College Football Rankings: Projected Week 5 AP Top 25
It was hard to look at Week 4 of the college football season as anything but the calm before the storm. We know what next week is going to hold multiple Top 15 matchups from the AP Top 25 college football rankings on deck. However, going into that week, the action in Week 4 featured some big statements that could not only shake up the rankings in a big way, but could also make us think twice about our College Football Playoff picture early in the season.
The Indiana Hoosiers played a big part in that, absolutely boat-racing Illinois in the marquee primetime game of Week 4. There was clear doubt in Curt Cignetti's team, but not anymore after a monster one-sided win that will put a rocket beneath them in the AP Top 25. Oklahoma won't have a rocket, but their win, albeit a controversial one, outlasted Auburn in a ranked-on-ranked matchup to make a big-time statement with their second ranked win of the year. And don't forget about Texas Tech, who got their statement done early with an emphatic road win over Utah.
Beyond that, Arch Manning finally looked like a real quarterback for Texas, Miami and Missouri handled tough tests, and a whole lot more. What does that mean for the AP Top 25? Let's check out our full projected Week 5 college football rankings after the hectic week on the gridiron.
Dropped out of Rankings: Illinois Fighting Illini (9), Auburn Tigers (22)
No. 25-21
25. Memphis Tigers
While some people could still make the case for South Florida to return to the rankings, another Group of Five program was able to pick up a huge win on Saturday against SEC competition and they don’t have a blowout loss to Miami working against them. That, of course, is Memphis after they withstood a thousand punches from Arkansas only to force a red-zone fumble late that sealed the game. The Tigers have always been a contender in the American, but they’re on a great trajectory after adding a win like that.
24. TCU Horned Frogs
Don’t look now, but TCU now has an Iron Skillet and a 3-0 record on the season behind the Josh Hoover-powered offense. With the emphatic win over rival SMU on Saturday, the Horned Frogs are rolling under Sonny Dykes. While this isn’t the most impressive track record to this point, especially depending on your opinions on the Mustangs, TCU was on the cusp of cracking the Top 25 last week, and a rivalry win and losses for ranked teams should get them in now.
23. Utah Utes
Kyle Whittingham looked entirely flabbergasted on the sidelines on Saturday (quite early in Salt Lake City, it should be said) as the Utes were out-physicaled by Texas Tech for 60 minutes. Losing the trenches is not a common theme for Utah over the years, but that battle being lost ultimately put Utah and Devon Dampier behind the 8-ball too many times. I still believe the Utes should and will be ranked, but they’ll be right on the edge of that after their first loss of the season in their biggest game to this point.
22. USC Trojans (Still Playing vs. Michigan State)
USC is going to both extremes when it comes to their schedule, getting an 11 p.m. ET kickoff at home this week, only to have a Noon ET kickoff on the road next week. That being said, the Trojans are showing a ton of positive signs. The offense looks akin to what we saw from Lincoln Riley’s Oklahoma teams more than recent disappointments, and the defense does appear a bit more reliable than recent units as well. The arrow is definitively pointing up for this team, though, even if some people are still sleeping on them.
21. Missouri Tigers
Especially with the news that LaNorris Sellers would be suiting up, it was never going to be easy for Missouri to take down South Carolina, even playing at home. But the Tigers showed enough moxie to do just that. Beau Pribula continues to be one of the breakout stars of the 2025 season for Eli Drinkwitz’s team, while the defense is still playing at a high level two years after the loss of Blake Baker. The point is, don’t sleep on Mizzou making noise in the SEC this season.
No. 20-16
20. Notre Dame Fighting Irish
Look at that, a ranked team finally got its first win of the season! Jokes aside, Notre Dame obviously had a bearish start to the season with Miami and Texas A&M. Falling in both of those game, even by a total of four points, could be detrimental to the CFB Playoff case for the Fighting Irish on down the line, but the truth of the matter is that playing those games close and now absolutely being able to assert their will against Purdue shows that this team still has a lot of season left.
19. Michigan Wolverines
Things certainly got a little sweaty late in Lincoln for the Wolverines as Nebraska made a late push at a comeback, but Michigan picked up another huge win by taking down the Huskers on their own turf on Saturday. What stands out is how much freer Bryce Underwood and, by proxy, the rest of the offense look while Sherrone Moore has been out. If Michigan wants to re-establish itself as a contender, the head coach’s return shouldn’t mean throwing out the playbook we just saw.
18. Vanderbilt Commodores
If you needed another indication that Vanderbilt is even better than the upset-minded Commodores that we saw a week ago, they not only avenged last season’s head-scratching loss to Georgia State, they did so with authority. Diego Pavia and Company hung 56 points on the Panthers in three quarters and didn't stop there, even when Clark Lea appeared to call off the dogs as they ultimately hung 70 points on the board, the most they've scored in more than a century as a program. This might not be a team that's heading toward an SEC title, but it is a team that will have a say in that race with an apparent ability to go toe-to-toe with anyone.
17. Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets
Though they probably don’t have a true marquee win thanks to what Clemson now looks like, the résumé for Georgia Tech still looks quite impressive to this point with three FBS wins already, two of which came against Power Four competition and one against a conference rival when they toppled the Tigers a week ago. They just took it to Temple while clearly trying to recover a bit, and should get another similar chance next week at struggling Wake Forest.
16. Tennessee Volunteers
Coming on the heels of the tough loss to Georgia and just ahead of re-entering SEC play, Josh Heupel was always going to find a balance against lowly UAB. Tennessee indeed proved that, laying it on offensively in the first half to build a commanding lead, then putting the car in neutral for what amounted to basically the entire rest of the game. Mississippi State, who is on a bit of a resurgent run, is up next, but the Vols still have no reason to hang their heads.
No. 15-11
15. Iowa State Cyclones
Because of the game in Dublin for Iowa State, they were already 4-0 coming into the week. More importantly for Matt Campbell’s Cyclones, however, they finally got a much-needed week off, which we saw how badly they needed that in a narrow win at Arkansas State last week. With Utah going down in Week 4, though, the opportunity in the Big 12 remains large, and the Cyclones look like as good of a team as any to make their bid to play for a conference title.
14. Alabama Crimson Tide
After getting two walk-over type games following the loss in the season opener to FSU, Alabama had its bye week to prepare for their trip to play Georgia next week. Ty Simpson has seemingly made a leap in recent week when facing lesser competition, but the Dawgs will be his first test since losing to the Noles. He and the rest of the Crimson Tide will have a proving ground on their hands in Athens in their first chance to show that they’ve turned it around since the inauspicious start.
13. Ole Miss Rebels
There were some idiot (I’m referring to myself, of course), who thought that Ole Miss could be on upset alert with Jon Sumrall and Tulane coming to Oxford this week, especially with how porous the Rebels offense has already been at times this season. That was anything but the case. Not only did Lane Kiffin get another eye-popping outing from Trinidad Chambliss, but the defense suffocated Jake Retzlaff and teh Green Wave in a way we hadn’t seen. The reasons for optimism with this team keep growing in numbers.
12. Texas Tech Red Raiders
Frankly, anyone who doesn’t put Joey McGuire’s team in the Top 10 of their next ballot deserves to lose their vote. The big question about Texas Tech prior to this week was whether or not the dominance that we’ve seen against lesser competition was legitimate, or if that was just beating up on the little guy. After going to Rice-Eccles and laying it on Utah, even with losing Behren Morton for the entire second half, there are no more doubts about the Red Raiders.
11. Texas A&M Aggies
Especially with how good Notre Dame looked in picking apart Purdue on Saturday, you have to feel even better about Texas A&M last week. Not only did Mike Elko secure an undeniable signature win for the Aggies, this season in particular, but he was able to do so on the road in South Bend. You can’t overstate what kind of weight off of his back that ultimately must be for him, and he also showed that A&M is not the same A&M that we’ve seen before, whether last year or under Jimbo Fisher.
No. 10-9
10. Texas Longhorns
Arch Manning, welcome to college football. After we watched the all-world recruit look completely out of sorts and downright bad, even against teams like San Jose State and UTEP, it was no guarantee that he would even be able to take advantage of a highly advantageous matchup against Sam Houston and one of the worst defenses in the country. But lo and behold, Manning not only took a step forward, he looked stellar against this low-level competition.
With five total touchdowns in less than three full quarters, Manning looked the part. Now, the big question for Texas is going to be whether or not what we saw was a product of him finding himself and his confidence, or if it was just what playing Sam Houston looks like for just about any quarterback with an inkling of talent. Texas will have a week off, and then we’ll likely find out the answer to that when he steps up against a salty Florida defense in a couple of weeks.
9. Indiana Hoosiers
There’s a good chance that what everyone wanted upstart Indiana to be last year when they snuck into the College Football Playoff might actually be what the 2025 Hoosiers are. Curt Cignetti’s team came into their Week 4 matchup in what many considered a massive spot for both Indiana and Illinois, essentially a heavyweight fight to determine potentially the fourth-best team in the Big Ten. The Hoosiers, and Fernando Mendoza in particular, left no doubt that it was them.
Now, it should be said that Illinois’ defense was depleted, especially in the secondary. Even still, the fact that Indiana demolished them by 40+ points in this game means it shouldn’t matter who was out there for the Fighting Illini. The Hoosiers defense stonewalled everything the Illini wanted to do, then moved the ball at will when they had it. With games against Penn State and Oregon still looming as well, Indiana just asserted itself as a CFP contender yet again, but this time perhaps with even more legs and viability.
No. 8-7
8. Florida State Seminoles
To put it kindly, Kent State is only an FBS team in the technical sense. In terms of quality, Florida State taking on the Golden Flashes was always akin to an older brother holding his arm against a younger brother’s head while the latter swings wildly trying to put up a fight to no avail. The Seminoles returned off the bye week and completely worked their low-level opponents to get their money’s worth for paying Kent State to come to Tallahassee.
The one worry from this game was quarterback Tommy Castellanos leaving early with a leg injury, but he assured everyone he was fine after the 66-10 victory for the Noles. And though he’s the special sauce at times, even in this game with 205 yards passing and two rushing scores, it didn’t matter at all in this game particularly as Gus Malzahn was in his bag, leading to 498 rushing yards.
7. Oklahoma Sooners
So far, it’s mission accomplished for the Sooners to this point. Despite how much people began to realize how talented Oklahoma could be this season behind John Mateer and an entirely revamped offense under Ben Arbuckle, the most difficult schedule in the country was definitely hanging over this team’s head. Well, there’s still a lot of danger lying ahead for this team, to be sure, but the Sooners have passed their first two tests, this time outlasting Auburn in Norman.
Admittedly, Mateer and the offense weren’t as dominant as they were in the previous marquee win over Michigan. There were some stumbles, and perhaps some help from the refs if you were to ask Auburn fans. At the same time, Brent Venables and this defense are certified nasty and took it to their former quarterback Jackson Arnold, throughout this game. It’s going to be near impossible for OU to withstand this schedule without a blemish, but they’re proving to be good enough to be in a game with anyone they face.
No. 6-5
6. Oregon Ducks
It’s certainly strange to say that Oregon or any high-level college football team would go into a historic rivalry matchup and play the entire 60 minutes in cruise control, but it sure felt that way with Dan Lanning’s team taking on Oregon State on Saturday in Eugene. If you watched the game, if you look at the box score, if you just heard about it from a friend, there was nothing but vanilla, vanilla, vanilla on both sides of the ball from the Ducks.
That, of course, feels entirely by design. The Beavers have not only been one of the worst teams in the sport early in the season, but Oregon has one of their biggest matchups of the year next week when they go on the road to face Penn State. Lanning, Will Stein and this staff surely didn’t want to give Penn State anything on tape, and it showed — but it’s the mark of a good Oregon team that they still won running away despite that.
5. Georgia Bulldogs
Following the heart-pounding win over Tennessee in the rivalry matchup a week ago, Georgia had a week off, which they were probably thankful for. However, you can’t discount what we learned about Gunner Stockton in this team in that victory over the Vols. This team isn’t just a hard-nose defense (one that albeit made mistakes against Tennessee), but this is a team that can win big-time games in multiple ways, including in a shootout.
Perhaps, though, Kirby Smart is more thankful for the rest before the Dawgs next game rather than just coming off of a tough matchup as Georgia welcomes Alabama between the hedges next week. We still haven’t seen the Tide against top-level competition since the season-opening loss to Florida State, but when it comes to these two teams facing off, it’s certainly a game that Smart and his team will overlook.
No. 4-3
4. Miami Hurricanes
Things probably got hairier for Miami and head coach Mario Cristobal than they would’ve liked on Saturday as they welcomed rival Florida to town, but all that matters at the end of the day is that the Hurricanes were able to withstand the worst performance of the season to this point from Carson Beck and still have this game largely in their control. Part of that was leaning on the run game in a rock fight, but the other part was the Miami defense showing up in a huge way.
Outside of Beck’s turnover that helped out the Gators, the Canes would barely allow Florida to move the ball. Florida was held well under 200 yards for the night and, while Billy Napier hasn’t been covering himself in glory on that side of the ball with his team, the fact of the matter is that there is enough talent in Gainesville to feel great about that effort. Miami remains the clear class of the ACC right now until proven otherwise.
3. LSU Tigers
Brian Kelly had to consider Saturday’s matchup as a sort of therapy for both himself and this LSU team. With the Clemson win continuing to not look as impressive as we thought on the first weekend of the season and questions mounting about his team’s offense (much to the head coach’s unhidden chagrin), playing Southeastern Louisiana and getting to let it loose was exactly what the doctor ordered.
While the run game was still middling, Garrett Nussmeier tore it up, going 25-of-31 for 273 yards, three touchdowns, and a rushing score as well. More importantly for LSU, though, the defense continued to be one of the most pleasant surprises of the young season as they entirely stonewalled the Lions, limiting them to just over 100 yards of total offense through three quarters. But LSU won’t get a walk-over next week as they now have to go on the road to face Ole Miss.
No. 2-1
2. Penn State Nittany Lions
Much like the No. 1 team in the country that’s situated ahead of Penn State, the Nittany Lions weren’t on the field in Week 4. That’s certainly welcomed considering that James Franklin and his team will have one of their biggest games of the season on deck, getting Oregon into Happy Valley and seeing if they can secure a Top 10 victory over the Ducks that would firmly set this season on a national title or bust type of track.
The problem that I’ve seen with that to this point, however. Albeit against lesser competition, this looks like the same type of Penn State team under Franklin that has fallen short so many times before. Drew Allar and the offense don’t appear to have taken a step forward, the defense is elite, and there still feels like an extreme anxiety about this team in big games. We’ll see if that holds true when Oregon comes to town.
1. Ohio State Buckeyes
Ryan Day and the Buckeyes didn’t have to take the field for Week 4 as Ohio State had its bye, but they have to feel good as they ready for the start of Big Ten play next week. With the win over Texas already in this team’s back pocket, they have to be feeling good about what that could portend for the rest of the season. That’s especially true with Julian Sayin’s comfort level growing.
The trip to play Washington in the opener for conference play should be interesting. Make no mistake, Ohio State is the far superior team we’re talking about here. However, Seattle is always a tough place to play, and that trip from Columbus is also no joke either. Seeing how this team comes out of the bye and what kind of effort they can give against a good, not great Huskies team will color a lot of my perception about the Buckeyes.