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The Book 2015: Week 8

Iowa Hawkeyes the big weekly winner. Eagles stays steady despite Clemson loss, double digit underdog yet again at Louisville.

By John Fidler
Kirk Ferentz leads the Hawkeyes into the Book Top 10
Kirk Ferentz leads the Hawkeyes into the Book Top 10
Reese Strickland-USA TODAY Sports

Just two more weeks before the "real" college football rankings are released, but why wait when The Book and Phil Steele have it all under control. Well, our two polls and the 98 (through Monday night) that make up the Massey Composite poll anyway.

This week, the two polls are pretty much lock step with the top 5, as Alabama, Baylor and TCU hold down the top three spots, albeit in different orders, while Stanford and Notre Dame are 4th and 5th respectively in both polls. Massey however, list only Alabama in the top five at #4 with Utah, Ohio State, Clemson, Alabama and LSU its current choices.

The week's big winner is unquestionably the Iowa Hawkeyes. They've parlayed a slightly-better-than-originally-thought strength of schedule (27th by our polls, 36th by Sagarin) and wins over Pitt, Wisconsin, Northwestern and Illinois, certainly not Murderer's Row but decent, into a #6/#7 ranking. The Hawks have one of the easier outbound schedules and certainly have the inside track to the Big 10 title game.

Boston College held steady in their place this week, unaffected by the Clemson loss, but once again is a double digit underdog. The Eagles are a 13- and 14-point dog (poll specific) vs Bobby Petrino's UofL Cardinals. Louisville is one of those teams that are ranked considerably higher by our two polls than the Massey, but if Sagarin is your poll of pick, the Cards sit right where we and Jeff have them with Sagarin having BC about an 11-point dog.

This is also the first week this year where the Massey ratings have BC lower than the Book or Steele's ratings.

Both magazines are now 2-2-1 on the season picking against the Eagles as the Clemson game with BC giving 17 was a push.

In the battle for preseason publication supremacy, Steele made up a bit of ground this week and trails the Book by just 1 1/2 games, although both are just below .500 for the season as we pass the halfway mark. This is yet another week where we are calling for big favorite victories.

Enjoy your football weekend and Go Eagles!

THE NATIONAL RANKINGS 1-128
GP PS TEAM REC MASSEY
1 3 Alabama Crimson Tide 6-1 4
2 1 Baylor Bears 6-0 7
3 2 TCU Horned Frogs 7-0 6
4 4 Stanford Cardinal 5-1 15
5 5 Notre Dame Fighting Irish 6-1 11
6 7 Iowa Hawkeyes 7-0 8
7 12 Florida Gators 6-1 10
8 8 Utah Utes 6-0 1
9 6 Ohio State Buckeyes 7-0 2
10 9 Oklahoma Sooners 5-1 14
11 11 LSU Tigers 6-0 5
12 10 Florida State Seminoles 6-0 12
13 16 Michigan State Spartans 7-0 9
14 17 Michigan Wolverines 5-2 13
15 15 Clemson Tigers 6-0 3
16 24 Memphis Tigers 6-0 17
17 22 Duke Blue Devils 5-1 29
18 20 North Carolina Tar Heels 5-1 26
19 14 Boise State Broncos 5-2 31
20 18 Texas A&M Aggies 5-1 18
21 23 Mississippi St. Bulldogs 5-2 23
22 19 Oklahoma State Cowboys 6-0 16
23 21 UCLA Bruins 4-2 28
24 13 USC Trojans 3-3 35
25 25 Ole Miss Rebels 5-2 21
26 40 Houston Cougars 6-0 22
27 32 Wisconsin Badgers 5-2 33
28 26 Georgia Bulldogs 5-2 34
29 34 Toledo Rockets 6-0 20
30 27 Tennessee Volunteers 3-3 36
31 38 Western Kentucky Hilltoppers 6-1 41
32 31 California Golden Bears 5-1 19
33 36 Utah State Aggies 4-2 38
34 55 Bowling Green Falcons 5-2 49
35 37 Pittsburgh Panthers 5-1 27
36 57 Navy Midshipmen 4-1 30
37 41 BYU Cougars 5-2 24
38 33 Texas Tech Red Raiders 5-2 37
39 30 Arizona State Sun Devils 4-3 45
40 29 Oregon Ducks 4-3 44
41 35 Arizona Wildcats 5-2 52
42 42 Auburn Tigers 4-2 42
43 50 Nebraska Cornhuskers 3-4 56
44 45 Miami-Florida Hurricanes 4-2 46
45 44 Louisville Cardinals 2-4 61
46 28 Arkansas Razorbacks 2-4 57
47 39 West Virginia Mountaineers 3-3 39
48 47 Virginia Tech Hokies 3-4 64
49 52 Temple Owls 6-0 25
50 51 N.C. State Wolfpack 4-2 62
51 43 Washington Huskies 3-3 43
52 67 Georgia Southern Eagles 5-1 53
53 56 Northwestern Wildcats 5-2 32
54 48 Kansas State Wildcats 3-3 60
55 46 Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets 2-5 68
56 49 Texas Longhorns 2-4 54
57 54 Illinois Fighting Illini 4-2 48
58 53 Missouri Tigers 4-3 58
59 60 Appalachian St. Mountaineers 5-1 47
60 62 Marshall Thundering Herd 6-1 55
61 61 Kentucky Wildcats 4-2 51
62 68 Western Michigan Broncos 3-3 63
63 58 Penn State Nittany Lions 5-2 40
64 65 East Carolina Pirates 4-3 59
65 59 Washington State Cougars 4-2 50
66 63 Cincinnati Bearcats 3-3 66
67 64 South Carolina Gamecocks 3-4 70
68 69 Northern Illinois Huskies 4-3 74
69 75 Central Michigan Chippewas 3-4 75
70 70 Vanderbilt Commodores 2-4 87
71 72 Louisiana Tech Bulldogs 4-3 73
72 82 Ohio University Bobcats 5-2 69
73 76 South Florida Bulls 3-3 72
74 71 Boston College Eagles 3-4 76
75 66 Minnesota Golden Gophers 4-3 65
76 83 Tulsa Golden Hurricane 3-3 79
77 74 Rutgers Scarlet Knights 3-3 71
78 73 San Diego State Aztecs 4-3 77
79 85 Southern Miss Golden Eagles 4-3 86
80 78 Virginia Cavaliers 2-4 80
81 81 Colorado State Rams 3-4 89
82 84 Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders 3-4 88
83 92 Arkansas State Red Wolves 3-3 84
84 77 Colorado Buffaloes 3-4 93
85 79 Iowa St. Cyclones 2-4 81
86 88 Purdue Boilermakers 1-6 99
87 91 Syracuse Orange 3-3 78
88 89 Air Force Falcons 3-3 83
89 95 Akron Zips 3-4 92
90 86 Wake Forest Demon Deacons 3-4 85
91 80 Indiana Hoosiers 4-3 67
92 90 Connecticut Huskies 3-4 91
93 87 Maryland Terrapins 2-4 82
94 97 San Jose State Spartans 3-4 96
95 98 Rice Owls 3-3 94
96 99 Louisiana Ragin Cajuns 2-3 100
97 93 FIU Panthers 3-4 105
98 101 Nevada Wolf Pack 3-4 98
99 96 Kent State Golden Flashes 3-4 95
100 94 Oregon State Beavers 2-4 90
101 108 Buffalo Bulls 2-4 103
102 102 Massachusetts Minutemen 1-5 111
103 103 Ball State Cardinals 2-5 108
104 109 New Mexico Lobos 4-3 102
105 106 UNLV Rebels 2-5 106
106 100 SMU Mustangs 1-5 101
107 107 Texas-San Antonio Roadrunners 1-6 116
108 111 Kansas Jayhawks 0-6 118
109 114 Florida Atlantic Owls 1-5 117
110 117 ULM Warhawks 1-5 114
111 112 Wyoming Cowboys 1-6 123
112 115 South Alabama Jaguars 3-3 97
113 104 Hawaii Warriors 2-5 109
114 113 Army Black Knights 2-5 112
115 105 UCF Knights 0-7 122
116 119 Idaho Vandals 2-4 113
117 110 Tulane Green Wave 2-4 107
118 120 Texas State Bobcats 1-4 115
119 116 Troy Trojans 1-5 120
120 122 Old Dominion Monarchs 3-3 104
121 118 Fresno State Bulldogs 2-5 110
122 121 Georgia State Panthers 2-4 119
123 125 Eastern Michigan Eagles 1-6 125
124 124 New Mexico State Aggies 0-6 128
125 127 Charlotte 49ers 2-4 121
126 128 Texas-El Paso Miners 2-4 126
127 123 Miami-Ohio Redhawks 1-6 124
128 126 North Texas Mean Green 0-6 127

THE ACC RANKINGS
GP PS TEAM REC MASSEY
1 1 Florida State 6-0 12
2 2 Clemson 6-0 3
3 4 Duke 5-1 29
4 3 North Carolina 5-1 26
5 5 Pittsburgh 5-1 27
6 7 Miami 4-2 46
7 6 Louisville 2-4 61
8 9 Virginia Tech 3-4 64
9 10 North Carolina State 4-2 62
10 8 Georgia Tech 2-5 68
11 11 Boston College 3-4 76
12 12 Virginia 2-4 80
13 14 Syracuse 3-3 78
14 13 Wake Forest 3-4 85

Last weeks head to head results:

GamePlan (The Book): 27-28-1 .491, 0 games identical to Vegas spread.   Season to date: 177-178-6 .499, 2 games identical
Phil Steele:  30-25-1 .545, 0 games identical to Vegas spread.  Season to date: 176-180-6 .494, 1 game identical

The Vegas spread used is the Danny Sheridan opening line.

NATIONAL/ACC/BC OPPONENT SPREADS
FAVORITE GP/PS SPREADS UNDERDOG
at UCLA 8.3/9.7 California
Houston 25.8/23.1 at C Florida
at Boise State 39.4/45.9 Wyoming
at Michigan State 30.3/28.0 Indiana
Utah 1.5/+2.7 at USC
at Stanford 23.3/24.3 Washington
at Baylor 40.9/43.9 Iowa State
at Oklahoma 16.3/14.9 Texas Tech
at Oklahoma State 37.6/42.1 Kansas
at Alabama 24.7/23.2 Tennessee
at LSU 13.6/15.1 W Kentucky
at Ole Miss 2.3/1.3 Texas A&M
at Louisville 14.4/13.2 Boston College
Clemson 4.8/6.7 at Miami
Duke 3.4/2.6 at Virginia Tech
Florida State 9.0/7.6 at Georgia Tech
at North Carolina 23.8/24.9 Virginia
N Carolina State 10.9/10.9 at Wake Forest
Pittsburgh 12.5/15.6 at Syracuse
Ohio State 19.1/22.1 at Rutgers
Memphis 15.2/17.6 at Tulsa
at Mississippi State 16.1/17.1 Kentucky
























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