Each week, the Sports' editorial team selects its Top 25 FBS college football teams for the Student Media Poll.
The SMP is a nationwide poll featuring 97 student journalists from schools nationwide.
The Post Sports will break down its ballots each week. Here are the top five, those dropped from the Top 25 and those added:
Bobby Gorbett, Sports Editor
Top 5
- Washington
- Georgia
- Ohio State
- Michigan
- Florida State
I was the only voter to rank Washington at No. 1 and I did so for one reason. Washington's strength of record is the best in the country. Washington has wins over Oregon, Oregon State, USC, Arizona and Utah. Washington, the best team in arguably the toughest conference in College Football, has faced the toughest tests the PAC 12 offers and still remains unscathed. For this accomplishment, the Huskies deserve the No. 1 spot.
Remaining consistent with the ideology of ranking teams in order of strength of record, Georgia, who has multiple wins over top 20 opponents like Ole Miss and Missouri and a solid win over Tennessee, deserves the No. 2 spot.
Florida State, being ranked below Ohio State and Michigan, has nothing to do with the injury of Jordan Travis and everything to do with the fact that its wins aren't aging very well. What appeared to be a very solid win over Duke at the time doesn't look as good. Duke's record is now just 6-5; LSU now has three losses as well.
Who I added
Liberty, UCLA, Oklahoma State
Liberty may be the quietest undefeated team in the country. Although the Eagles haven't played the toughest of schedules, the team still deserves credit for their undefeated season.
Yes, UCLA has four losses, but having to play in the PAC 12 against teams like Oregon State and Utah will make it easy to pick up losses. UCLA had one of its best games of the season on Saturday in a 38-20 win over USC.
Oklahoma State's loss to UCF a week ago was a disaster, and the team has its share of bad losses, including one to South Alabama. However, Oklahoma State also has very impressive wins, including ones over Oklahoma, Kansas and Kansas State. The Cowboys could very well play in the Big 12 championship game.
Who I dropped
USC, North Carolina, Kansas
It took me longer than most to remove USC, but the time has come. While the Trojans have played one of the toughest schedules in the country, if not the toughest, their latest ugly loss to UCLA left me no choice but to take them out.
North Carolina got unlucky to play Clemson at this point in the season. Clemson is one of the hottest teams in America and beat North Carolina for the second year in a row. The Tar Heels' fourth loss has them out of my top 25.
Kansas also lost its fourth game of the season over the weekend in a close game against Kansas State. Kansas is now on a two-game losing streak, having lost to Texas Tech the week prior.
