The college football gods have blessed us with an impressive slate in Week 5, but most of the more meaningful games start in the later hours. However, the noon ET slate did offer us a few impressive ranked matchups, including Notre Dame dominating Arkansas, Georgia Tech surviving against ACC foe Wake Forest, and Illinois outlasting USC in a statement Big Ten victory. These wins won't stand out when Saturday is said and done – Oregon vs Penn State and Georgia vs Alabama is still to come. However, they may have offered us some of the more underrated storylines of the week, and should alter the rankings quite a bit when they're revealed.
Projected college football rankings after Notre Dame, Illinois and Georgia Tech win
These rankings shouldn't change all that much, and are dependent on what happens in the afternoon and night slates. That's what so tricky about doing these rankings – if a reader looks at them at the wrong time, I'll look dumb. Please read this section, where I determine, full-proof, that these are NOT OUR FINAL RANKINGS. That'll come courtesy of my colleague Alicia de Artola later Saturday night.
Ranking | School |
|---|---|
1 | Ohio State |
2 | Miami |
3 | Penn State |
4 | LSU |
5 | Georgia |
6 | Oregon |
7 | Oklahoma |
8 | Texas A&M |
9 | Texas |
10 | Indiana |
11 | Texas Tech |
12 | Ole Miss |
13 | Florida State |
14 | Iowa State |
15 | Tennessee |
16 | Georgia Tech |
17 | Alabama |
18 | Notre Dame |
19 | Illinois |
20 | Missouri |
21 | Michigan |
22 | Vanderbilt |
23 | Virginia |
24 | TCU |
25 | Louisville |
What we learned from college football Week 5's early slate
Why Georgia Tech didn't move up
I love watching Georgia Tech play, and Haynes King is one of my favorite quarterbacks in the ACC, if not all of college football. I believe the Yellow Jackets can be a real threat to Miami, Florida State and the rest of the conference. However, these rankings should be based solely on how the team played Saturday. For the Jackets, it wasn't great! Any road ACC game is tough, and at Wake Forest isn't easy. However, the Demon Deacons are 0-2 in the ACC and 2-0 against everyone else. That means Tech nearly lost to a bad team in a tough environment. King went off, thankfully for Georgia Tech, to the tune of 246 passing yards and over 100 rushing yards. He is a monster, but the Jackets will need more of a collective effort to reach their end game.
Why Notre Dame deserves a big jump
Notre Dame remained ranked despite a 1-2, much to the dismay of college football fans everywhere. A big program catching a break just to set up a Power-4 game? Consider me shocked. However, the Fighting Irish haven't been the luckiest team to open the season, and could be catching fire at the right time midseason. Sure, Arkansas is a mess and they should fire Sam Pittman, but the Irish won 56-13 against an SEC team on the road. The real MVP of this game was Jeremiyah Love, who had four total touchdowns in the first half. CJ Carr finally looked the part, and if there's a path to the playoff for Notre Dame, they won't look back.
Illinois knocks off Southern Cal
This was – and I cannot say this enough – a great game. Southern Cal walked into Champaign hoping for a ranked win to add to their resume. It did not go according to plan, as the Trojans and Lincloln Riley suffered their first loss of the season.
Illinois, fresh off a loss to a proven Indiana team, bounced back in a big way. Luke Altmyer had 328 yards passing and two touchdowns. Kicker David Olano made a 41-yard field goal to win the game with no time on the clock. There wasn't much between these teams, which is a positive sign for SC considered Illinois is better than their ranking suggests.