College football rankings: Projected Week 5 AP Top 25 after Clemson, Texas A&M highlight 6 ranked teams to lose
How will the college football rankings for the AP Top 25 be shaken up after Week 4 watched Clemson, Texas A&M and Iowa State all suffer brutal upsets?
It’s another week in the books for the 2021 college football season, which apparently means that there are a handful more upsets that are going to shake up the college football rankings. The AP Top 25 is going to look nothing remotely similar to the preseason poll for too long.
We’ve already seen teams ranked in the top 25 drop like flies throughout the early parts of the year and there were no exclusions in Week 4. Texas A&M, Clemson, Iowa State and North Carolina all got knocked off with the latter three in that group already suffering their second losses of the season.
It’s been a calamitous year already in the country and, with more chaos overtaking the ranked teams, we’re ready to predict and project the AP Top 25 college football rankings for Week 5 after more upsets have rocked the boat.
Projected AP Top 25 College Football Rankings after Week 4: No. 25-21
25. Auburn Tigers
Because of the name brand that Auburn has, they’re not going to drop out of the top 25 this week because they did win. However, they almost took a nosedive. They trailed a bad Georgia State team with under a minute to play and, if not for a late TJ Finley touchdown (who replaced a benched Bo Nix) and then a pick-six, they would’ve been done for. Bryan Harsin clearly still has work ahead.
24. Boston College Eagles
Losing Phil Jurkovec appeared like it might be the death-knell for Jeff Hafley and Boston College as they lost their best and most proven offensive playmaker. However, they proved that the Eagles still have a lot of fight left in them as they welcomed a good Missouri team to Chestnut Hill and pulled off a big overtime win to stay undefeated on the year. They’ve earned a spot in the rankings to this point.
23. NC State Wolfpack
While Dave Doren’s team might have a loss on their ledger as they all but no-showed against Mississippi State but NC State has the goods. This defense is legit and the offense proved that they can win in multiple ways, even against a talent-rich group like Clemson. No one should want to see the Wolfpack on the opposite sidelines this season.
22. Baylor Bears
Despite the fact that Baylor entered the Week 4 matchup with Iowa State undefeated, the narrative around the Bears was that we didn’t totally know what to make of them. They showed us a lot as they fought tooth and nail with Iowa State, staved off a comeback with clutch plays late and moved to 4-0. This team may not be a title contender but they’re going to be a tough out each week they take the field.
21. Oklahoma State Cowboys
Another undefeated team out of the Big 12 that picked up a big win, we saw much more of Oklahoma State looking like a good team than the three narrow wins previously. Their defense played well against Kansas State backup Will Howard but Spencer Sanders also looked the best he has yet as his wide receiver group started to get healthy. Perhaps this team is a sleeper that we’ll see much more from moving forward.