Top 25: Saturday Blitz Final 2014 College Football Rankings

Jan 1, 2015; Tampa, FL, USA; Auburn Tigers tight end C.J. Uzomah (81) reacts after he scored a touchdown with tight end Hunter Wood (37) against the Wisconsin Badgers during the second half in the 2015 Outback Bowl at Raymond James Stadium. Wisconsin Badgers defeated the Auburn Tigers 34-31 in overtime. Mandatory Credit: Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports

17. Auburn Tigers, 8-5 (4-4)

Last Game: Lost to Wisconsin Badgers 34-31 in Overtime in the Outback Bowl

Before you scream insane SEC Bias, just hear this out: Auburn, although only 8-5, played by every metric the toughest schedule in college football this year. Okay, so the SEC West wasn’t as dominant as we thought. It was still a tough division, and the Tigers had to play the best team from the East, Georgia, and Kansas State out of conference.

Wisconsin in the bowl game only made it look that much more difficult. Even with the heartbreaking close loss to the Badgers to fall to 8-5, we have to say the Tigers did enough to be in this situation. Beating Kansas State on the road counts, as does beating Ole Miss and LSU. There are no bad losses on this team’s schedule.

We knew after last year that Gus Malzahn’s bunch would wake up eventually, and that’s exactly what they did with their November collapse, losing three of their last four, with Wisconsin making it four of five.

That doesn’t mean this was not a Top 25 team this year, and the resume is good enough to keep them in and over quite a few other teams.

Next: No. 16 Ranked Team