COLLEGE FOOTBALL TODAY RANKS BAMA FOOTBALL #1 IN WK 9

CFB TOP 25

The College Football Today CFB top 25 was the most popular page on my deceased step brother CollegeFootballToday.Org, who was able to peg the CFB top 25 two to three weeks ahead of all top 25 rankings for three entire CFB seasons. Check out the CFB week 9 Top 25 analysis, which is also featured on College Football Today RokFin! 

COLLEGE FB TOP 25 WK 9

​I expect the College FB top 25 for wk 9 to be a lot of different than the AP top 25 for week 9, as I kinda already know the moves they most likely will be making in their political polling methods. Much like the old NCAA football video game, the program prestige factor seems to hold a lot of weight in the CFB Top 25 polls as well as football recruit rankings. Having mulled through almost 3000 football recruits the past few years, I have watched three star recruits become five star recruits just by committing to a prestigious football program. Many of them from 2018 & 2019 have yet to see the football field and many are some of the best players in College Football Today. It has been 50/50 for the most part as far as production on the field is concerned. I do hold the pollsters in a high regard who have voted week in and week out for the teams we placed in the Top 25 way in advance. These teams like Coastal Carolina, Marshall and Liberty are playing undefeated football and if you study head to head match-ups across the board, they have proven themselves to be top 25 teams. As I look below at the "others receiving votes" in the AP Top 25 last week, I see that many agreed that Liberty should have been in last week, as they were able to garner 37 top 25 AP votes. The quandary of having multiple conferences starting play at separate times of year, I understand can be quite a conundrum and things will change substantially as we move further into the 2020-2021 college football season.  I know Memphis beat UCF, who the AP holds in high regard due to their prolific offense, but being able to stop another team from scoring is also a part of the game of American football and executing on Special Teams weekly. Even though I have released articles on many coaches and teams, I did it for the same reason 99% of media channels do it, because it was a trending topic and I happened to know a lot about the history of the greatest coaches in College Football Today. I also have been lucky enough to travel the country and visit many of these amazing college football facilities and Universities. My agenda over the years was solely to help young men get exposure and recruited by these programs and not to get subscriptions, get clicks or sell fan gear. In last week's Top 25, we actually had 24 out of the 25 teams that the AP choose to rank in their Top 25 poll. The Bearcats blew out SMU yesterday and Memphis lost to SMU, so my justification was to give SMU a one game pass and keep them in the FBS top 25 this week, instead of giving Memphis the 24th spot. Oklahoma will be in the AP Top 25 in my opinion, based off the prestige factor and they dismantled a very good TCU football team by a score of 33 to 14. This week, I gave that spot to Kansas State, who beat Oklahoma head to head in Norman after losing to Arkansas State. They have since beaten a very good Texas Tech team, TCU and Kansas, but will have a lot to prove moving forward. I also believe that the AP will possibly add Auburn back to the top 25 and possibly keep Iowa State in, as they lost a closely contested match-up to 6th ranked Oklahoma State by a score of 37-30. Iowa State's other loss came to Louisiana-Lafayette to start the season and Coastal Carolina beat them head to head, as well crushed Arkansas State who beat Kansas State by a score of 52 to 23. In my opinion, Tulsa could also be in the AP top 25 according to the votes last week, but that was before we got to see the likes of Northwestern and other Big Ten conference teams in action. We might even see the Ragin Cajuns back in the AP top 25, but  many of the teams listed below lost this week and Indiana was able to topple Top 10 Penn State in dramatic fashion. We both obviously had Penn State ranked too highly and as Steve Levy stated on national television, "The AP will probably keep Penn State in the Top 25, because it's the AP voters". This statement further proves the politics behind how the AP Top 25 works and I believe it is why the College Football Playoff committee exists. After watching Ohio State play against Nebraska today, I don't believe Penn State will beat the Buckeyes and may start the season out 0-2, which doesn't warrant a Top 25 ranking at this juncture of the college football season. Utah Coach Kyle Whittingham boasts a 131-64 record and has the Utes ready to play week in and week out, as it really came down to them in Purdue for the 25th spot in the week 9 College Football Today FBS Top 25. I know Utah has yet to play  game, but you guys are doing it, so why can't we? In going by solely the eye test, head to head match-ups and statistics, I couldn't really find a team that I felt comfortable putting in that spot in the week 9 College Football Today FBS Top 25. 

College Football Top 25
The college football top 25 at College Football Today, has moved Alabama slightly ahead of Clemson at this point in the college football season. Having got to watch each game, I believe Alabama once again has the best defense in the nation and are going back to pounding the football, while setting up their prolific play-action passing attack. I understand they lost arguably their best wide receiver in Jaylen Waddle and we pray for a quick recovery before he either elects to enter the 2021 NFL Draft or returns to Alabama for his senior season. But the offense didn't seem to slow down much without him and the power style running sets Bama used against Georgia and Tennessee, are exactly what is needed to play more ball control offense, while still utilizing play-action to go over the top of the defense for huge chunks of yardage. Alabama Quarterback Mac Jones has proven that he can thread the needle on deep passes down the field and execute the offense extremely efficiently through the first five games of the season. The remainder of the Crimson-Tide's schedule is all games they should win handily, as they play Miss State, LSU, Kentucky, Auburn and Arkansas to finish out 2020 SEC football play. Of course, we have seen some crazy things happen in the Iron Bowl, but ever since the Bama defense woke up after letting up over 50 points to Ole Miss, it appears they are gradually getting better week by week. According to ESPN, Mac Jones has a higher passer rating this season than Clemson QB Trevor Lawrence and when you watch the games, Jones is making much tougher throws down the field, as Lawrence is throwing mostly quick screen passes and letting his play-makers do the rest. This not a knock on Trevor Lawrence, as he is currently one of my highest rated QB's for the 2021 NFL Draft, it is just statistical analysis, as well as the eye test from observing both quarterbacks this season. Both Jones and Lawrence are arguably two of the most pro ready quarterbacks at this juncture of the college football season and we could be seeing them face-off in the national championship down the road. 

FBS TOP 25
We have had Ohio State ranked 3rd in the College Football Today FBS top 25 for a few weeks now and it's because we believe that Justin Fields is the best overall quarterback in the nation. When you watch his decision making and pin-point accuracy, you cannot deny that he should be the first quarterback taken in the 2021 NFL Draft. It comes as no surprise that he was 20-21 passing against Nebraska and finished the game with a 237.1 rating according to ESPN.  We also have watched the NFL move to more mobile quarterbacks and depending on what team is picking, Fields fits the mold of a prolific passing dual-threat QB. Ohio State has stocked ample weapons around him and appears to have one of the best defenses once again in the Big Ten. I had already posted on Facebook days ago, that the Nebraska game would be no contest in Columbus, Ohio. We will see how the Buckeyes fair on the road in Happy Valley, but after watching a very talented Indiana team defeat the Nittany Lions yesterday, I don't think they can handle this Ohio State team in 2020. Ohio State's remaining schedule after departing Happy Valley, features Rutgers, Maryland, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan St and Michigan to end the season in Columbus, Ohio. Coach Ryan Day has stated many times that this is the best Buckeyes he has coached and from watching their opening performance, I am 100% sold on the Ohio State football team early in the 2020 college football season. The Michigan Wolverines also played outstanding football in week one and have seemed to solve their issues at the quarterback position with Joe Milton at the helm, but have not been consistent week to week in the past. They have jumped all the way up to the number 9 spot in our FBS week nine top 25, after a 49 to 24 win over Top 25 ranked Minnesota, but will play in State rival Michigan State, Indiana, Wisconsin, Rutgers, Penn State, Maryland and finish the season against Ohio State. This proves to not be an easy schedule, except for Maryland, who Northwestern took to the wood shed and defeated 43-3 at home. After that epic performance by the Wildcats, we had no choice but to put them in this weeks FBS Top 25. After watching the Michigan game, I do believe they could be the only team in the Big 10 that could topple the almighty Buckeyes, but we will have to wait and see how things transpire moving forward. We will see if the Hoosiers can upset Michigan, Ohio State and Wisconsin, as they have arguably one of the toughest schedules in Big Ten play. I do believe if they in at least one of these games they will remain a Top 25 team at the end of the 2020 college football season. The Boilermakers were able to beat Iowa in their opening game and we could see them enter the top 25, as they play Illinois, Wisconsin, Northwestern, Minnesota, Rutgers, Nebraska and Indiana to end the season for the old oaken bucket. 

AP TOP 25
​When the AP top 25 comes out today, I honestly could care less if we have similar top 25 rankings, as this was also created to draw exposure for the outstanding football recruits we find through the world's largest football recruiting network. The sport of College Football has a million statistics, players, coaches and schemes that make it very easy to make a case for one team or another. The same goes for identifying football players as a recruit or for the NFL Draft. In knowing this, I actually do my due diligence and use my 25 years of playing the game of American football to rationalize recruit and top 25 rankings. We honestly never get to see a case from the Associated Press and it's normally because they don't really have one. After they placed Texas in the Top 25 after losing to TCU head to head at home, it all made sense, they stick to what they know and who puts food on their plates. This shouldn't trickle down to the recruiting world, but from conducting national recruit rankings the past few years, it certainly has and it's a major reason why we have seen FCS over FBS upsets, as well as many FCS, D2 and even D3 players getting selected in the NFL Draft. Somethings you can't overcome as a Student-Athlete when the deck is completely stacked against you, so I encourage you to control what you can control and become the best student-athlete you can be on and off the field. No matter what level you play at, you will have the tools to become something that is unstoppable if that is the direction you choose in your daily process. In order to achieve success in the football industry, you must become obsessed with refining your daily habits, goals and most importantly your mind-set. The best athletes I have been lucky enough to play with never cared what anyone else thought about them, they stuck to the core principals they were taught at an early age and were able to build upon that solid foundation. You have the choice to be whatever you wanna be life, but making the sacrifices to get to the mountaintop is never an easy task. 

FOOTBALL RECRUIT RANKINGS 
I have been slowly moving the football recruit rankings to RokFin channel, as I now have a very large scope on around 3,000 football recruits from the class of 2021 to 2025. I have never been a fan of football recruit rankings, as any recruit can evolve into a top tier football recruit by the time they get to the college level. Some recruits I have learned develop later in the process and hit growth spurts, learn new techniques or just one day develop the work ethic needed to dominate the opposition. Every NCAA evaluation period, which lasts from April 15th to May 31st I have ranked incoming recruits for free by using the data from over 20,000 recruiting profiles that have come in since Scout Trout Elite LLC started on Thanksgiving of 2016. This time of year is extremely busy in both recruiting, covering college football games and scouting for the upcoming NFL Draft. So, at this point, if you want to join the world's largest network and get ranked, create a recruiitng profile. If not, I will be skimming through them starting April 15th and all the way until May 31st. You can also subscribe to the Rokfin channel after submitting a recruiting profile and I will add your name to the list. In totality, I have completely lost track of the amount of offers that have gone out to recruits ranked through the STEP ratings algorithm and in the recruiting database, which is not a bad thing, but I can't respond to the millions of direct messages, emails and texts to be ranked from players, coaches and parents. I will be checking DM's, emails and voicemails this week, but I have to stick to the process that helped this platform become what it is today. I will be talking more about the recruit rankings on national media networks this week and what I discovered since starting this project after the 2018 Scout Trout All-American Bowl in Mobile, Alabama the weekend of the NFL Reese's Senior Bowl. 
New 2021 NFL Draft Prospect form can be found on the home page of College Football Today & ScoutTrout.com

NFL DRAFT PROSPECTS

Check out the highly popular College Football Today NFL Draft prospects and 2021 NFL prospect rankings on Scout Trout Elite by clicking on the image of potential future NFL Draft picks below!