College Football Rankings 2018: Final post-bowl AP Top 25 projections

15. Penn State Nittany Lions (9-4)

Penn State couldn’t overcome an early deficit against Kentucky, falling 27-24 at the Citrus Bowl in Orlando. Veteran quarterback Trace McSorley threw for 249 yards, added 75 more yards on the ground, and scored three total touchdowns. It proved too little to take down the Wildcats, and Penn State fell a game short of reaching 10 wins for the third straight season. They will still sit somewhere in the mid-teens of the final AP Top 25.

14. Washington Huskies (10-4)

Washington acquitted themselves impressively in defeat at the Rose Bowl, losing 28-23 to Ohio State after doing their best to engineer a fourth-quarter comeback. Falling behind 28-3 through three quarters, the Huskies then scored 20 unanswered points in the fourth quarter but fell short of pulling off the win. Even so, they won 10 games and claimed their second Pac-12 title in the past three years, earning a top-15 spot in the final AP Top 25 for the season.

13. UCF Knights (12-1)

UCF is going to tumble out of the top 10 in the final AP Top 25 for 2018 after their 25-game winning streak was snapped by LSU in a 40-32 Fiesta Bowl loss. The Knights finished as the top Group of Five team and are one of one five teams to finish the year with no more than one loss. They will still land somewhere in the top 15 when all is said and done, thanks to one of the most prolific offenses in the country, but they missed their chance for a top-five finish.

12. Syracuse Orange (10-3)

Syracuse had not been to a bowl game since 2013, so just getting over that hump was a big deal this season. But Dino Babers and his team did one better, winning 10 games for the first time since the Orange last pulled off the feat in 2001. A 34-18 win over West Virginia in the Camping World Bowl sealed the deal on double digits in the win column, as senior Eric Dungey threw for 303 yards and a touchdown on 21-of-30 passing against the Mountaineers.

11. Kentucky Wildcats (10-3)

Kentucky is going to end the year on the cusp of the top 10 in the AP Top 25 after winning their 10th game of the season in a 27-24 victory over Penn State in the Citrus Bowl. The Wildcats survived a late scare against the Nittany Lions to ensure their best finish since 1977, and they will finish in the AP Top 25 for the first time since 1984. Mark Stoops has steadily built Kentucky up over his six years as head coach, and the 2018 season was the fruit of those labors.