The Week 4 AP Top 25 college football rankings poll are out, and it’s clear the voters have a tough task each week. There has hardly been any stability in the poll each week, with massive upsets shaking up the poll since the season started. The biggest moves were Clemson and South Carolina being booted out of the poll. That should come as a surprise, as the teams that beat them were not only unranked, but also made their debut’s in this week’s poll.
Texas A&M’s big win over Notre Dame, regardless of the controversial no-call on the possible holding call on the go-ahead touchdown, boosted them to the top 10 and Notre Dame is fighting for their College Football Playoff hopes after falling to 0-2. As much that changed in this poll, the voters did whiff on quite a few of the votes.
Here are three teams ranked way too high and three ranked too low after the latest AP Top 25 poll was released Sunday.
3 teams ranked way too high in latest AP top 25 poll
Iowa State Cyclones
I don’t agree with Iowa State jumping to No. 12 after beating Arkansas State. Just like Illinois stayed put and even Tennessee after losing to Georgia, the Cyclones shouldn’t have been gifted a move near the top 10 even though they won. They barely beat Arkansas State on Saturday and after consecutive narrow wins against unranked opponents, it’s only a matter of time before Iowa State loses.
I think the biggest problem is they were bumped up too high, too early into the season and now with the teams ahead of them losing and a few more teams below them with one loss, it’s a hard sell to bump them lower. But the fact is, Iowa State, just like last year, will ultimately lose a game they shouldn’t and it will end up knocking them out of the rankings anyway.
Florida State Seminoles
Come on now, are we really convinced Florida State is the seventh-best team in the country? They have one ranked win and we haven’t really seen if Alabama is better than last year or not yet. The Seminoles keep climbing up the rankings, and that’s all because they made their debut at No. 14. It was too high then and now after whooping on teams they should have beat on, they’re up to No. 7.
This will ultimately sort itself out and maybe I’m not giving the Seminoles enough credit. But this team isn’t one of the best in the country, and I’ll continue to believe that until I see them beat an actual good team.
Illinois Fighting Illini
Illinois doesn’t have a ranked win yet this year, yet we’re ranking them inside the top 10, while teams like Oklahoma already have a ranked win and are still outside the top 10. It just doesn’t make sense to me and with Illinois’ favorable schedule, they’re on track to do exactly what Indiana did last year and sneak in.
The Fighting Illini might be better than I’m giving them credit for and with Indiana next week and USC, which debuted at No. 25 this week, the week after, if they don’t stay undefeated, I’m going to question why they were ranked that high to begin with.
3 teams ranked too low after latest AP top 25 poll is released
Texas A&M Aggies
Texas A&M looks as legit as any of the other top teams in the SEC and right now we can’t ignore that they took down the No. 8 ranked team in the country and only jumped up to No. 10. If Florida State can debut at No. 14, the Aggies deserve a much better nod than only landing at No. 10. I know they play Texas so that will sort itself out, but right now, you can’t convince me Texas is better than Texas A&M.
In fact, the only teams that probably deserved to be ranked higher than Texas A&M is Ohio State, Penn State, LSU, Miami and maybe Georgia. They look like one of the toughest teams to beat this season and it’s criminal a road, ranked win only moves them to No. 10, behind three teams that don’t have a ranked win yet this year.
Vanderbilt Commodores
Remember when Vanderbilt stunned Alabama last year and they got ranked for all of one week just to never see the AP top 25 poll or College Football Playoff rankings ever again? Well, this year is different. The Commodores looked like a team that’s ready to break a lot of the top SEC teams’ hearts this year. The way they walked into Williams-Brice Stadium and manhandled South Carolina is proof they’re a lot better than we’re giving them credit for.
We’ll see if that win is as good as Florida State’s win over Bama in due time, but if Florida State can debut at No. 14, Vandy can certainly be credited with a higher ranking than No. 20.
Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets
Between the No. 15 ranked team and the No. 25 ranked team in the latest poll, only two teams have wins over previously ranked teams and they both made their debuts this week. Georgia Tech beating No. 12 Clemson should have given them a bigger boost than to No. 18. If it wasn’t that good of a win, then maybe don’t rank teams that look fraudulent that high.
The Yellow Jackets still have a lot to prove because after being ranked last year, they lost the following week and never got back into the top 25. So I could see the hesitancy in giving them a boost inside the top 15. They don’t have another ranked opponent until the end of the season. AP voters have proved that they have no problem dropping teams inside the top 15 out of the poll altogether so what’s the harm in giving Georgia Tech more respect for getting a much-earned win?