Frogs Fall to 10th in AP, 12th in Coaches Poll Ahead of Tuesday’s CFP Rankings

As expected, TCU fell in both of Sunday’s polls, dropping from 4th in both to 10th and 12th in the AP and Coaches respectively. Frankly, I am okay with this. It was a bit of a pipe dream to think the Frogs could make it through the meat-grinder that is the Big 12 this season unscathed, and if you’re going to take an L, might as well be against a ranked foe on the road early enough to recover. Iowa State, who flew up the charts from 25th to 14/16 certainly earned the victory, and looked every part of a conference contender in the victory.

While pundits have said that the loss of the Big 12’s only unscathed team all but eliminates the conference from playoff contention, that’s just patently untrue, as four teams share the honor of sitting atop the leaderboard halfway through B12 play. Iowa State, who now holds two significant tie-breakers, with a game against Oklahoma State still to come, can assert themselves as the favorite with a win in Morgantown next week, and OU and TCU can enter back into the conversation with wins against OSU and Texas next weekend ahead of their head-to-head in Norman two weeks from now.

The Big 12 still has four teams in the Top 25, with Oklahoma holding the highest ranking at #8. Oklahoma State has steadily risen back up the charts and trails TCU by a single place, while Iowa State made the aforementioned jump. WVU falls just outside of the Top 25 coming off of being dominated at home by Okie State.

Alabama remains in the number one spot and holds a shrinking lead over second-place Georgia, with Ohio State back in the voters favor at #3 after they wild win over Penn State, while undefeated Wisconsin, who you and I have played as equally impressive of a schedule as, rounds out the top four.

Notre Dame is becoming a true contender as they jump into fifth off of a big win over NC State, and Clemson, Penn State, OU, and still undefeated Miami round out the top ten. UCF is the lone unblemished team outside the top ten at #15, and Memphis is the next highest rated Group of Five team at 22.

The Coaches’ Poll is dumb and has us behind Oklahoma State so I render their thoughts irrelevant.

Ultimately, we know that this weekend’s rankings, as well as Tuesday’s inaugural playoff ones, mean very little. For TCU fans, instead of worrying about all that went wrong, let’s turn our attention to Texas and getting to 8-1. I thought John Diarse said it best Sunday morning:

We are always better as the underdog anyway.

Eyes Up! Keep Climbing!