Miss. State takes over No. 1 in college football Power Rankings after Week 7
Growing up my interests didn’t fall too far from many other suburban kids. I played sports -- organized and in the street or the backyard -- watched cartoons, got into trouble and loved, loved, video games. (Now I mostly just get into trouble and still watch cartoons.)
I gravitated towards fighting and beat ‘em up games, which I wasn’t all that good at playing, but I had a lot of fun with them. I poured quarters into the usual suspects: "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles," "Mortal Kombat II," "Street Fighter II," "The Simpsons" and others, but I especially liked the "X-Men" arcade game. Everyone typically had a player they gravitated towards, and it became a kind of Buzzfeed quiz of the early 90s. (“I’m a Nightcrawler!” “My best friend is a Colossus!”)
Punt, Pass & Pork: What do we know at the season's midway point?
My problem was I never could focus on any one particular character. Everybody had a weakness. Everybody got boring after awhile. More and more I’m feeling the same way about the crop of top teams in the 2014 college football season. There are a few teams out there that can make a run through the robots, goons and super villains, but everybody’s stuck with something that keeps them from being unstoppable. There are no cheat codes this year.
So while a new top team emerges, it’s just as possible to see them get knocked to the deck, forced to pump another quarter in to continue and select another character -- until it’s Game Over and time to see which four teams can put their initials in with their high scores.
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1. Mississippi State Bulldogs
PREVIOUS: 4
RECORD: 6-0
Next game: Oct. 25 at Kentucky
2. Ole Miss Rebels
PREVIOUS: 3
RECORD: 6-0
Next game: Saturday vs. Tennessee
3. Florida State Seminoles
PREVIOUS: 1
RECORD: 6-0
Next game: Saturday vs. Notre Dame
4. Baylor Bears
PREVIOUS: 7
RECORD: 6-0
Next game: Saturday at West Virginia
5. Notre Dame Fighting Irish
PREVIOUS: 6
RECORD: 6-0
Next game: Saturday at Florida State
6. Oregon Ducks
PREVIOUS: 10
RECORD: 5-1
Next game: Saturday vs. Washington
7. Michigan State Spartans
PREVIOUS: 11
RECORD: 5-1
8. Auburn Tigers
PREVIOUS: 2
RECORD: 5-1
Next game: Oct. 25 vs. South Carolina
9. Georgia Bulldogs
PREVIOUS: 13
RECORD: 4-1
Next game: Saturday at Arkansas
10. TCU Horned Frogs
Next game: Saturday vs. Oklahoma State
11. Alabama Crimson Tide
PREVIOUS: 9
RECORD: 5-1
Next game: Saturday vs. Texas A&M
12. Oklahoma Sooners
PREVIOUS: 12
RECORD: 5-1
Next game: Saturday vs. Kansas State
13. Kansas State Wildcats
PREVIOUS: 14
RECORD: 4-1
Next game: Saturday at Oklahoma
14. Ohio State Buckeyes
PREVIOUS: 17
RECORD: 4-1
Next game: Saturday vs. Rutgers
15. East Carolina Pirates
Next game: Oct. 23 vs. UConn
16. Oklahoma State Cowboys
PREVIOUS: 18
RECORD: 5-1
Next game: Saturday at TCU
17. Arizona State Sun Devils
PREVIOUS: 21
RECORD: 4-1
Next game: Saturday at Stanford
18. Nebraska Cornhuskers
19. USC Trojans
RECORD: 4-2
Next game: Saturday vs. Colorado
20. Arizona Wildcats
PREVIOUS: 8
RECORD: 5-1
21. Clemson Tigers
PREVIOUS: 23
RECORD: 4-2
22. Utah Utes
RECORD: 4-1
23. Washington Huskies
RECORD: 5-1
24. Minnesota Golden Gophers
RECORD: 5-1
Next game: Saturday vs. Purdue
25. Marshall Thundering Herd
PREVIOUS: 25
RECORD: 6-0
Next five: Stanford, Duke, UCLA, Colorado State, Kentucky
