College football rankings: Projected Week 5 AP Top 25 after Clemson, Texas A&M highlight 6 ranked teams to lose

Projected AP Top 25 College Football Rankings after Week 4: No. 8-7

8. Cincinnati Bearcats

Cincinnati came into the season knowing that, if the Bearcats were going to have any shot of making the College Football Playoff, they were going to have to win two crucial non-conference games on the schedule. They checked the first of those boxes last week as they beat Indiana (though that win looks less impressive than we thought it would coming into the year).

They were off in Week 4, however, before going on the road to South Bend for their biggest test of the year against Notre Dame. While I’m not sold on the Irish still, Brian Kelly’s team is going to push this Cincinnati defense that has been lauded so often to the brink. We’ll learn just how good on a national scale Desmond Ridder and the Bearcats are next week.

7. Arkansas Razorbacks

Woo Pig Sooie! Why wouldn’t Arkansas vault firmly into the top 10 after knocking off Texas A&M on Saturday in JerryWorld? The Razorbacks haven’t just passed every test, including two big ones with the Aggies, but they have done so with flying colors. They controlled the lines of scrimmage against Jimbo Fisher’s team and KJ Jefferson was an elite leader as he battled through injuries to secure the win.

Arkansas has a brutal October schedule after ending the first month of the year with a bear of a matchup. They’re on the road against Georgia next week and in Oxford for Ole Miss the next week before welcoming Auburn to town the week after that. But even with all that, the Hogs showed in this game that they can be in every single one of those contests.