College Football Week 4 AP Top 25 poll: Big Ten dominates latest rankings
Here we are with the Week 4 AP Top 25 Poll. It was a wild Saturday. Let’s take a look at the aftermath.
We knew going into Week 3 that it could be a wild one. It looked like there could be as many as nine upsets (rankings-wise) heading in. It turns out, that nine didn’t cover it.
UCLA just found out that one team’s heartbreaker is another team’s legend maker. Jake Haener! West Virginia set the Hokie’s dark horse title hopes ablaze like so many couches.
Elsewhere, UNC showed that they aren’t quite dead yet, and re-established themselves as the team to beat in the ACC Coastal, if only because their loss to Virginia Tech looks like an aberration. Miami can’t beat them. Who else can?
Michigan State — who struggled against Northwestern — drubbed the ‘Canes in Miami. The Spartans cemented the Big Ten’s spot ahead of the ACC in the Power 5. That’s not a ringing endorsement, by the way. Penn State won, but on some, er, questionable decision making by the Auburn offense. Seriously, your dual-threat quarterback runs the ball better than he throws it, and you’re going to throw a 50-50 ball on 4th and goal from the 2!?!? There’s also Iowa sitting at No. 5, getting the job done yes, but they just aren’t the fifth-best team in the country. They’re probably the third-best team in the Big Ten. But time will tell.
It was a great Saturday for teams poised to join the Big 12. While Cincinnati, BYU, Houston, and UCF combined don’t add up to one Oklahoma or Texas, Cincinnati and BYU are building something special. Each knocking off preseason Top 25 teams to reaffirm their statuses in the AP Poll.
We have quite a few newcomers to the poll this week. So let’s dive into the Week 4 AP Poll.
College Football Rankings: AP Top 25 poll, Week 4
- Alabama
- Georgia
- Oregon
- Oklahoma
- Iowa
- Penn State
- Texas A&M
- Cincinnati
- Clemson
- Ohio State
- Florida
- Notre Dame
- Ole Miss
- Iowa State
- BYU
- Arkansas
- Coastal Carolina
- Wisconsin
- Michigan
- Michigan State
- UNC
- Fresno State
- Auburn
- UCLA
- Kansas State
Right now there doesn’t seem to be a good spot for Clemson, who, rightly, fell to No. 9. That probably isn’t far enough. The Tigers are not a Top 10 team with this offense. Give them anyone else’s in the Top 25, and Clemson not only beats Georgia, but is right there with Alabama. If this were about defense, they would be in the Top 2. If this were about offense, they’d be in the, what, Top 50? Maybe? Sputtering is too generous a descriptor of this Clemson offense. It’s a bucket of yuck.
It defies reason, what’s happening with should be high-powered offenses right now. Ohio State looks discombobulated on offense. Ryan Day has to be feeling some heat with his Million Dollar Freshman still getting up to speed on the bench. Oklahoma can’t seem to get it going on offense either. And enough digital ink has already been spilled about this abysmal Clemson offense.
Part of what makes this Top 25 so hard to arrange is that we can count the teams (Alabama, Cincinnati, Oregon, Florida strangely) that are playing complete football on one hand. It’s just a bizarre start to the season for the teams we thought were good. We got a glimpse of the SEC Championship on Saturday. That might be the de facto National Championship at this rate.
Now, on to the good this week, and there was plenty.
One cannot continue to doubt Cincinnati’s legitimacy. The Bearcats continue to dominate teams that are (somehow) considered quality opponents, this time in Bloomington. (Anyone else ever say Bloomingdale by accident? No? Okay.)
Really, though, the stars this week were the underdogs, rankings-wise. West Virginia knocked off Virginia Tech, preemptively ending any hopes of the Hokies finishing in the Top 4. Michigan State might have some ugly wins, but this one in Miami is not one of them. The Spartans have earned their spot at No. 20.
Maybe 2020 wasn’t the weird season. Keyser Söze’s been hiding right in front of us all along.