Culture
Ranking 134 college football teams after Week 14: Penn State-Notre Dame and other key tossups
Editor’s note: The Athletic 134 is a weekly ranking of all FBS college football teams.
It turns out the first 12-team College Football Playoff field may be mostly locked in before championship weekend. After weeks of twists, turns and hypotheticals, figuring out the 12 teams has become mostly pretty easy by the end. But seeding those teams remains completely up in the air, and it’s where the committee will be tested.
Ten, maybe 11, teams feel like locks: Oregon, Texas, Penn State, Notre Dame, Georgia, Ohio State, Tennessee, Indiana, the Big 12 champion (Iowa State or Arizona State), the ACC champion (SMU or Clemson) and the Mountain West champion (Boise State or UNLV). That’s 11. If you believe that 11-1 SMU should be a lock regardless of the ACC Championship Game outcome, the field may be set if Clemson wins that game. If you don’t, an SMU loss would leave one spot up for grabs between Miami, Alabama, Ole Miss and South Carolina, along with the Mustangs.
But where will everyone be seeded? Will earning the No. 5 seed actually be an advantage or not? Who will have the best championship path from the quarterfinals on? Who will get the last slot to host a first-round game with the No. 8 seed?
I’ve disagreed with the committee quite a bit all season. I’ve been higher on SMU and Arizona State and lower on Miami than them. We don’t know how low Ohio State will drop after the Buckeyes’ shocking loss to Michigan, but I don’t believe it should be too far.
As it turns out, picking 12 teams may be easier this year than picking four teams. But the committee is about to set a lot of precedent: how it values wins and losses, how it reacts to conference championship losses, how it feels about the SEC. It created a firestorm by leaving Florida State out a year ago, but it was able to take the easy out, knowing that specific decision would never come up again. But there will be at least one more 12-team field after this year, and the future shape of the CFP field could depend on how the final rankings go.
GO DEEPER
Mandel’s Final Thoughts: Ohio State’s woes and other Rivalry Weekend lessons
Here is this week’s Athletic 134.
1-10
| Rank | Team | Record | Prev |
|---|---|---|---|
|
1 |
12-0 |
1 |
|
|
2 |
11-1 |
3 |
|
|
3 |
11-1 |
5 |
|
|
4 |
11-1 |
4 |
|
|
5 |
10-2 |
6 |
|
|
6 |
10-2 |
2 |
|
|
7 |
10-2 |
7 |
|
|
8 |
11-1 |
8 |
|
|
9 |
11-1 |
9 |
|
|
10 |
11-1 |
10 |
Texas handled business against Texas A&M, moving up to No. 2 with a chance to avenge its lone loss to Georgia. A win Saturday in Atlanta and an Oregon loss could put the Longhorns at No. 1. A Texas loss and a Penn State win could put the Nittany Lions at No. 1.
But I have moved Notre Dame ahead of Penn State at No. 3 this week, which in turn would put Notre Dame as the No. 5 seed in my bracket. The reason the Fighting Irish jumped the Nittany Lions is that the two now have a common opponent in USC. Penn State went to overtime with the Trojans, while Notre Dame won by 14 (and led by 21 until the final seconds, too). Yes, Notre Dame has that Northern Illinois loss hanging around its neck, but don’t forget Penn State itself trailed a MAC team (Bowling Green) at halftime and hung on for a seven-point win. If there’s one team that can’t lean too much on a MAC performance argument against Notre Dame, it’s Penn State.
The Irish have been rolling. Ten of Notre Dame’s 11 wins have come by multiple scores, and the win against my No. 24 Louisville looks better now. Penn State does have the better Best Win (No. 17 Illinois), and if the Nittany Lions beat or stay close with Oregon, they’ll go back in front of the Irish.
Ohio State drops to No. 6, and it’s an important spot ahead. A bracket following these rankings would have No. 7 Tennessee visiting Columbus in the 8 vs. 9 game, rather than the Buckeyes coming to Knoxville. The latest AP poll put Tennessee ahead of Ohio State, but I don’t get that at all. The teams’ respective losses to Michigan and Arkansas essentially cancel each other out. Ohio State still has two top-10 wins (Penn State, Indiana) and a one-point loss at No. 1 Oregon. Tennessee has the win over Alabama, no other top-25 wins and a 14-point loss to Georgia. Take out the recency bias of Saturday, and Ohio State’s resume is clearly better than Tennessee’s. We’ll see whether the committee agrees.
The rest of the top 10 stays the same with SMU, Indiana and Boise State all winning comfortably.
GO DEEPER
What we learned about the College Football Playoff: Who’s in? Who’s safe? Who’s on bubble?
11-25
| Rank | Team | Record | Prev |
|---|---|---|---|
|
11 |
9-3 |
12 |
|
|
12 |
10-2 |
13 |
|
|
13 |
10-2 |
11 |
|
|
14 |
9-3 |
14 |
|
|
15 |
9-3 |
15 |
|
|
16 |
10-2 |
16 |
|
|
17 |
9-3 |
25 |
|
|
18 |
9-3 |
20 |
|
|
19 |
10-2 |
22 |
|
|
20 |
9-3 |
28 |
|
|
21 |
9-3 |
23 |
|
|
22 |
10-2 |
24 |
|
|
23 |
10-2 |
31 |
|
|
24 |
8-4 |
29 |
|
|
25 |
9-3 |
17 |
Alabama grabs the last at-large spot in my bracket, and this is where the committee has its toughest call. The Tide have two losses to 6-6 teams, including by 21 points at Oklahoma. But they also have three clear top-25 wins against Georgia, South Carolina and Missouri. Miami has zero top-25 wins if the committee doesn’t include Louisville, and its losses are to a 9-3 Syracuse team and a 7-5 Georgia Tech team that just took Georgia to eight overtimes. Does the committee prefer the better wins or the less-bad losses? Putting a three-loss team in the field feels weird, but somebody has to be team No. 12.
Although South Carolina arguably is playing as well as anyone in the country right now, I don’t think there should be a CFP path for the Gamecocks. You all know I lean on head-to-head results when comparing teams in the same general tier. South Carolina lost to Alabama and Ole Miss, the latter a 27-3 defeat at home. I just can’t put the Gamecocks higher than those two. The games have to matter. Maybe the committee will feel differently.
Illinois jumps ahead of Colorado as an adjustment from last week. Both teams are 9-3, and Illinois went 2-0 against their common opponents (Nebraska and Kansas), while Colorado went 0-2. Syracuse moves back into the top 25 with its win over Miami; UNLV also gives Syracuse another top-25 win. Clemson barely hangs on in the top 25 because the South Carolina game was close, but the Tigers have just one win over a team with a winning record (a late escape against 7-5 Pitt), and they lost definitively at home to Louisville. And still, Clemson has a shot at the CFP in the ACC championship. Meanwhile, the Cardinals move up to No. 24 after a 41-14 win at Kentucky.
GO DEEPER
Stewart Mandel’s 12-team Playoff projections after Week 14
26-50
| Rank | Team | Record | Prev |
|---|---|---|---|
|
26 |
8-4 |
18 |
|
|
27 |
8-4 |
26 |
|
|
28 |
10-1 |
27 |
|
|
29 |
8-4 |
19 |
|
|
30 |
9-3 |
21 |
|
|
31 |
7-5 |
39 |
|
|
32 |
7-5 |
30 |
|
|
33 |
7-5 |
33 |
|
|
34 |
8-4 |
34 |
|
|
35 |
8-4 |
36 |
|
|
36 |
9-3 |
37 |
|
|
37 |
8-4 |
40 |
|
|
38 |
8-4 |
41 |
|
|
39 |
7-5 |
42 |
|
|
40 |
10-2 |
48 |
|
|
41 |
6-6 |
38 |
|
|
42 |
6-6 |
35 |
|
|
43 |
8-3 |
51 |
|
|
44 |
7-5 |
52 |
|
|
45 |
7-5 |
32 |
|
|
46 |
7-5 |
53 |
|
|
47 |
6-6 |
44 |
|
|
48 |
6-6 |
45 |
|
|
49 |
6-6 |
46 |
|
|
50 |
5-7 |
47 |
Texas A&M falls to No. 26 after its 17-7 home loss to Texas. Kansas State drops to No. 29 after a loss to Iowa State. Tulane’s loss to Memphis sees the Green Wave fall to No. 30.
Michigan jumps to No. 31 after the win against Ohio State, and Georgia Tech stays in generally the same place at No. 32 after taking Georgia to the brink. Baylor finished the season with six consecutive wins and remains at No. 34. Louisiana reached 10 wins and moves up to No. 40; the Ragin’ Cajuns will play for the Sun Belt championship this weekend.
Pitt has turned a 7-0 start into a 7-5 finish and drops to No. 45, though injuries certainly played a role in that. Vanderbilt, another former top-25 team here, falls to No. 42 after a 36-23 loss to Tennessee, giving the Commodores four losses in their last five against SEC competition. Back in the top 50 after wins are Navy (over East Carolina), Boston College (over North Carolina) and Rutgers (over Michigan State).
GO DEEPER
What does the return of Texas-Texas A&M mean? Here’s what I saw before, during and after
51-75
Nebraska drops out of the top 50 to No. 51 after yet another late loss to Iowa. Marshall came back late to beat James Madison, win the Sun Belt East and rise up to No. 52. West Virginia lost 52-15 to Texas Tech, then fired head coach Neal Brown and now falls to No. 54. Washington State, once 8-1 overall and ranked in the top 25, ended the regular season with three consecutive surprising losses to New Mexico, Oregon State and Wyoming, all of whom finished with losing records. The Cougars drop to No. 55.
No. 57 Virginia Tech and No. 58 NC State move up after rivalry wins earned them bowl eligibility. No. 65 UConn beat UMass to move to 8-4, its most wins in a season since 2010. Meanwhile, No. 60 Auburn, No. 62 Virginia, No. 63 Wisconsin, No. 64 Cincinnati and No. 67 Michigan State all drop after losses that left them to miss out on bowl games.
Western Kentucky beat Jacksonville State, so the Hilltoppers jump to No. 68, and the two teams will run it back Friday in the Conference USA Championship Game. Georgia Southern beat rival Appalachian State, and the Eagles move up to No. 71.
76-100
No. 79 Miami (Ohio) and No. 80 Ohio will play a rematch for the MAC championship on Saturday (Miami beat Ohio 30-20 in mid-October). San Jose State beat Stanford and jumped to No. 81 to cap a strong first season under Ken Niumatalolo. North Texas barely hung on but beat Temple and finally reached bowl eligibility, moving up to No. 93. Hawaii’s win against New Mexico sees the Rainbow Warriors climb to No. 98.
101-134
This is the part of the rankings in which the majority of the remaining teams are in their final landing spot, with no hope of a bowl game. Oklahoma State’s disastrous 3-9 season ended with a 52-0 loss to Colorado and an 0-9 record in Big 12 play, dropping to No. 103. The Cowboys only felt like the worst Power 4 team down the stretch — No. 104 Mississippi State, No. 105 Florida State and No. 112 Purdue were worse. Last year, there was just one Power 4 team that finished 2-10 or worse (Vandy). This year, we got three.
ULM started 5-0 but finished 5-7, ending at No. 107. Louisiana Tech won two of its last three games to finish 5-7, bump up to No. 109, and head coach Sonny Cumbie will be back next season. Air Force won its last four games to get to 5-7 and No. 111. San Diego State, meanwhile, lost its final six games to drop to 3-9 and No. 126. Kennesaw State finished 2-10 and No. 132 in its first FBS season.
Kent State became the first 0-12 team in the FBS since 2019 with its loss to Buffalo. The Golden Flashes only had two games finish within three scores — against FCS St. Francis (Pa.) and Ball State, which fired its coach.
The Athletic 134 series is part of a partnership with Allstate. The Athletic maintains full editorial independence. Partners have no control over or input into the reporting or editing process and do not review stories before publication.
(Photo: Kevork Djansezian / Getty Images)
Whatever you do, don’t think of a bird.
Now: What kind of bird are you not thinking about? A pigeon? A bald eagle? Something more poetic, like a skylark or a nightingale? In any case, would you say that this bird you aren’t thinking about is real?
Before you answer, read this poem, which is quite literally about not thinking of a bird.
Human consciousness is full of riddles. Neuroscientists, philosophers and dorm-room stoners argue continually about what it is and whether it even exists. For Wallace Stevens, the experience of having a mind was a perpetual source of wonder, puzzlement and delight — perfectly ordinary and utterly transcendent at the same time. He explored the mysteries and pleasures of consciousness in countless poems over the course of his long poetic career. It was arguably his great theme.
Stevens was born in 1879 and published his first book, “Harmonium,” in 1923, making him something of a late bloomer among American modernists. For much of his adult life, he worked as an executive for the Hartford Accident and Indemnity Company, rising to the rank of vice president. He viewed insurance less as a day job to support his poetry than as a parallel vocation. He pursued both activities with quiet diligence, spending his days at the office and composing poems in his head as he walked to and from work.
As a young man, Stevens dreamed of traveling to Europe, though he never crossed the Atlantic. In middle age he made regular trips to Florida, and his poems are frequently infused with ideas of Paris and Rome and memories of Key West. Others partake of the stringent beauty of New England. But the landscapes he explores, wintry or tropical, provincial or cosmopolitan, are above all mental landscapes, created by and in the imagination.
Are those worlds real?
Let’s return to the palm tree and its avian inhabitant, in that tranquil Key West sunset of the mind.
Until then, we find consolation in fangles.
When the director Rob Reiner cast his leads in the 1986 film “Stand by Me,” he looked for young actors who were as close as possible to the personalities of the four children they’d be playing. There was the wise beyond his years kid from a rough family (River Phoenix), the slightly dim worrywart (Jerry O’Connell), the cutup with a temper (Corey Feldman) and the sensitive, bookish boy.
Wil Wheaton was perfect for that last one, Gordie Lachance, a doe-eyed child who is ignored by his family in favor of his late older brother. Now, 40 years later, he’s traveling the country to attend anniversary screenings of the film, alongside O’Connell and Feldman, which has thrown him back into the turmoil that he felt as an adolescent.
Wheaton has channeled those emotions and his on-set memories into his latest project: narrating a new audiobook version of “The Body,” the 1982 Stephen King novella on which the film was based.
A few years ago, Wheaton started to float the idea of returning to the story that gave him his big break — that of a quartet of boys in 1959 Oregon, in their last days before high school, setting out to find a classmate’s dead body. “I’ve been telling the story of ‘Stand By Me’ since I was 12 years old,” he said.
But this time was different. Wheaton, who has narrated dozens of audiobooks, including Andy Weir’s “The Martian” and Ernest Cline’s “Ready Player One,” says he has come to enjoy narration more than screen acting. “I’m safe, I’m in the booth, nobody’s looking at me and I can just tell you a story.”
The fact that he, an older man looking back on his younger years, is narrating a story about an older man looking back on his younger years, is not lost on Wheaton. King’s original story is bathed in nostalgia. Coming to terms with death and loss is one of its primary themes.
Two days after appearing on stage at the Academy Awards as part of a tribute to Reiner — who was murdered in 2025 alongside his wife, Michele — Wheaton got on the phone to talk about recording the audiobook, reliving his favorite scenes from the film and reexamining a quintessential story of childhood loss through the lens of his own.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
“I felt really close to him, and my memory of him.”
Wheaton on channeling a co-star’s performance.
There’s this wonderful scene in “Stand By Me.” Gordie and Chris are walking down the tracks talking about junior high. Chris is telling Gordie, “I wish to hell I was your dad, because I care about you, and he obviously doesn’t.”
It’s just so honest and direct, in a way that kids talk to each other that adults don’t. And I think that one of the reasons that really sticks with people, and that piece really lands on a lot of audiences, and has for 40 years, is, just too many people have been Gordie in that scene.
That scene is virtually word for word taken from the text of the book. And when I was narrating that, I made a deliberate choice to do my best to recreate what River did in that scene.
“You’re just a kid,
Gordie–”
“I wish to fuck
I was your father!”
he said angrily.
“You wouldn’t go around
talking about takin those stupid shop courses if I was!
It’s like
God gave you something,
all those stories
you can make up, and He said:
This is what we got for you, kid.
Try not to lose it.
But kids lose everything
unless somebody looks out for them and if your folks
are too fucked up to do it
then maybe I ought to.”
I watched that scene a couple of times because I really wanted — I don’t know why it was so important to me to — well, I know: because I loved him, and I miss him. And I wanted to bring him into this as best as I could, right?
So I was reading that scene, and the words are identical to the script. And I had this very powerful flashback to being on the train tracks that day in Cottage Grove, Oregon. And I could see River standing next to them. They’re shooting my side of the scene and there’s River, right next to the camera, doing his off-camera dialogue, and there’s the sound guy, and there’s the boom operator. There’s my key light.
I could hear and feel it. It was the weirdest thing. It’s like I was right back there.
I was able to really take in the emotional memory of being Gordie in all of those scenes. So when I was narrating him and I’m me and I’m old with all of this experience, I just drew on what I remembered from being that little boy and what I remember of those friendships and what they meant to me and what they mean to me today.
“Rob gave me a gift. Rob gave me a career.”
Wheaton recalls the “Stand By Me” director’s way with kids on set, as well as his recent Oscars tribute.
Rob really encouraged us to be kids.
Jerry tells the most amazing story about that scene, where we were all sitting around, and doing our bit, and he improvised. He was just goofing around — we were just playing — and he said something about spitting water at the fat kid.
We get to the end of the scene, and he hears Rob. Rob comes around from behind the thing, and he goes, “Jerry!” And Jerry thinks, “Oh no, I’m in trouble. I’m in trouble because I improvised, and I’m not supposed to improvise.”
The context for Jerry is that he had been told by the adults in his life, “Sit on your hands and shut up. Stop trying to be a cutup. Stop trying to be funny. Stop disrupting people. Just be quiet.” And Jerry thinks, “Oh my God. I didn’t shut up. I’m in trouble. I’m gonna get fired.”
Rob leans in to all of us, and Rob says, “Hey, guys, do you see that? More of that. Do that!”
The whole time when you’re a kid actor, you’re just around all these adults who are constantly telling you to grow up. They’re mad that you’re being a kid. Rob just created an environment where not only was it supported that we would be kids — and have fun, and follow those kid instincts and do what was natural — it was expected. It was encouraged. We were supposed to do it.
They chanted together:
“I don’t shut up,
I grow up.
And when I look at you I throw up.”
“Then your mother goes around the corner
and licks it up,”
I said, and hauled ass out of there,
giving them the finger over my shoulder as I went.
I never had any friends later on
like the ones I had when I was twelve.
Jesus, did you?
When we were at the Oscars, I looked at Jerry. And we looked at this remarkable assemblage of the most amazingly talented, beautiful artists and storytellers. We looked around, and Jerry leans down, and he said, “We all got our start with Rob Reiner. He trusted every single one of us.”
And to stand there for him, when I really thought that I would be standing with him to talk about this stuff — it was a lot.
“I was really really really excited — like jumping up and down.”
The scene Wheaton was most looking forward to narrating: the tale of Lard Ass Hogan.
I was so excited to narrate it. It’s a great story! It’s a funny story. It’s such a lovely break — it’s an emotional and tonal shift from what’s happening in the movie.
I know this as a writer: You work to increase and release tension throughout a narrative, and Stephen King uses humor really effectively to release that tension. But it also raises the stakes, because we have these moments of joy and these moments of things being very silly in the midst of a lot of intensity.
That’s why the story of Lard Ass Hogan is so fun for me to tell. Because in the middle of that, we stop to do something that’s very, very fun, and very silly and very celebratory.
“Will you shut up and let him tell it?”
Teddy hollered.
Vern blinked.
“Sure. Yeah.
Okay.”
“Go on, Gordie,”
Chris said. “It’s not really much—”
“Naw,
we don’t expect much from a wet end like you,”
Teddy said,
“but tell it anyway.”
I cleared my throat. “So anyway.
It’s Pioneer Days,
and on the last night
they have these three big events.
There’s an egg-roll for the little kids and a sack-race for kids that are like eight or nine,
and then there’s the pie-eating contest.
And the main guy of the story
is this fat kid nobody likes
named Davie Hogan.”
When I narrate this story — whenever there is a moment of levity or humor, whenever there are those brief little moments that are the seasoning of the meal that makes it all so real and relatable — yes, it was very important to me to capture those moments.
I’m shifting in my chair, so I can feel each of those characters. It’s something that doesn’t exist in live action. It doesn’t exist in any other media.
“I feel the loss.”
Wheaton remembers River Phoenix.
The novella “The Body” is very much about Gordie remembering Chris. It’s darker, and it’s more painful, than the movie is.
I’ve been watching the movie on this tour and seeing River a lot. I remember him as a 14- and 15-year-old kid who just seemed so much older, and so much more experienced and so much wiser than me, and I’m only a year younger than him.
What hurts me now, and what I really felt when I was narrating this, is knowing what River was going through then. We didn’t know. I still don’t know the extent of how he was mistreated, but I know that he was. I know that adults failed him. That he should have been protected in every way that matters. And he just wasn’t.
And I, like Gordie, remember a boy who was loving. So loving, and generous and cared deeply about everyone around him, all the time. Who deserved to live a full life. Who had so much to offer the world. And it’s so unfair that he’s gone and taken from us. I had to go through a decades-long grieving process to come to terms with him dying.
Near the end
of 1971,
Chris
went into a Chicken Delight in Portland
to get a three-piece Snack Bucket.
Just ahead of him,
two men started arguing
about which one had been first in line. One of them pulled a knife.
Chris,
who had always been the best of us
at making peace,
stepped between them and was stabbed in the throat.
The man with the knife had spent time in four different institutions;
he had been released from Shawshank State Prison
only the week before.
Chris died almost instantly.
It is a privilege that I was allowed to tell this story. I get to tell Gordie Lachance’s story as originally imagined by Stephen King, with all of the experience of having lived my whole adult life with the memory of spending three months in Gordie Lachance’s skin.
Welcome to Great Adaptations, the Book Review’s regular multiple-choice quiz about printed works that have gone on to find new life as movies, television shows, theatrical productions and more. This week’s challenge highlights offbeat television shows that began as comic books. Just tap or click your answers to the five questions below. And scroll down after you finish the last question for links to the comics and their screen versions.
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