washington State | @ Utah | Four more rushing touchdowns for the Ducks. |
| Cincinnati (3) | 5 | W 45-28 @ South Florida | vs. SMU | Shaky start, followed by 31 unanswered for the Bearcats. |
| Michigan State (7) | 6 (+1) | W 40-21 vs. Maryland | @ (5) Ohio State | The Big Ten game of the year is upcoming in Columbus. |
| Michigan (8) | 7 (+1) | W 21-17 @ Penn State | @ Maryland | Big win by the Wolverines to keep conference title hopes alive. |
| Notre Dame (6) | 8 (+1) | W 28-3 @ Virginia | vs. Georgia Tech | The Irish are well-positioned to finish 11-1. Will it be enough to make the playoffs? |
| Oklahoma State (9) | 9 (+2) | W 63-17 vs. TCU | @ Texas Tech | The Cowboys have outscored opponents by 119 in the three games since their only loss. |
| Ole Miss (10) | 10 (+2) | W 29-19 vs. (16) Texas A&M | vs. Vanderbilt | Ugly but huge SEC win to move the Rebels to 8-2. |
| Wake Forest (13) | 11 (+2) | W 45-42 vs. North Carolina State | @ Clemson | Huge win after a crushing loss last week. |
| Baylor (11) | 12 (+7) | W 27-14 vs. (12) Oklahoma | @ Kansas State | Dave Aranda is Lincoln Riley’s kryptonite. |
| Oklahoma (12) | 13 (-7) | L 27-14 @ Baylor | vs. Iowa State | They’ve been playing with fire all season and finally got burned. |
| Texas-San Antonio (15) | 14 | W 27-17 vs. Southern Mississippi | vs. UAB | UTSA trailed by a touchdown in the third quarter, but in the end – make it ten straight for the Roadrunners. |
| Houston (17) | 15 | W 37-8 @ Temple | vs. Memphis | Houston clinched a spot in the AAC title game. |
| Texas A&M (16) | 16 (-6) | L 29-19 @ (10) Ole Miss | vs. Prairie View A&M | The Aggies had plenty of chances to beat Ole Miss, but nothing went right from start to finish. |
| Pittsburgh (20) | 17 | W 30-23 vs. North Carolina | vs. Virginia | The Panthers blew a 16-point lead but still managed to pull out a win. |
| BYU (14) | 18 | Bye | @ Georgia Southern | A quick tune-up before the season finale against USC. |
| Wisconsin (19) | 19 (+4) | W 35-7 vs. Northwestern | vs. Nebraska | The Badgers rolled to the tune of 268 rushing yards without their top tailback. |
| Iowa (18) | 20 (+2) | W 27-22 vs. Minnesota | vs. Illinois | It wasn’t pretty, as has been the case pretty much all year for Iowa. |
| Utah (24) | 21 (NR) | W 38-29 @ Arizona | vs. (4) Oregon | Probably not the performance the Utes expected, but it sets up a massive game next week. |
| Louisiana-Lafayette (22) | 22 (NR) | W 35-21 @ Troy | @ Liberty | ULL is back in our top 25 for the first time since Week 0. |
| Arkansas (21) | 23 (NR) | W 16-13 vs. LSU | @ (2) Alabama | Arkansas is back in our top 25 as well, but their stay will be short-lived if they play the way they did against LSU next week in Tuscaloosa. |
| San Diego State (23) | 24 (NR) | W 23-21 vs. Nevada | @ UNLV | Nine wins for the Aztecs, nearly every one of them as ugly as this one. |
| Mississippi State | 25 (NR) | W 43-34 @ Auburn | vs. Tennessee State | An impressive road win for an improving team. |
* (NR) = not ranked in last week’s power rankings
Big Movers
Baylor Bears
I touched on the Bears briefly in the opening and have highlighted them multiple times in past editions of the power rankings, but this is their most impressive win of the year – easily. Sure, Oklahoma hasn’t looked all that great this year despite being 9-0, but the Sooners are a giant in the Big 12, and Baylor beat them with a pretty convincing defensive effort. It didn’t matter which quarterback was under center for Lincoln Riley; Dave Aranda had the answers. This Baylor program is one to keep an eye on moving forward down in Texas.
Oklahoma Sooners
Baylor rose seven spots, and Oklahoma’s loss to the Bears sent them tumbling seven spots of their own – the Sooners’ first time outside the top 10 all year. As I just touched on, Oklahoma hasn’t looked all that great this year. They were 9-0, but it was one of the softest 9-0 records in recent memory for any Power Five team. Quarterback issues have plagued the Sooners all year, and not only were none of those issues put to rest, but more questions also arose about the future at the most important position on the field in Norman.
Texas A&M Aggies
It’s been a weird year in College Station. The Aggies lost their starting quarterback early on in the year, their offense looked utterly lost in the few weeks following, but then out of nowhere, they beat the mighty Crimson Tide of Alabama. That win put the Aggies on the map, and while they haven’t fallen off the map, they haven’t been able to regain the form they showed against Alabama. Texas A&M left many points and opportunities on the field, and while they did a solid enough job of containing a high-octane Rebel offense, their offense did nothing to take advantage of a weak Rebel defense.
Newcomers
Utah Utes
I’ve been very bearish on the Utes, especially lately. And while their nine-point win over a terrible Arizona team probably shouldn’t have been the win to convince me to include them in the top 25 finally, their entire body of work won me over. Especially in a year where seemingly no team wants to stay ranked once they make the top 25. Next weekend’s tilt with the Ducks is a huge one for Utah – obviously – but they’ve got a real shot against an Oregon team who hasn’t been able to win convincingly over anyone this year.
Louisiana-Lafayette Ragin’ Cajuns
The team with the best nickname in college football is back after a 12-week absence from the power rankings. Louisiana made my Week 0 rankings but then fell out after a loss to Texas. Since that loss, ULL is 9-0, including big wins over Appalachian State and Troy this weekend. This defense is the 12th-best in the country, giving up only 18.7 points per game, and they could be the driving force in the Cajuns getting invited to a prominent bowl game.
Arkansas Razorbacks
The Razorbacks nearly cracked the top 10 after starting the season 4-0, including wins against then-15th ranked Texas and seventh-ranked Texas A&M. However, three consecutive losses knocked them out of the top 25, despite the losses coming against Georgia, Mississippi, and Auburn, but they’ve since righted the ship. The Razorbacks took out their frustrations on FCS Arkansas Pine-Bluff, impressively beat Mississippi State, and perhaps not as impressively took down LSU in overtime. After so many years as the SEC’s doormat, it’s nice to see Arkansas finally heading in the right direction.
San Diego State Aztecs
The Aztecs are seemingly incapable of winning a game convincingly, but that’s also exactly how they want to play and win – ugly. San Diego State fell out of the top 25 after a loss to Fresno State, but they’re 9-1 and have beaten a few pretty solid teams along the way like Utah, Air Force, and Nevada. San Diego State isn’t going to wow you on offense, but whoever faces them in a bowl game should be ready for a tough test from their seventh-ranked defense.
Mississippi State Bulldogs
I grappled with this one for a long time, but in the end, I went with the Bulldogs despite their 6-4 record. They play in the SEC, and while some may disagree, it’s by far and away the toughest conference in the country – so their schedule is ferocious. Some of their losses are a bit suspect, like a Week 3 loss at Memphis. But they’ve got as many impressive wins as you could ask of a young team, including North Carolina State, Texas A&M, Kentucky, and most recently at Auburn. This Mississippi State program is still in transition, but they’re ahead of the curve.
Random Musings
Notre Dame Fighting Irish
Somehow, the Irish are 9-1 and are likely to get to 11-1 unless something insane happens in their final two games against Georgia Tech and Stanford. They caught a break against Virginia with Brennan Armstrong not playing. Still, the Irish displayed a balanced offensive attack, and after Jack Coan looked so helpless for the first few weeks of the season, he seems to have settled in as the every-down quarterback for Tommy Rees. Give credit to Brian Kelly, a coach who doesn’t get enough of it. This Irish team lost half their starters on both sides of the ball, and while they haven’t looked dominant for very long this season, they’ve got an outside shot at a third playoff berth in four years.
Cincinnati Bearcats
I’ve touched on the Bearcats briefly over the last few weeks, and sure they keep winning – but if they want to be considered for a playoff berth, they need to start putting up some style points instead of just squeaking by these inferior opponents as they hope for the teams around them to lose. This should go without saying, but a one-loss Georgia or Alabama team is getting in over Cincinnati. Whoever wins the Big Ten with one loss is also getting in. That potentially leaves only one spot for Cincinnati, the Pac-12 champion, the Big 12 champion, and the ACC champion, so the Bearcats will have to take it to SMU and East Carolina to end the regular season.
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Mike Wagenman is a featured writer at BettingPros. For more from Mike, check out his archive and follow him on Twitter @mjwags23.