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College football power rankings – Week 4: AP Top 25 predictions

By Patrick Schmidt

OXFORD, MS - SEPTEMBER 15: Tua Tagovailoa #13 of the Alabama Crimson Tide celebrates during the first half against the Mississippi Rebels at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium on September 15, 2018 in Oxford, Mississippi. (Photo by Jonathan Bachman/Getty Images)
OXFORD, MS - SEPTEMBER 15: Tua Tagovailoa #13 of the Alabama Crimson Tide celebrates during the first half against the Mississippi Rebels at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium on September 15, 2018 in Oxford, Mississippi. (Photo by Jonathan Bachman/Getty Images) /
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Week 3 saw the biggest upset of the season with BYU knocking off Wisconsin but that is far from the only movement in the new AP Top 25.

We’re only halfway through September and we’ve already four teams ranked in the top 10 of the preseason AP Top 25 suffer a loss. Joining Miami and Washington as preseason darlings to be upset are Wisconsin and Auburn who fell to unranked BYU and No. 12 LSU, respectively.

Wisconsin lost when their game-tying field goal attempt sailed wide left and Auburn lost when LSU’s game-winning kick sailed through the uprights as time expired. Upsets are what makes college football the crazy unpredictable magical beast that it is. That’s why fans tune in on Saturdays to see what madness will unfold.

And when all the madness comes to a close on Saturday night, fans wait to see the fallout with the release of the AP Top 25 poll on Sunday afternoon.

But we don’t need to wait until lunchtime on Sunday to get a taste for what the new AP Top 25 will look like. Important distinction: This is what I think the AP Top 25 will look, not what I think they should look like.

Week 4 AP Top 25 predicted order

  1. Alabama
  2. Clemson
  3. Georgia
  4. Ohio State
  5. Oklahoma
  6. LSU
  7. Stanford
  8. Notre Dame
  9. Washington
  10. Penn State
  11. Auburn
  12. Wisconsin
  13. Virginia Tech
  14. West Virginia
  15. Mississippi State
  16. TCU
  17. UCF
  18. Michigan
  19. Miami
  20. Oklahoma State
  21. Oregon
  22. Boise State
  23. Michigan State
  24. Texas A&M
  25. Boston College

The biggest drops come from Wisconsin who drops from No. 6 to No. 12 after losing at home to a 23.5-point underdog, BYU. Boise State dropped five spots after their one-sided loss to Oklahoma State, who moved up four spots. Auburn drops from No. 7 to No. 11 after losing as time expired on a field goal by LSU who moves up six spots to No. 6.

USC drops out after the then-No. 22 Trojans were waxed by unranked Texas. If you went to bed early, you missed Arizona State upset at 2:30 a.m. ET and they fall out of the Top 25, one week after joining it. Texas A&M makes the Top 25 one week after nearly upsetting Clemson and 3-0 Boston College gets in after handing Wake Forest their first loss of the year on Friday.

While this is how I think the AP voters will see the Top 25, I would have Georgia leap over Clemson who hasn’t looked like the second-best team in the country. And after Ohio State knocked off then-No. 15 TCU, I think they have a good cast to crack the top 3.

Next. Biggest takeaway from every Top 25 team in Week 3. dark

The AP Top 25 poll will be released around 2 p.m. on Sunday afternoon, but it has been known to come out earlier than that.

* game in progress

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