College Football Rankings: Projecting Sunday's Week 5 AP Top 25 Poll
The Associated Press Top 25 voters have another mess to sort out.
The second week of the SEC season will have everyone questioning where to properly rank Mississippi State, Auburn, Texas A&M and others. Outside of the SEC, there were some noteworthy losses.
In the Big 12, Texas entered the day No. 9 and then fell to an unranked TCU 33-31. Later, No. 18 Oklahoma fell to 1-2 on the year, losing to unranked Iowa State 37-30. There’s no way the Sooners, who were previously ranked No. 3, stay in the Top 25 with two early losses.
Outside the Power 5, No. 11 UCF had its College Football Playoff hopes dashed early this season with a 34-26 loss to unranked Tulsa.
The AP voters did not put Kansas State in the Top 25 for beating Oklahoma a week ago, so it seems unlikely TCU will make the jump into the rankings. The pool of “other’s receiving votes” teams from the most recent poll doesn’t feature a lot of candidates to move into the Top 25, likely allowing Texas and Texas A&M to hang around despite not looking like top-25 teams.
Georgia should jump Florida for No. 3 with an impressive win over No. 7 Auburn. As for the other SEC’s ranked teams? There will be a lot of movement as voters adjust based on the first two Saturdays of the season.
Here’s how we project Sunday’s AP Top 25 based on Saturday’s results:
- Clemson (3-0) def. Virginia, 41-23
- Alabama (2-0) def. No. 13 Texas A&M, 52-24
- Georgia (2-0) def. No. 7 Auburn, 27-6
- Florida (2-0) def. South Carolina, 38-24
- Notre Dame (2-0), did not play
- Ohio State (0-0), did not play
- Miami (3-0), did not play
- Penn State (0-0), did not play
- Oklahoma State (3-0) def. Kansas, 47-7
- Cincinnati (3-0) def. USF, 28-7
- North Carolina (2-0) def. Boston College, 26-22
- LSU (2-1) def. Vanderbilt, 41-7
- Oregon (0-0), did not play
- Tennessee (2-0) def. Missouri, 35-12
- Auburn (1-1) lost to No. 4 Georgia, 27-6
- BYU (3-0) def. Louisiana Tech, 45-14
- Wisconsin (0-0), did not play
- Mississippi State (1-1) lost to Arkansas, 21-14
- Texas (2-1) lost to TCU, 33-31
- Texas A&M (1-1) lost to No. 2 Alabama, 52-24
- SMU (4-0) def. No. 25 Memphis, 30-27
- Michigan (0-0), did not play
- Virginia Tech (2-0) def. Duke, 38-31
- UCF (2-1) lost to Tulsa, 34-26
- Minnesota (0-0), did not play
Projected to drop out of the AP Top 25: No. 18 Oklahoma (1-2) lost to Iowa State, 37-30; No. 24 Pittsburgh (3-1) lost to NC State, 30-29; No. 25 Memphis (1-1) lost to SMU, 30-27