College Football News Rankings 1-130: 2019 Final
Unlike the CFN Final Season Rankings – coming in a few days, based solely on head-to-head wins and strength of schedule – these are the final rankings based partly on opinion, mostly on facts and results, and trying to piece this whole crazy thing together now that it’s all done.
As always, if you have beef or a question, tweet us @ColFootballNews and we’ll try to explain.
College Football News Rankings: 2019 Final
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College Football News Rankings 2019 Final
130-101 | 76-100 | 51-75 | 26-50 | 11-25 | Top 10
130. Akron Zips (0-12)
CFN Preseason Preview Ranking: 125
Final Regular Season Ranking: 130
Why Ranked Here? The expectations were low, and Akron couldn’t even meet those as the only winless team in college football. Worst yet, they weren’t eve close against anyone but – oddly enough – MAC champ Miami University.
129. UMass Minutemen (1-11)
CFN Preseason Preview Ranking: 128
Final Regular Season Ranking: 129
Why Ranked Here? The Minutemen beat Akron and were roadkill for everyone else.
128. UTEP Miners (1-11)
CFN Preseason Preview Ranking: 130
Final Regular Season Ranking: 128
Why Ranked Here? The Miners were competitive in loss after loss after loss after loss. They beat Houston Baptist to kick things off, and that was it for the fun.
127. Old Dominion Monarchs (1-11)
CFN Preseason Preview Ranking: 115
Final Regular Season Ranking: 127
Why Ranked Here? A win over Norfolk State in August was the only positive moment. There were played of close battles, and the Monarchs pushed Virginia and Virginia Tech a bit, but they also close out with 11 straight losses.
126. New Mexico State Aggies (2-10)
CFN Preseason Preview Ranking: 129
Final Regular Season Ranking: 126
Why Ranked Here? How rough are things with the program? Two wins late in the season over Incarnate Word and UTEP counts as a mild surprise.
125. UConn Huskies (2-10)
CFN Preseason Preview Ranking: 126
Final Regular Season Ranking: 125
Why Ranked Here? Beating Wagner to start the season and getting by UMass for the only two wins isn’t exactly how the program wanted to enter life as an independent.
124. UTSA Roadrunners (4-8)
CFN Preseason Preview Ranking: 113
Final Regular Season Ranking: 124
Why Ranked Here? It was a rough year with the beat win coming against … Rice? The team wasn’t totally embarrassing, but the defense suffered fail after fail.
123. New Mexico Lobos (2-10)
CFN Preseason Preview Ranking: 104
Final Regular Season Ranking: 122
Why Ranked Here? The season just never worked. A 2-1 start with wins over Sam Houston State and New Mexico State went into a nosedive and never pulled up, losing the last nine games of the year.
122. Bowling Green Falcons (3-9)
CFN Preseason Preview Ranking: 124
Final Regular Season Ranking: 123
Why Ranked Here? :Where was the offense? The Falcons scored 192 points and only won three games on the year, but the victory over Toledo was the best by anyone ranked this low.
121. South Alabama Jaguars (2-10)
CFN Preseason Preview Ranking: 112
Final Regular Season Ranking: 120
Why Ranked Here? : Closing out with a strange and stunning win over Arkansas State was enough to give the program a wee bit of fun, but that was the only win over an FBS team, including a loss to …
120. Texas State Bobcats (3-9)
CFN Preseason Preview Ranking: 119
Final Regular Season Ranking: 121
Why Ranked Here? Who else ranked this low can stay it beat a bowl team? The Bobcats shocked Georgia State back in September, and they were in a few battles, but it was a rough run going 1-6 to close things out.
119. Troy Trojans (5-7)
CFN Preseason Preview Ranking: 90
Final Regular Season Ranking: 117
Why Ranked Here? Winning five games wasn’t all that bad including a good whacking of Georgia Southern, and there weren’t any truly miserable losses except for a 36-35 clunker to …
118. Coastal Carolina Chanticleers (5-7)
CFN Preseason Preview Ranking: 90
Final Regular Season Ranking: 116
Why Ranked Here? It was so close to being a fun season after starting out 3-1 with a win over Kansas. Closing out gong 2-6 and missing out on bowl eligibility hurt, including the road defeat to ULM.
117. Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders (4-8)
CFN Preseason Preview Ranking: 99
Final Regular Season Ranking: 112
Why Ranked Here? There were just enough wins – Marshall and FIU – to make it seem like something great was possible … NOPE. Losing to Charlotte and Rice in early November killed that. The Blue Raiders also dropped a game to …
116. North Texas Mean Green (4-8)
CFN Preseason Preview Ranking: 82
Final Regular Season Ranking: 111
Why Ranked Here? One of the year’s most disappointing teams, it was supposed to be deep in the mix for the Conference USA title, and it showed off a few good moments, but the season was over when it lost to …
115. Rice Owls (3-9)
CFN Preseason Preview Ranking: 122
Final Regular Season Ranking: 110
Why Ranked Here? If it’s possible to be happy about how a 3-9 season went, Rice can do that. It looked like a complete waste of a year going 0-9, and then came three straight wins to close things out and give the program a little hope going into 2020.
114. Army Black Knights (5-8)
CFN Preseason Preview Ranking: 77
Final Regular Season Ranking: 109
Why Ranked Here? The five wins? Rice, UTSA, UMass, and two FCS teams. Yuck … there wasn’t anything there to get excited about after a few years of greatness.
113. East Carolina Pirates (4-8)
CFN Preseason Preview Ranking: 114
Final Regular Season Ranking: 98
Why Ranked Here? Look past the 1-6 finish. The Pirates threw mega-scares into Cincinnati and SMU as the offense showed a whole lot of fun going into 2020. For this year, though, there wasn’t any good win – two FCS wins, UConn and Old Dominion – that mattered.
112. Northern Illinois Huskies (5-7)
CFN Preseason Preview Ranking: 88
Final Regular Season Ranking: 115
Why Ranked Here? This is a tough ranking. Do you like that the Huskies screwed up Western Michigan and Toledo’s respective seasons, or were the seven losses too awful to overcome? The 45-17 home loss to Eastern Michigan with a chance to keep bowl hopes alive was inexcusable.
111. Eastern Michigan Eagles (6-7)
CFN Preseason Preview Ranking: 110
Final Regular Season Ranking: 114
Why Ranked Here? It was a strange year with a stunning win over Illinois and season-ruiner against Northern Illinois, but with a blowout loss to Buffalo and a loss to Ball State, there were some down moments. A good showing against Pitt in the Quick Lane was a positive, but there was a loss to …
110. Toledo Rockets (6-6)
CFN Preseason Preview Ranking: 93
Last Week Ranking: 113
Why Ranked Here? Losing three straight to close out the season kept the Rockets out of a bowl game. Beating BYU, Western Michigan and Eastern Michigan should’ve been enough to get post-season love, but the defense got worse over the second half of the year.
109. Georgia State Panthers (7-6)
CFN Preseason Preview Ranking: 118
Final Regular Season Ranking: 108
Why Ranked Here? The program beat Tennessee at Tennessee and got to a bowl game. Go ahead and ignore just about everything else, but it was a winning season that was held down by a loss to …
108. ULM Warhawks (5-7)
CFN Preseason Preview Ranking: 111
Final Regular Season Ranking: 107
Why Ranked Here? The Warhawks just couldn’t seem to get the thing to go. There were just enough good wins – like against Georgia State – to stay alive for bowl eligibility. Close losses to Louisiana and Arkansas State – and a 45-44 loss at Florida State – were too much to overcome.
107. Ball State Cardinals (5-7)
CFN Preseason Preview Ranking: 109
Final Regular Season Ranking: 106
Why Ranked Here? Too little too late. Just when it seemed like everything was working with a 4-3 start, everything fell off the map with four straight losses, three of them painfully close. Beating MAC champ Miami in the regular season finale was little solace.
106. Central Michigan Chippewas (8-6)
CFN Preseason Preview Ranking: 121
Final Regular Season Ranking: 104
Why Ranked Here? Ugh. Just when it seemed like CMU would be a feel-good story with one of the nation’s biggest turnarounds in the first year under Jim McElwain. The team couldn’t handle Miami in the MAC title game, and got rocked by San Diego State in the New Mexico.
105. Georgia Southern Eagles (7-6)
CFN Preseason Preview Ranking: 108
Final Regular Season Ranking: 91
Why Ranked Here? The offense didn’t quite work, but the Eagles beat rival Georgia State, handed Appalachian State its only loss, and did enough to get to a bowl game and come up with a winning season. However, it stunk to lose the Cure Bowl to …
104. Liberty Flames (8-5)
CFN Preseason Preview Ranking: 116
Final Regular Season Ranking: 119
Why Ranked Here? The program didn’t beat anyone, but it was an eight-win year – with two victories over FCS teams – that closed out with a fun bowl win. This is truly a you-are-what-your-record-is team, finishing up by beating Georgia Southern. However, the Flames lost to …
103. Rutgers Scarlet Knights (2-10)
CFN Preseason Preview Ranking: 75
Final Regular Season Ranking: 118
Why Ranked Here? UMass and Liberty. That’s it for the wins, and there wasn’t anything happening against anyone else. 92 of the team’s 159 points came in the two wins, but all the losses were to Power Five programs.
102. FIU Golden Panthers (6-7)
CFN Preseason Preview Ranking: 79
Final Regular Season Ranking: 89
Why Ranked Here? The Golden Panthers might have been blown out by Florida Atlantic, and didn’t come up with a win over anyone with a pulse among the first five victories, and lost to Arkansas State in the bowl game, but … they beat Miami. Boom.
101. Maryland Terrapins (3-9)
CFN Preseason Preview Ranking: 53
Final Regular Season Ranking: 99
Why Ranked Here? Really, Maryland? It started out 2-0, beat Rutgers to be 3-2, and then got worse as the year went on in a total bomb of a campaign. The offense scored 142 of the season’s 303 points in the first two games.
75. Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets (3-9)
CFN Preseason Preview Ranking: 50
Final Regular Season Ranking: 75
Why Ranked Here? There was just enough to keep the transition season from being a total disaster. Beating USF, Miami and NC State were just enough to provide a little fun, but losing to the Citadel was awful.