College football rankings: Arizona continues sinking as new No. 1 team emerges in The Bottom 25

25. Central Michigan 1-2 Central Michigan squeezes into The Bottom 25 past Illinois following a 49-21 loss to LSU. Both of the Chippewas’ losses have come against SEC teams (the other was Mizzou), and even though the Chips are 1-2, they’ve scored more points than they’ve allowed. That’s typically a good sign. This week, the Chips get FIU at home. (Last Week: Not Ranked) 24. Temple 1-2 The Owls do not believe in playing close games. Their lone win over Akron was by 21 points, and their losses to Rutgers and Boston College have been by 47 and 25, respectively. I’m sure Temple fans hope this week’s game against Wagner won’t be close, either. (NR) 23. Northern Illinois 1-2 Following the Huskies’ 63-10 loss to Michigan, coach Thomas Hammock said the Wolverines could beat Ohio State this season. I don’t know if that’s true, but if they do, at least that will help NIU’s strength of schedule down the line. The Huskies get Maine this week. (NR) 22. Miami OH 1-2 Miami picked up a win over Long Island to get out of The Bottom 10, but it’s not enough to escape the rankings. Much like Central Michigan, I don’t expect the Redhawks to stick around long once they get into their MAC schedule. They do have to play Army on the road first, though. (8) 21. Colorado State 1-2 The Rams bounced back from their 24-21 loss to Vanderbilt with a surprising 22-6 road win over Toledo. Here’s what’s not surprising: I have no idea what to expect from this team in the future! I mean, I assume they’ll lose to Iowa on Saturday, but who knows? (4) 20. North Texas 1-2 North Texas is no stranger to The Bottom 25, but it makes its first appearance of 2021 following a 40-6 loss to UAB. This week the Kind Green hit the road to take on a Louisiana Tech team that nearly knocked off both Mississippi State and SMU. (NR) 19. Florida State 0-3 I never thought I’d become emotionally invested in Florida State football, but now I find myself hosting a college football podcast with two Seminoles who are going through an emotional crisis with this program right now. I wish I could hug them both and tell them the pain will go away, but I don’t like making promises I can’t keep. The Noles get Louisville at home this week. (21) 18. Vanderbilt 1-2 OK, so let’s recap. I’m an Illinois fan, and they’re currently at No. 26. As mentioned above, I host a podcast with two Florida State guys, and the Noles are at No. 19. Meanwhile, my former podcast co-host is the general manager of the No. 18 team. Am I doing this to them? Is this my fault? I don’t know. As for Vandy, the bad news is Georgia looms this weekend. The good news is UConn follows. (19) 17. South Florida 1-2 The Bulls got on the board with their first win of the season and I’m always happy to see that. Unfortunately, life’s about to get complicated again. The Bulls are heading to Provo this week to face BYU. After that, they have dates with SMU and Tulsa. (12) 16. ULM 1-1 The Warhawks aren’t in The Bottom 10 right now, but they’re one of the teams I expect will compete for a playoff spot. I mean, they’re 1-1 and ranked in The Bottom 25. That should tell you everything you need to know about the way they’ve played through two games. This week ULM gets Troy at home. (14) 15. Ball State 1-2 The bad news for our reigning MAC champions is that they’re 1-2 following a 45-12 loss to Wyoming. The good news is none of the losses have come in conference play, as the Cardinals don’t start their MAC slate until this weekend. That’s when they’ll be hosting a Toledo team that just lost by 16 to No. 21 Colorado State. (25) 14. Arkansas State 1-2 Arkansas State found itself in a wrong place, wrong time situation. After nearly knocking off Memphis in a shootout, the Red Wolves had to hit the road to face an 0-2 Washington squad looking to take its anger out on somebody. Boy, did it ever. Washington won 52-3, and now Arkansas State hits the road again this week to face No. 13 Tulsa. (NR) 13. Tulsa 0-3 I don’t think Tulsa will be here long. Yeah, it’s 0-3, but the losses have come to UC-Davis (one of the better FCS schools around), Oklahoma State and Ohio State. The 41-20 loss to Ohio State is misleading because it was a 27-20 game with less than four minutes to play. I won’t be surprised at all if the Golden Hurricane get on the board with a win against No. 14 Arkansas State. (15) 12. Arizona 0-3 There are only four Power Five teams in The Bottom 25. That’s bound to change, but my early impressions of Arizona are that Kansas might have legit competition for Worst Power Five Team of 2021. The Wildcats lost to Northern Arizona 21-19 and play at Oregon this weekend. The Pac-12 seems pretty soft from its second tier down, so Arizona could poach a win or two, but I don’t see the Cats being favored in a single game from this point forward. (20) 11. Hawaii 1-3 Hawaii beat Portland State, but lost to UCLA, Oregon State and San Jose State. That’s two Pac-12 teams and the reigning Mountain West champions. More winnable games are coming, including the first of two — yes, two! — games against No. 8 New Mexico State. (13) 10. Georgia Southern 1-2 The Eagles were trampled by the Razorbacks in a 45-10 loss on Saturday to fall to 1-2. Their lone win came by five points over Gardner-Webb in the opener. This week, they get defending Sun Belt champion, Louisiana. The schedule eases up a bit after that, but this team hasn’t shown enough signs to convince me it’ll matter yet. (16) 9. Kansas 1-2 My Kansas under 1.5 wins ticket lives at least one more week following a 45-7 loss to Baylor. The Jayhawks travel to Duke this week, and I’m all sad that Duke beat Northwestern last week to keep it from being a matchup of two Bottom 25 teams. Life isn’t fair! (17) 8. NMSU 1-3 The Aggies are got an elusive W with a 45-35 victory over South Carolina State. That was good enough to drop them two whole spots in The Bottom 25! Let’s hope they don’t get caught looking ahead to their mid-November date with Alabama, and instead are focusing all their attention on No. 11 Hawaii because it’s The Bottom 25 Game of the Century of the Week! (6) 7. Akron 1-2 While I’m happy to see Akron finally get a win, there’s a genuine chance it’s the last they’ll pick up. What I’m trying to decide is if it’d be funnier if Akron went on the road and beat Ohio State, or if it just played well and lost close. The former would be better for the Zips, but the latter would be better for the HOT TAKES. (1) 6. UMass 0-3 Don’t look now, but the Minutemen have covered in two straight games. That’s practically a winning streak in my eyes, and this week the Minutemen will look to make it three straight covers against Coastal Carolina. I’m sure they’d take a win too. (10) 5. Ohio 0-3 Ohio is a strange team. It’s 0-3 and has been outscored 106-49, but if you look closer at the two big losses to Syracuse and Louisiana, the Bobcats weren’t horrible, either. They haven’t been good, but they’ve been better than the record and scoreboard suggest. Thankfully, this week they play a team that always has totally normal results and never raise an eyebrow: Northwestern. (11) 4. Navy 0-2 Navy had last week off. Let’s hope the Mids used the time well to prepare for this week’s game at Houston. (3) 3. UNLV 0-3 If you stayed up late to watch UNLV’s 48-3 loss to Iowa State on Saturday, you got to see a Tate Martell cameo. Yes, the quarterback I now assume to be 45 years old is on the Rebels roster, though I’m not sure we’ll see him again this week against Fresno State. (9) 2. UConn 0-4 I can already hear the complaints about UConn not being at No. 1, but there are reasons for it. By having played four games, some of UConn’s awfulness has evened out a little. Also, the No. 1 team has been awful too. You just haven’t noticed. Anyway, the Huskies will take on Wyoming this week in yet another chance to prove their dominance. (2) 1. Rice 0-3 Through four games, UConn has been outscored 184-49, losing by an average of 33.8 points per game. Rice has played three games and been outscored 140-24, losing by an average of 38.7 points per game. In fact, they’ve been outscored 123-7 over the last nine quarters. While that’s nowhere near all the information that goes into my ranking system, it’s the easiest way to make my point that the Owls have been awful, too. This week presents a winnable matchup against Texas Southern. (5)