2023 Week 3 CFP Resume Rankings!

Welcome to the 2023 Week 3 College Football Playoff Resume Rankings!

Week 3 on paper wasn’t full of thrilling matchups. We had LSU at Mississippi State as the potentially most exciting game and watched the Tigers rout the Bulldogs in a game that was never close. Only 2 ranked teams lost on Saturday, with Tennessee getting stunned by Florida and Kansas State falling at Missouri. The game of the day on paper didn’t seem too exciting. Both Gameday and Big Noon Kickoff (for the second week in a row) found themselves in Boulder Colorado following the story of Coach Deon Sanders and his exciting Colorado Buffalos, who were playing cross-town rival and 23-point underdogs Colorado State. On paper this is an uninspiring game with a team that pulls away and wins easily. In reality it was anything but that.

Colorado jumped out front on an 80-year interception return by Coach Prime’s other son Shilo Sanders for a touchdown. Colorado State would respond in less than a minute with a 30-year touchdown of their own, and then would turn the table with a 45-yard fumble return for a score to take a 14-7 lead in the first quarter. Colorado evened things up at 14, but by the half would trail 21-14. In the 4th quarter Colorado State would extend the lead to 28-17 on Dallin Holker’s 2nd receiving touchdown of the game. Colorado tried to strike back but stalled out and settled for a field goal to leave the deficit at 8-points. Colorado State took the ball at the 25 and marched 30 yards down the field killing 5:27 off of the clock before punting and pinning QB Shedeur Sanders and the Buffalo Offense at the 2-yard line with about 2 minutes to play. Sanders would pass for 115 yards on the ensuing drive (2 yards of rushing and about 19 yards of net penalties contributing to that total) including a 45 yard catch and run touchdown to receiver Jimmy Horn Jr. to close the gap to 28-26. A two-point conversion pass to Michael Harrison and Colorado had tied Colorado State. In overtime, Colorado elected to start with the ball and set the tone, and with the help of two personal foul penalties scored with ease to take the 35-28 lead. Colorado State was plagued with hefty penalties all game long racking up 17 penalties for 182 yards. Despite costing themselves through avoidable setbacks, Colorado State matched Colorado’s 4-play touchdown to send the game to double overtime. Colorado again had the ball to start double-OT, and Sanders connected twice on a 22-yard and 18-yard pass (penalties again aiding the total) to put Colorado into the endzone. At nearly 2:30am EST, Colorado State finally came up empty with a 4th down interception, and Colorado moved to 3-0 with a date at Eugene, Oregon next week with the potent Oregon Ducks.

It was an exciting end to a mostly chalk week, but plenty of other noteworthy things happened across the sport. Let’s touch on a few.

Quick Hitters

• Georgia/South Carolina

  • Similar to the early season tight game with Missouri last year, Georgia came out slow against South Carolina, and trailed 14-3 at home at the half. The two-time defending champions buttoned up the defense and found some momentum with a ground and pound mindset that wore down the Gamecocks’ Defense and held USC scoreless in the second half to win 24-14. Still, there is a chance that this Georgia team will not be as dominant as previous iterations, and this could be the first sign. Or, maybe this is the Missouri game all over again, and we won’t see Georgia challenged again until the playoffs. Only time will tell.

• Florida State/Boston College

  • Week 1’s shining star lost a lot of the luster with a poor performance against hapless Boston College in a 31-29 win. Boston College has played 3 games, losing by 3 to Northern Illinois, winning by 3 over Holy Cross, and losing by 2 to powerhouse Florida State. Not exactly the company FSU wants to keep. BC had the ball down 2 with under 5 to play, but the Seminoles held firm to avoid a shocking upset. Clemson awaits.

• Texas/Wyoming

  • Wyoming beat fellow Big 12 team Texas Tech in week 1 and had intentions of completing a Texas Two-Step pushing the Longhorns deep into the game. It was 10-10 going into the 4th quarter before Texas pulled away for a 31-10 win. This game was closer than the score indicated.

• Washington/Michigan State

  • No team has avoided the spotlight by just obliterating opponents more than Washington this year. Big games against Boise State and now Michigan State were afterthoughts with how dominant the Huskies were. QB Michael Penix Jr. has been dominant on the season and could carry this team deep into the year as a CFP contender.

• Alabama/South Florida

  • My how things change when you don’t have an NFL caliber QB under center. Following the home loss to Texas, Alabama made a change at QB and eventually cycled to their preseason 3rd stringer looking to bring some life to an uninspired offense. Alabama was tied with South Florida at the half and only scored 14 points in the second half to pull out to a 17-3 margin. Against a better team we’d be talking about 1-2 Alabama.

• Florida/Tennessee

  • Where was this Florida team in week 1 against Utah? Florida did almost everything they wanted early on offense, and the defense held up comfortably in the second half to secure a 29-16 win over Tennessee. Speaking of the Volunteers, no team has lost more shine from their preseason strength rating. Our composite had Tennessee as high as 5th preseason, but the Vols have looked downright pedestrian at times and are very much out of sorts right now. They may pick up big wins over the season, but they are likely out as a CFP contender unless something big changes.

• LSU/Mississippi State

  • This LSU team would have pressed and maybe beaten Florida State. It was billed (by us) as the top-rated game of the week, but LSU was on a different level from start to finish in a 41-14 rout of Mississippi State. This Tigers team will be a tough out for the rest of the SEC.

• Missouri/Kansas State

  • Another Tigers team that is going to be a tough out in the SEC? Look no further than Missouri, who dispatched a good Kansas State team on the leg of kicker Harrison Mevis, who connected from 61-yards to give Missouri the win. No team led by more than a score in this back-and-forth affair and Missouri capitalized at the end where Kansas State did not to come away with the win.

• Big 12 Pain

  • Many of the mid-tier Big 12 teams once again lost to uninspiring opponents on Saturday, further eroding the depth that carried the league last year. Cincinnati and Iowa State fell to MAC teams in close games. Cincinnati lost for the first time in 16 games against in-state rival Miami Ohio in overtime at home. Iowa State failed to get to double digits in a 10-7 road loss to Ohio. Oklahoma State also got stunted on offense in a 33-7 home blowout to the Sun Belt’s South Alabama. Even Kansas struggled with Mountain West doormat Nevada, barely pulling out a 31-24 road win.

• BYU/Arkansas

  • A bright spot for the Big 12 mid-tier was BYU, who avenged their loss last season to Arkansas with a road win to move to 3-0. This was one of the more chaotic and exciting games of the day with BYU capitalizing late to secure the 38-31 win.

• Sacramento State/Stanford

  • There are an astounding 8 ranked teams from the Pac-12 in the AP poll. Stanford is not one of them. FCS Sacramento State defeated former Hornets football coach Troy Taylor and his Stanford Cardinals 30-23. It is likely that Stanford (and Cal) will find themselves moving to the ACC coming off of very disappointing seasons. Here’s to hoping one of them can pick up a fun win over the top 8 in the league, otherwise it will be a long season for the Pac-12 doormats.

Let’s take a look at the Week 3 CFP Resume Rankings (note: these ranking should mirror a fair CFP committee):

Notes on the CFP Resume Rankings:

• Once again Texas takes the top spot. The Longhorns are pushing up the strength rating systems and still have the strongest raw resume in the country. For those thinking this is wrong, this is the 3rd strongest team with the best raw resume. That is a recipe for a #1 Overall Resume Ranking.

• Florida State maintains the #2 spot off of the LSU week 1 win, but the struggle to beat Boston College tarnished their strength rating and advantage in the resume evaluation process. Florida State has a big test coming this week with hopes of reinstating their position atop the rankings.

• North Carolina has not done anything special on the field other than win good games against good teams. UNC is the 17th strongest team, and doesn’t have any banger wins, but all of their wins are solid. South Carolina is solid. App State is not bad. Minnesota is not bad. All add value and that value adds up to the second-best raw resume overall to date. It will not hold, especially with the games on the slate for this coming week, but it’s a fun peak for a good team.

• Rounding out the top 4 is Washington, who now rates as the 4th strongest team (!!!) with the 6th strongest raw resume. Washington will continue to turn heads and has a favorable schedule to remain unbeaten several more weeks into the season. This team is just plain fun.

Top 25 as voted on by the strength rating systems:

• Look how tight we now are for the #1 spot according to the polls! Ohio State has picked up 8 new first place votes after having 0 last week. This is the closest we have been to a flip at #1 since early 2021. Georgia’s sloppy win over South Carolina hurt in a big way!

• Here come the Longhorns! Texas slides up to #3 in the strength ratings at the front of a very tight group with Washington, Penn State and Michigan.

• The largest disparity between the models and the AP Voters is Oklahoma, which sits at #16 in the polls and all the way up to #7 here, including 4 (!!!) first place votes.

Unexpected results from Week 3 after adjusting for our updated Composite Team Strength Rating

• Miami Ohio over Cincinnati

• Missouri over Kansas State

• North Texas over Louisiana Tech

• Sacramento State over Stanford

  • I’ll make a note here that we don’t predict FBS losses to FCS teams. There are some (SP+ / Bill Connaly) who had Sacramento State winning this game outright. It might be an upset to us, but it may not have been in reality.

• Florida over Tennessee

• Army over UTSA

Top 5 risers and fallers in Composite Team Strength Rating

• Several big winners in this list, but one that stands out is Rutgers, who is quietly 3-0 after picking up a nice win over Virginia Tech over the weekend. The Hokies are not what they once were, but it’s a fine result for Rutgers, who is moving up nicely in the strength ratings.

• (bullet)

• On the way down the most is Oklahoma State, who looked completely helpless in the 33-7 drubbing at the hands of South Alabama. There are rumblings of unease with coach Mike Gundy, but it could be as simple as not having an established quarterback leading to no offensive rhythm. If you have 3 quarterbacks, maybe you really have 0 quarterbacks. The Armpit Bowl with Iowa State awaits.

Now let’s highlight a few Week 4 games worth watching (Top 50 games)

• This is a loaded week with a ton of amazing games. For comparison, in week’s 1-3 there were 4 combined games with a quality rating of greater than 70. This week there are 5 alone. In week’s 1-3 there were 8 games with a rating over 60. This week there are 10. Loaded schedule!

• The top game of the week may not have the top public billing, but that’s a combo of us being high on Ole Miss and the strength rating systems still having a lot of preseason influence that was high on Alabama that has yet to phase out. Ohio State and Notre Dame will easily be the biggest TV game because of the prestige of those programs. Look for Ohio State to move to #1 in the AP Poll with a win, and Notre Dame to move into the top 2-3 if they pull off the upset.

• The Pac-12 bloodbath starts in earnest this week with several high-profile games including Utah vs UCLA, Oregon State at Washington State, and Oregon vs Colorado. Look for the winners to all start pushing into the AP top 10 (or top 15 for UCLA and the Pac-12 leftovers winner).

• An under the radar game that carries a lot of conference weight is BYU traveling to Lawrence, Kansas to play the Jayhawks. BYU picked up a huge win at Arkansas this past week and could surprise with a 4-0 start including 2 road Power 5 wins if they can beat Kansas, who many think can contend in the Big 12 behind the play of star QB J. Daniels.

• Best Group of 5 game goes to Appalachian State, who tested North Carolina earlier this year, travelling to play at Wyoming, who upset Texas Tech and pushed Texas into the 4th quarter. Neither team is unbeaten, but both have shown strength this year, and it should make for a great game!

That’s all we have for the Week 3. If you have any questions about the CFP Resume Rankings or just want to follow along come find us @CFPResumeRanks on Twitter/X. If you would like to officially reference our rankings or partner with us the DMs are always open. Have a great week everyone!

(Note: For tables instead of pictures of the rankings, see the resume ranking pages)