Top 25: Week Five

This has been quite the season in college football. Coming into the year, it seemed as if the usual suspects would be the ones competing for the playoff spots once again, with a couple usurpers, including UNC, standing on the precipice on the off chance one of them slips up.

That has not happened. Alabama and Georgia are mostly holding strong (and even they’ve had bad moments), but other than that, none of the preseason favorites have been that impressive. Most have either lost games or have looked unimpressive at least once, a couple multiple times. The preseason top ten have now taken a combined eight losses, and that includes two from UNC.

The Tar Heels looked awful in a loss at Georgia Tech on Saturday. As a result, they were part of a fairly big shake up in the AP Top 25 rankings that happened this week. Now that the dust has settled on week four, let’s take a look at where those rankings stand.

AP Top 25

1. Alabama Crimson Tide (58 first place votes)
2. Georgia Bulldogs (4)
3. Oregon Ducks
4. Penn State Nuttany Lions
5. Iowa Hawkeyes
6. Oklahoma Sooners
7. Cincinnati Bearcats
8. Arkansas Razorbacks
9. Notre Dame Fighting Irish
10. Florida Gators
11. Ohio State Buckeyes
12. Ole Miss Rebels
13. BYU Cougars
14. Michigan Wolverines
15. Texas A&M Aggies
16. Coastal Carolina Chanticleers
17. Michigan State Spartans
18. Fresno State Bulldogs
19. Oklahoma State Cowboys
20. UCLA Bruins
21. Baylor Bears
22. Auburn Tigers
23. NC State Wolfpack
24. Wake Forest Demon Deacons
25. Clemson Tigers

Where is UNC?

Well. Unsurprisingly, the loss to Georgia Tech has knocked the Tar Heels out of the top 25. They’ve gone from #21 to barely on the fringes of the “others receiving votes” group. Exactly one person game Carolina a #25 vote, meaning they got one point, the lowest total of any team that received votes.

Biggest Winners

Arkansas has had quite the start to the season which continued with a win over Texas A&M/ As a result, they’re into the top ten for the first time since 2012, when they started the year at #10, moved up to #8 ahead of week two and then immediately lost to UL Monroe. Oh, also some team from Raleigh rose up quite a bit.

Biggest Losers

UNC’s drop from #21 to 42nd place was actually the biggest of the week, but they had some company when it comes to massive falls. Iowa State and Wisconsin also went from top 25 to barely hanging on to any votes after each taking losses. Preseason ACC mega favorite Clemson barely avoided dropping out of the top 25 for the first time since 2014, dropping 16 spots and coming in at #25 by just a couple ranking points.

Conference Breakdown

• SEC: 7
• Big Ten: 5
• ACC: 3
• Big 12: 3
• Independent: 2
• Pac-12: 2
• AAC: 1
• Mountain West: 1
• Sun Belt: 1

Marquee Matchups This Week

• #8 Arkansas (4-0, 1-0 SEC) at #2 Georgia (4-0, 2-0 SEC) - Saturday at 12 PM ET on ESPN
• #7 Cincinnati (3-0) at #9 Notre Dame (4-0) - Saturday at 2:30 PM ET on NBC
• #12 Ole Miss (3-0) at #1 Alabama (4-0, 1-0 SEC) - Saturday at 3:30 PM ET on CBS

Coaches Poll

1. Alabama (64)
2. Georgia (1)
3. Oregon
4. Oklahoma
5. Iowa
6. Penn State
7. Notre Dame
8. Cincinnati
9. Florida
10. Ohio State
11. Arkansas
12. Ole Miss
13. Texas A&M
14. Michigan
15. BYU
16. Coastal Carolina
17. Michigan State (tied with Coastal)
18. Oklahoma State
19. Clemson
20. UCLA
21. Fresno State
22. Auburn
23. Kentucky
24. Baylor
25. Wake Forest