It was an ugly week for contenders as many were looking ahead to allegedly more important games.
Every season there is a week where contenders struggle against overmatched competition, usually as they prepare for rivals or meaningful conference games Week Nine was just such a week, although the national landscape did not significantly change as Clemson, Stanford and Notre Dame all survived ugly efforts. This week should be a good one, though, as we have several wonderful games that start to narrow the playoff picture: Oklahoma State-TCU, Clemson-FSU, and Alabama-LSU among them.
Here is this week's Who Needs A Blogpoll.