College Football Rankings 2018: Final post-bowl AP Top 25 projections
By Zach Bigalke
10. Washington State Cougars (11-2)
Washington State wrapped up the best season in school history with a 28-26 takedown of Iowa State in the Alamo Bowl. Mike Leach’s team won 11 games for the first time ever, and reached double digits in the win column for the first time in 15 years. Though Gardner Minshew racked up just 299 yards on his 49 passing attempts, he threw for two touchdowns and punched in another on the ground. The Alamo Bowl win will push Wazzu back into the top 10 of the AP Top 25.
9. Texas Longhorns (10-4)
Texas took care of business in the Sugar Bowl against Georgia, downing the SEC East champion Bulldogs 28-21 for their 10th win of 2018. Sam Ehlinger led the Longhorns with three rushing touchdowns, and he added 169 yards through the air on 19-of-27 passing. With a 1-1 record against Big 12 rival Oklahoma, the Longhorns will likely get a bump into the top 10 but will slot in somewhere just behind Georgia due to having one more total loss on the resume.
8. Georgia Bulldogs (11-3)
Georgia won’t fall far in the AP Top 25, even after losing the Sugar Bowl 28-21 against a top-15 Texas team that also finished as the runner-up in their Power Five conference. The Bulldogs will once again be the SEC East favorite in 2019, as they bring back the bulk of what was still a young team in 2018. The AP voters are going to drop them just a couple of spots behind the LSU team they lost to during the regular season.
7. LSU Tigers (10-3)
After dealing UCF their first loss in two seasons, LSU looks poised to end the 2018 season in the top 10 of the AP Top 25. The Tigers got a huge showing from quarterback Joe Burrow in the Fiesta Bowl, bolstering their hopes for 2019. Look for Ed Orgeron’s team to vault up three to five spots in the final AP poll of the season, as the voters see fit to reward LSU for earning 10 wins against one of the toughest schedules in the country.
6. Floria Gators (10-3)
The blowout of Michigan is going to boost Florida considerably in the final AP Top 25 of 2018, as Dan Mullen’s team locks up its position as the top-ranked SEC East team in the poll. All season long, pollsters put a lot of stock into Florida’s 27-19 win at home over LSU, and that is the head-to-head contest that will remain most important in the final calculus of the poll. The order could be different, but Florida-LSU-Georgia will be No. 6 through No. 8 in the final rankings.