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Rant Sports Week 5 Official College Football Top 25 Rankings
Rant Sports College Football Top 25
Week four of the college football season has come to a close and new top-25 rankings are ready to be released. Only two top-25 opponents from last week met with each other and the Stanford Cardinal knocked the Arizona State Sun Devils out of the rankings in which they only appeared in for one week.
There were a lot of blowouts in week four of top teams taking down lesser opponents -- most of the time they were facing off against FCS opponents. Both the Louisville Cardinals and Ohio State Buckeyes shut out their opponents while scoring 70-plus points. In fact, the combined score of the two games was 148-0 -- sometimes you have to feel bad for the FCS opponent because of the embarrassing score, but they knew what they were signing up for.
The top-10 is basically still the same from a week ago, and that comes as no surprise as only one top-25 team lost in week four. It's rare to see the top-25 teams do so overwhelmingly well in a week of play, but one week before most conference play begins, many teams face off against a nice little warm-up team.
There were a few solid story-lines to follow in week four such as how would Johnny Manziel and the Texas A&M Aggies respond following a week three loss to the Alabama Crimson Tide? How would the Wisconsin Badgers respond after an extremely controversial loss at Arizona State? Both teams performed exceedingly well and improved their records to 3-1 on the season.
Week six will be exciting because conference play is set to begin for most teams and it could be the first game to start a serious title run for a lot of teams.
Take a look at the Rant Sports week five top 25 rankings.
Connor Muldowney is a columnist for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @Connormuldowney, “Like” him on Facebook or add him to your network on Google. You can also reach him at [email protected].
25. Texas Tech Red Raiders (4-0)
Texas Tech will need a much better performance during Big 12 play than they had against Texas State, but over 500 yards of offense and a 33-7 win will do.
Last week: NR
24. Fresno State Bulldogs (3-0)
Fresno State snuck out with a close 41-40 win at home against Boise State. Anytime you can beat Boise State, it's pretty impressive.
Last week: NR
23. Notre Dame Fighting Irish (3-1)
Notre Dame took down a tough Michigan State team, 17-13, at home. The Fighting Irish were out-gained, yardage-wise, but a win's a win.
Last week: 24
22. Wisconsin Badgers (3-1)
The Wisconsin Badgers started off Big Ten play with a blowout win over Purdue. Winning 41-10 and proving that the offense is probably top-three in the conference is a nice way to keep yourself in the top-25 despite an early-season loss last week.
Last week: 23
21. Ole Miss Rebels (3-0)
Ole Miss is coming off a week three blowout of Texas on the road and Hugh Freeze's squad solidified themselves in the top-25.
Last week: 21
20. Florida Gators (2-1)
The Florida Gators had nice win over Tennessee after a week three loss against in-state foe, Miami. No win in the SEC is ever easy, especially against an unpredictable Tennessee team.
Last week: 19
19. Michigan Wolverines (4-0)
The Michigan Wolverines snuck out another close win against a lesser opponent in week four. Beating the Connecticut Huskies and Akron Zips by a combined seven points is not going to cut it in the Big Ten.
Last week: 15
18. Baylor Bears (3-0)
Baylor has scored at least 69 points in each of its first three games. It will be interesting to see how the stellar Bears' offense fares against Big 12 opponents.
Last week: 20
17. Washington Huskies (3-0)
Beating Idaho State isn't that impressive, but anytime you shut out an opponent by the score of 56-0, you deserve some respect -- and that's exactly what Washington is getting.
Last week: 18
16. Miami Hurricanes (3-0)
Miami won by a solid 70 points against a poor Savannah State team and it was never even a question. Quarterback Stephen Morris injured his ankle in the game that could put a damper on things moving forward.
Last week: 16
15. Northwestern Wildcats (4-0)
Northwestern is coming off yet another win before Big Ten play. If they play like they have been in non-conference play for the remainder of the year, this team could be a BCS-caliber squad.
Last week: 17
14. Oklahoma Sooners (3-0)
Oklahoma may have finally ended a quarterback controversy with a blessing in disguise. Trevor Knight was injured -- never a good thing -- in week two and Blake Bell started the game in week three and excelled. This guy will be the starter, or so it seems, moving into Big 12 play.
Last week: 14
13. UCLA Bruins (3-0)
UCLA has won by 20 points or more in its first three games. Brett Hundley has solidified himself in Heisman talks and it looks like this team is set to be a serious title contender.
Last week: 13
12. Oklahoma State Cowboys (3-0)
Oklahoma State had a much-needed bye week in week four considering the conference season is about to commence. Traveling to West Virginia in week five will be the team's biggest test of the season thus far.
Last week: 11
11. South Carolina Gamecocks (2-1)
South Carolina has had a grueling schedule to begin the season, but with a bye week in the fourth week of the season is sure to help this team, especially with the upcoming SEC season set to begin. However, the Gamecocks will warm up with Central Florida in week five.
Last week: 12
10. Florida State Seminoles (3-0)
Jameis Winston has his worst game as a collegiate starting quarterback, completing just 10 of 19 passes for over 140 yards and two scores. However, the Seminoles still blew out Bethune-Cookman.
Last week: 9
9. Texas A&M Aggies (3-1)
Johnny Manziel had a pedestrian game, under his standards, but the Aggies still won the game 23-13 against a lesser SMU squad.
Last week: 10
8. Louisville Cardinals (4-0)
Teddy Bridgewater and the Cardinals are coming off a 72-0 win against Florida International in week four. The junior quarterback threw four more touchdowns to add to his impressive total on the year of 14.
Last week: 7
7. Georgia Bulldogs (2-1)
The Aaron Murray Heisman campaign rolls on as he leads Georgia to its second win of the season with a 45-21 win over North Texas.
Last week: 8
6. LSU Tigers (4-0)
The Auburn Tigers were garnering a lot of early-season respect from people around college football. The LSU Tigers put that to rest, for the moment, with a solid 35-21 win.
Last week: 6
5. Stanford Cardinal (3-0)
Stanford won the only matchup of top-25 teams last week against Arizona State. The Sun Devils gave Stanford some trouble, but it was still the best win of the week from a top-25 team, in my opinion.
Last week: 5
4. Clemson Tigers (3-0)
Tajh Boyd had another solid performance in week four with four touchdowns against ACC foe N.C. State on the road. The Clemson Tigers are looking like serious national title contenders.
Last week: 4
3. Ohio State Buckeyes (4-0)
The Ohio State Buckeyes had the largest margin of victory of any top-25 team in week four. The Buckeyes won 76-0 against Florida A&M -- and they did it without Heisman-hopeful, Braxton Miller.
Last week: 3
2. Oregon Ducks (3-0)
The Oregon Ducks are a favorite to win the national title right now and could be the most complete team in college football. They are coming off a bye week and it will be three weeks before they face their first true Pac-12 test against Washington.
Last week: 2
1. Alabama Crimson Tide (3-0)
Alabama is still the clear No. 1 following yet another victory in week four. There's no surprise here as the Tide look unbeatable and might continue their win streak for the rest of the 2013 campaign.
Last week: 1
Be sure to check out the Rant Sports 100 in 100 Series, a preview of the top 100 College Football Teams for the 2013 Season!
