Joel Klatt's College Football Rankings: Texas is Back, But OSU is Still No. 1

Late in the season, the top 10 is breaking down into some well-defined tiers, especially in the middle. Still, there's wiggle room, with Texas reentering the top 10 after their recent resurgence, and one school hit with a little bit of a penalty for playing a "ridiculous" November opponent. And it's becoming clear which College Football Playoff matchups some teams are going to want to avoid, too – or to exploit.

Here are Joel Klatt's top 10 rankings after another week of college football games.

1. Ohio State

Klatt's take: They're the best team in the country. Kind of, "Period. End of story." I know some people want to argue that. And if you want to argue résumés, I will absolutely agree with you – they do not have the best résumé in the country. They do have the best "turn the game on, watch them, tell me what you think about them" résumé, which is: eye test. When you watch Ohio State, that's different. Their players are different. Now, talking to a lot of different coaches that have played Ohio State during the course of the year, and every single one of them, in particular the ones that saw them last year, the national championship year, they'll start saying things like, "Yeah, that's a better team than they were a year ago." A lot of people point to the quarterback, and everybody points to the defense. Now, last year's QB Will Howard was solid, but he wasn't Julian Sayin, and that defense was No. 1 in the country, but they had to rebuild themselves during the year. They gave up a lot of points to Oregon, and didn't play well in some other games as well and still ended up being No. 1 in the country. But this defense is suffocating. They are toying with people right now.

2. Indiana

Klatt's take: I feel great about Indiana. I'm one of those guys who sits in the camp that that was a great win on Saturday against Penn State. That was a difficult win on Saturday. You've got to win without your A-game at times in difficult places under difficult situations, and they were able to do that.

What concerns me about Indiana is depth. You can see that they're a different football team without wide receiver Elijah Sarratt, without Drew Evans, their left guard, out there. They didn't have linebacker Aiden Fisher the week prior. So there's some issues right now from a health standpoint – they don't have the depth. They have not been recruiting at a top-10 level over the last three, four and five cycles that's necessary to survive injuries. They need everybody healthy.

3. Texas A&M

Klatt's take: Ohio State is No. 1, and then I've got these two teams sitting here. I don't love having to rank one over the other, because I love both of these teams. And inevitably, you get pinned in these corners where someone will say, "This is because of the conference affiliation."  Texas A&M at No. 3 and Indiana at No. 2 is a total flip of the coin: it could go either way for me. A&M was fantastic against Missouri. And I love the fact that they have balance and that they've won different styles of games. I'm a big fan of quarterback Marcel Reed, I'm a huge fan of coach Mike Elko. This is a good team, a great team, and they could create some damage this year and they're doing more than that.

I really like both of these teams, I think there are a couple of concerns. My concern for A&M is their run defense, they gave up over 200 yards again. A&M is 132 out of 136 in yards per carry allowed when you strip out yards lost to sacks: when you strip out sacks, A&M is allowing 5.8 yards per carry. That's a concern. There are teams that could or will exploit that. The matchup in the SEC Championship Game won't exploit that, if they play Alabama. Now, if they were to play Oregon in the playoff, then they could be exploited. Texas Tech can run the football, Notre Dame can run the football. 

4. Georgia

…and…

5. Oregon

Klatt's take: Oregon and Georgia remind me of each other. These are teams that do a lot of great things, they're physically built to win tough football games. They can win nasty football games, they can win in shootouts, they can win on the road. They remind me a lot of each other, and I don't want to play them in the playoff. If I'm anybody else, I don't really want to see one of these two teams. These coaches, obviously cut from the same cloth, are coaches that will have their team ready to go, and they will be prepared, there's no doubt.

6. Alabama

Klatt's take: I see these three spots as clumped together, this 6-5-4 area. I really want to honor the head-to-head with Georgia and Alabama, but when I group them in this grouping and I've got all three of them together, it's very clear to me that Alabama is the third of the three. And the reason is because of what I've said about answers. Oregon and Georgia have more answers, and they've shown me that they can answer the bell in more and different ways than just their best thing that they do. And because of that, I've got Alabama at No. 6. So Bama, they have that answer with the passing game, and that passing game is sensational when it's on. But then there are moments where it turns, and that's the problem. And when it turns off, it turns off for Alabama. Now the defense showed up, and they did a lot of great things against LSU – and granted, LSU, who knows what's going on there, that's a bit of a dumpster fire. This is not about me hating Alabama. I think their passing game is elite, and it's really difficult to even slow it down, and most teams won't be able to slow it down, so that means I think Alabama can beat most teams, almost every team in the country. The problem is that when that goes away, Alabama doesn't have something else to go to. You know the run game still hasn't quite got there for Alabama, and I think that could be a problem.

7. Texas Tech

Klatt's take: I'm just going to reiterate: this is a team that's easily going to be in the quarterfinal, maybe the national semifinal. And what a year. Gosh I'm happy for them. And you know why? Because they went after it, they invested. And this is what I can't stand about people out there that are like, "I can't believe what Texas Tech is doing." Texas Tech wants to win. The rules allow them to do what they're doing. If you don't like it, it's probably because you're not as committed as Texas Tech. 

8. Ole Miss

Klatt's take: I actually moved Ole Miss down a spot. I'm starting to really love this idea of penalizing teams for ridiculous opponents, in particular in November. I mean, the Citadel? Stupid. Now coach Lane Kiffin was cool, he jumped in and photobombed the selfie of the couple that got engaged on the field. Way to go, Lane. It was fun. It was fun! They'll probably love it. They'll love it forever.

9. Notre Dame

Klatt's take: I've got Notre Dame at No. 9. They took care of Navy, 49-10. Running back Jerimiyah Love (94 yards, 13 carries, 2 touchdowns vs. Navy) continues to be really good. 

10. Texas

Klatt's take: I'm going to get a lot of crap for this. That's okay. At No. 10, Texas. I know, I know. I don't want to see Texas! That's a talented bunch that's playing quality defense. If QB Arch Manning starts playing like he has in the last couple of weeks and they figure it out… you know, they took a decent Vandy team and drilled them again. That game was not anywhere close to indicative of the final score. There were some questionable officiating decisions that allowed Vandy to even put together the drives that they did. I know it's a really tough road – they may end up 8-4 and out of this thing. I might have overlooked this the entire time. But I'm going to keep Texas in my top 10.

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