01. Oklahoma (6-0) B12 (+4) - Welcome to the top spot Oklahoma! Advanced stats and a dozen other metrics based analyses have had them as one of the top 4 teams for most of the year. That win over Texas was huge and resonates now as the best win in college football. All of their other wins were pretty strong. The rest of their schedule should be a cakewalk so look for them to breeze through it. The big concern down the stretch should be how leaky their secondary looked against Texas. The opportunities were there but Texas just scored *too quickly* on their final drive (a classic Sark problem).

02. Georgia (6-0) SEC (+2) - Finally they looked like the team everyone expects them to be. They scored on every possession of the first half, even the 20 something second one. This was the first game between ranked teams this year where it looked like there was a clear two different tiers. I expect this trend to continue over the next 3 weeks where we start to see the rankings solidify around a top 10 and everybody else.

03. Washington (5-0) P12 (N/A) - Two teams moved up, two down, and Washington stayed put. That win over Arizona looks even better after they took USC to triple overtime in the Coliseum. I remain convinced from the results on the field that Washington is playoff bound this season. We'll see if they can solidify that prediction this Saturday! I think Washington scores touchdowns on 75% of possessions, kicks one or two field goals, and wins by 2+ scores. Penix will be the CLEAR favorite for the Heisman after this game. The D**ks are going to cheap shot Penix at least twice, too (they did twice last year and got dinged for it on one of them). We just need to keep our cool and ride the crowd to a resounding victory.

04. Ohio State (5-0) B10 (-3) - Maryland gave them all they could handle until they ran out of gas in the 4th quarter. Ohio State's depth and talent wore the Terps down eventually but there are still a lot of warning signs popping up for the Buckeyes. The Notre Dame win took a huge hit after Louisville solidly beat the Irish. There's legitimate reason to be concerned with Ohio State's ability to outscore strong offenses this year.

05. Michigan (6-0) B10 (+1) - There's nothing this team has done to deserve a 2nd place AP ranking that Washington hasn't done better.

06. Penn State (5-0) B10 (+2) - Right behind Michigan because their first half troubles have been worse than Michigan's. They get a pseudo bye week playing Massachusetts this week before the first major Big-10 matchup against Ohio State.

07. Texas (5-1) B12 (-5) - Sark gonna Sark. Scored too fast and gave Oklahoma a chance to beat 'em. Great team, great offense, defense is a little shaky, and coaching is for sure shaky. But I will still pick them straight up against all the teams below here.

08. Florida State (5-0) ACC (+2) - They have the record of a 5-0 top-10 team but they've played like a 3-2 fringe top 25 team.

09. O****n (5-0) P12 (N/A) - This is the classic case of a team that's beat up on bad teams intentionally to inflate its states. Bo Nix had no business being on the field in the final scoring drive against Stanford but Lanning is all in on trying to get him the Heisman so there he was running up the score even further. They've been slow to pull their starters all year even if their opponents are way overmatched (their SOS is around 100-110 in the country BTW). I fully expect Lanning to open up the playbook a little bit in this one and have Nix throw further downfield than the line of scrimmage finally. They're going to try to expose our corners by forcing us to leave them in one-on-one situations and rely on the officiating to be tight. But I don't think they can win a shoot out with us trying that. Expect the D**ks to revert to the quick outs and hoping for broken tackles after loosing up the defense with some deep shots. We're not going to completely stop them but I think we can score on 30% more possessions than they do.

10. USC (6-0) P12 (-3) - Does anyone really think this team is national champion caliber after their back to back defensive collapses against Colorado and Arizona? USC is Caleb Williams and Caleb Williams is USC.

11. Louisville (6-0) ACC (+10) - Louisville beat Notre Dame much more soundly than Ohio State did and moves up a lot as one of only five bowl eligible teams in the country. Do you want to know something absolutely crazy? Florida State, Louisville, and North Carolina all don't play each other this year. The ACC could enter its title game with three undefeated teams. Can you imagine a 12-0 ACC team being left out of the playoff because it didn't play for its conference championship game?

12. North Carolina (5-0) ACC (+2) - UNC probably has the easiest road to undefeated in the ACC. If they can get past Miami this Saturday at home it'll be pretty smooth sailing until mid November. Their schedule hasn't been all that tough now that we've seen how average South Caorlina is so this weekend will be their first measuring stick game.

13. Alabama (5-1) SEC (+3) - I debated for a while moving Alabama up to 11th because I do think they can beat all the ACC teams on a neutral field. But the early season struggles still need to be accounted for. If we see a couple more solid performances out of Alabama's offense we may need to start calling them a playoff team again. The solidification of the quarterback position has helped a lot. I think Saban will probably never leave the starter in doubt entering the season again. That was a huge mistake that just created inconsistency and chaos across that whole side of the ball.

14. Washington State (4-1) P12 (-3) - Well WSU can't handle a pass rush. Like... at all. UCLA has one of the best in the country (maybe THE best) and made life miserable for the Cuogs. They're holding in this spot because of the big wins over Oregon State and Wisconsin which is probably still the best pair of wins for any team in the country.

15. Oregon State (5-1) P12 (-2) - I think they're a better team than WSU but WSU gets the head to head tie break. Their QB (sorry I cannot spell his name consistently, not even going to try) is starting to settle in but he isn't a world beater like Penix, Nix, and Williams. The defense isn't quite as good as expected (sorry Beavs - holding Utah to 7 is the expectation, not the exception) but is strong enough to keep them in most games.

16. Ole Miss (5-1) SEC (+6) - Well this is a surprise! Ole Miss has a sneaky strong strength of schedule. Their non-conference wins against Tulane and Georgia Tech are looking pretty good right now. They're on a bye this week before they have a road contest at 3-2 Auburn. Look for Ole Miss to possibly upset Georgia in November.

17. Duke (4-1) ACC (+1) - This is where it gets really hard to do these rankings. Duke's opening season win over Clemson caused a huge overreaction in the polls which propelled them up the rankings only for them to get beat by Notre Dame at home. They trailed 0-10 at half, came back to be up 14-3, and then fumbled the ball into their own endzone on their final drive. The Clemson win is less impressive now and the rest of their schedule has been pretty soft. They've got all 3 undefeated ACCs teams coming up in the next 5 weeks.

18. Maryland (5-1) B10 (+5) - These guys are right about where they were last season - A thorn in the side of the bigger teams but not quite able to hang in the 4th quarter. That's solid coaching and thin depth for you.

19. Wisconsin (4-1) B10 (+6) - Another team that's kinda okay but kinda hard to peg down. The loss at WSU wasn't a bad one and they beat a decent 4-2 Rutgers team. They get 5-1 Iowa at home this week which will essentially decide who gets destroyed by the Big-10 East representative in the conference title game.

20. Kentucky (5-1) SEC (-3) - Oh Kentucky... You got Georgia's full attention which nobody else got this year. Ouch. Still a lot to play for but definitely any faint glimmer of hope fans had of a playoff appearance has since evaporated.

21. UCLA (4-1) P12 (NEW) - I think we can definitively say that UCLA has the best defense in the Pac-12 now. But they also have the 3rd or 4th worst offense. I think I saw someone say today that if they get past Oregon State this Saturday they have a pretty clear and easy path to the Pac-12 title game. I whole heartedly disagree. Colorado, USC, and Cal all have great odds to beat this team unless they can get some rapid improvement from their offense.

22. Notre Dame (5-2) IND (-10) - Well their losses are to teams that are a combined 11-0. Can't be upset over that. Notre Dame has had the toughest schedule in the country through the first half of the season and now they get a date with USC this weekend. Should be a fun game but I expect them to lose by at least a touchdown.

23. Miami (4-1) ACC (-8) - Well this was supposed to just be a bunch of ROFL emojis but those don't work in SBNation posts so... HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHA

24. Wyoming (5-1) MWC (NEW) - Welcome to the rankings Wyoming!!! I guess that 10-10 score entering the 4th quarter with Texas was pretty legit. Taking down Fresno State puts Wyoming in the driver's seat for a Fiesta Bowl bid as the top Go5 team.

25. Tennessee (5-1) SEC (NEW) - This is kind of just a roulette spot in the rankings this week. Here's my list of other possible teams: 4-1 Utah, 5-1 Iowa, 5-1 Kansas, 6-0 Liberty, and 5-0 Air Force. Utah has only cleared 30 points once all season and that was against an FCS team; they were shut out in the first half against Oregon State. Iowa actually got shut out by Penn State, Kansas was blown off the field by Texas and has otherwise not played anybody, Liberty has played 6 high school teams, and Air Force is barely ahead of Liberty in their SOS. Tennessee gets the nod here by virtue of... I dunno, they look less incompetent and have a better schedule than the others?