Golden Football Rankings

Golden College Rankings After 14 Weeks

No change in top four. USC drops to 8th. Tulane is 12th, LSU 18th.

	Team	Avg.	Points	Win	Loss	Opp Wins	Opp Losses	Score Value	Opp Opps	Road Win	Home Loss	Last Week
1	Georgia	17.54	227.96	13	0	83	0	11.76	430	1.5	0.0	1
2	Michigan	17.17	223.27	13	0	80	0	10.67	365	2.0	0.0	2
3	Ohio State	16.51	198.08	11	1	63	0	9.52	289	1.5	0.0	3
4	TCU	16.00	208.04	12	1	67	3	4.78	369	0.5	0.0	4
5	Tennessee	15.79	189.51	10	2	58	4	6.73	257	1.5	0.0	6
6	Penn State	15.77	189.21	10	2	55	1	8.59	228	0.5	0.0	7
7	Alabama	15.55	186.55	10	2	55	6	6.37	267	1.0	0.0	8
8	USC	15.57	202.38	11	2	63	6	5.12	269	2.0	0.0	5
9	Clemson	15.51	201.69	11	2	63	8	6.43	294	0.0	0.0	9
10	Kansas State	15.26	198.43	10	3	59	7	5.63	270	0.0	0.0	11

"Opps. wins" is the number of victories by the teams the ranked team defeated.
"Opps. losses" is the number of losses by the teams that defeated the ranked team.
"Opp. opps" is the number of victories by the teams the defeated teams beat.
"Score value" is a measure of the margin of victory in relation to the defeated team's number of wins coupled with the margin of defeat in relation to the victorious team's number of losses.
"Road win" and "Home Loss" bonuses/penalties kick in when a team beats a road opponent that has at least six wins or loses at home to an opponent with six or more losses.

**Conference Rankings**
	Conference	Avg.	Last Week
1	SEC	13.695	1
2	Big 12	13.198	2
3	PAC 12	12.855	3
4	Big 10	12.741	4
5	ACC	12.429	5
6	America Ath. Conf.	11.933	6
7	Sun Belt	11.700	7
8	Mountain West	11.595	8
9	CUSA	11.133	9
10	MAC	11.004	10

Avg. means the average score of the teams in the conference (with 12 being the starting point for each game and going up/down depending on whether the team wins/loses).

View complete Golden Rankings ...

Did You Notice? NFL Week 12

White Heat Jets
Despite an awful offense, the 6-4 Jets were still in the postseason picture in the AFC. In an effort to get the offense back on track, the Jets made a switch at quarterback following last week's 10-3 loss to the Patriots when second-year pro Zach Wilson passed for just 77y. To the bench went Wilson in favor of another second-year player, Mike White. The result was 466y total yards, the most this season by 64 in a 31-10 thumping of the woeful Chicago Bears. White completed 22 of 28 passes for 315y with three TDs and nary an interception. Looks like the Jets have found the quarterback to lead them down the stretch for the final six games. But he'll have a stiff test this week at Minnesota, which now has video of White's performance last Sunday, something the Bears didn't have going into the game.
Kliff on Hot Seat
The Arizona Cardinals steadily improved their win-loss record in Kliff Kingsbury's first three season as an NFL head coach. But they have regressed this year and in danger of missing the postseason. Consecutive losses have dropped Arizona's record to 4-8. Kingsbury was hired because of his prolific offenses as an offensive coordinator at the University of Houston and Texas A&M and as head coach at Texas Tech. But under Kingsbury, the Cardinals haven't ranked higher than 11th in scoring, which would seem to be an underachievement with dynamic dual-threat QB Kyler Murray at the helm. In addition, Kingsbury has butted heads with Murray this season. After Sunday's 25-24 loss to the Chargers, Murray open criticized the team's schematic approach. Still, Arizona may give Kingsbury another year after signing him to an extension after last season.
Denver Dud
It's hard to fathom what's happened to Russell Wilson this year after he left Seattle for the (supposedly) greener pastures of Denver, signing a five-year, $245 million extension with $165 million guaranteed. Wilson currently has the worst completion % (58.9) of his 11-year career and by far the worst Quarterback Rating, 32.2, 22.5 points below his previous low last year. The Broncos are a disappointing 3-8 under new coach Nathaniel Hackett, who was hired after eight reasonably successful years as an NFL offensive coordinator for three different teams. Any team with a new head coach as well as a quarterback needs time to work out the kinks in its offense, but Hackett may not be given a second year to get it right. It doesn't help that the Denver defense was ranked in the top three in yards and points allowed going into Week 12.
Bucs Regress
Tampa Bay won their last two games before their Week 11 bye, showing signs of a team that addressed its early-season struggles in time for a post-Thanksgiving run to the playoffs. But Sunday produced a disappointing 23-17 overtime loss to the Browns as the Bucs blew a 17-10 fourth-quarter lead, allowing a touchdown with just 32 seconds left to force overtime. The main culprit seems to be the Bucs poor run defense. Still, the championship of the woeful NFC South is still within their grasp (as well as the other three division foes' grasp). The Saints play the Bucs Monday night in a crucial game for both teams.

Intriguing Numbers - NFL Week 12
303	Rushing yards for Josh Jacobs in the Raiders' 40-34 victory over the Seahawks. He had a career day despite coming into the game with a calf injury.
5	Times this season Jacobs has topped 150y from scrimmage, second in franchise history to Hall of Famer Marcus Allen's seven.
216	Carries this season by Jacobs
17	Second-most carries by a Raiders' back this season - QB Derek Carr
38	Rushing yards by Derrick Henry in the Titans' 20-16 loss to the Bengals, his second lowest total of the season
54.1	QB Trevor Lawrence's QBR in his second season with the Jaguars, much better than his 33.5 QBR as a rookie
40	Total points allowed by the 49ers in the last four weeks, including 0 points in the second half
1-8	Bears' record in their last nine games
8-0	Dolphins' record this season when QB Tua Tagovailoa has been healthy
6-1	Commanders' record in their last seven games, although they are still in last place in the tough NFC East by a half game
32	Total wins by the four teams in the NFC East, which is 12 more than the NFC North and NFC West and 14 more than the NFC South
105	Yards gained by Washington RB Brian Robinson against the Falcons, his highest total of the season and not bad for a guy who was shot twice during an attempted carjacking three months ago

Golden NFL Rankings after 12 Weeks

Top five stay the same. Cincinnati and Washington jump into the top ten.

#	Team	Avg.	Points	Win	Loss	Opp. Wins	Opp. Losses	Margin Value	Last Week
1	Philadelphia	18.48	203.27	10	1	50	5	4.77	1
2	Minnesota	18.35	201.85	9	2	48	4	1.68	2
3	Dallas	18.09	199.03	8	3	47	15	6.03	3
4	Kansas City	17.73	195.00	9	2	46	10	4.05	4
5	Buffalo	17.64	194.00	8	3	42	9	5.58	5
6	Miami	17.30	190.25	8	3	38	10	1.26	7
7	Baltimore	17.00	187.00	7	4	37	17	2.74	6
8	Cincinnati	16.82	185.00	7	4	39	21	2.76	12
9	Washington	16.76	201.15	7	5	32	17	0.65	11
10	Tennessee	16.75	184.25	7	4	29	13	0.52	8

"Opp. wins" means the total number of wins by the teams that ranked team defeated.
"Opp. losses" means the total number of losses by the teams that defeated the ranked team.

Teams with the highest jump in rankings this week: Cincinnati and Jacksonville,
four places each.
Teams with the biggest fall: Seattle and Arizona four places each.
The Saints dropped one spot to 26th.

Complete Golden NFL rankings

AFC and NFC North swap places as do the AFC and NFC West.

**Division Rankings**
Rank	Division	Average	Last Week
1	NFC East	17.446	1
2	AFC East	16.943	2
3	AFC North	16.097	4
4	NFC North	16.028	3
5	AFC West	15.631	6
6	NFC West	15.397	5
7	AFC South	15.353	7
8	NFC South	14.952	8

Overall: NFC 16.254, AFC 15.582

Did You Notice? College Football Week 13

Remaining Undefeated Teams - No Change

Georgia Michigan TCU
Four teams in the CFP Top Ten lost
#2 Ohio State, #5 LSU, #8 Clemson, and #9 Oregon
Heisman Confidence
USC sophomore QB Caleb Williams led the Trojans' 38-27 victory over Notre Dame. He completed 18 of 22 passes for 232y with 1 TD and 0 INTs. He ended the regular season completing 65.8% of his passes for 3,712y. He threw for 34 TDs with only 3 INTs.
Fans chanted "Heisman" during the game, and a few in the front row of the student section had the word painted across their chests. Williams' teammates kept telling him to take the Heisman pose until he finally did it in the second quarter.
Williams left Oklahoma when OU Coach Lincoln Riley took the USC job. Caleb still has to play another year of college ball before declaring for the NFL draft. The Trojans' prospects for 2023 look great.
Another QB Drops from the Top
Going into last week's games, Ohio State QB C.J. Stroud was the consensus favorite for the Heisman. But the 45-23 home loss to Michigan in the annual finale, coupled with a loss in Ann Arbor the year before, undoubtedly dropped Stroud from the lead position despite the incredible numbers he put up in his two seasons as Buckeye starter: 7,775y passing with 81 touchdowns. He is the first Ohio State quarterback to pass for more than 3000y in multiple seasons. Stroud wasn't to blame for OSU's losses to Michigan the last two years. In both games, the Wolverines ran the ball effectively and this year gashed the Buckeye defense with five TDs of 45y or longer.
Stroud was philosophical afterward: "People are going to say I never won The Game, and I understand. People are going to say I never won the Big Ten championship, I understand. ... This game's really on me. I've got to do more."
SEC and Big Ten Championship Games Are Anti-Climactic
LSU's loss to Texas A&M took whatever luster was left on their title game against undeated Georgia this Saturday. The undefeated Bulldogs are solid 14-point favorites over the 9-3 Tigers, who finished 6-2 in the West with their victory over Alabama being the tiebreaker. The actual SEC championship game was Georgia's 27-13 victory over Tennessee in Week Nine.
The Big Ten faces a similar situation. 12-0 Michigan faces 8-4 Purdue (6-3 in conference games) in a lame ending to the conference season after the Wolverines beat the Buckeyes in the real championship game.
So Is the Big 12 Title Clash
The Big 12, which actually has only 10 teams (although they will be 12 again when they add four schools to replace Texas and Oklahoma when they join the SEC July 1, 2025), plays a complete round-robin, with every team playing the other nine conference foes. So their championship game is always a repeat. This year's game matches undefeated TCU, #4 in the latest CFP rankings and due to move up a notch with Ohio State's loss, against #12 Kansas State (9-3). The two met in Fort Worth October 22 with the Horned Frogs winning 38-28. They play again Saturday at AT&T Stadium in Dallas.
As is probably true for the SEC (except LSU fans) and Big Ten (except Purdue fans), Big 12 fans (except for Kansas State rooters) will be pulling for TCU to win so the conference champion gets a berth in the CFP.
A Look Back at the Preseason Rankings
Here's the top ten teams from the Amway Coaches Preseason Poll with their actual record this season.
1. Alabama (10-2)
2. Ohio State (11-1)
3. Georgia (12-0)
4. Clemson (10-2)
5. Notre Dame (8-4)
6. Michigan (12-0)
7. Texas A&M (5-7)
8. Utah (9-3)
9. Oklahoma (6-6)
10. Baylor (6-6)

Intriguing Numbers - NCAA Week 13
7	Consecutive wins by Clemson over South Carolina, tied for longest streak in the history of the rivalry, before the Gamecocks pulled the 31-30 upset.
40	Consecutive home wins by Clemson, the longest streak in the nation, before Saturday's loss
68-3	Margin by which Clemson won against South Carolina in 2020 and 2021
2011	Last time Michigan beat Ohio State before the Wolverines did it back-to-back in 2021-22.
1	Times in program history that Texas Tech beat Oklahoma and Texas in the same season after doing so this year under former high school coach Joey McGuire.
2011	Last time Texas Tech beat Oklahoma before this season
2	Times Tulane has played for its conference crown as they host Central Florida Saturday. The other time was 1949 when they were upset by LSU in the annual finale.
8	Fewest wins in a season by Liberty in the four years that Hugh Freeze has been their coach