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It was a pretty routine day across the top 25 in college football ... until it wasn’t. Penn State blocked an Ohio State field goal and ran it back all the way to topple the Buckeyes in Happy Valley. It’s our first shakeup in the top five since Louisville lost to Clemson a few weeks ago.
Alabama rolled over Texas A&M to give the Aggies their first loss of the year. It wasn’t as close as the scoreboard may indicate, so don’t get it twisted. Michigan, Clemson, and Washington remain in the top five in the polls, with Louisville rejoining after obliterating NC State.
Speaking of the greater Houston area, the Cougars took their second L of the season in spectacular fashion to SMU. Other big losers this week: Arkansas got sizzled by Auburn, and Ole Miss got run over by Leonard Fournette.
Washington and Utah get a top-20 showdown this upcoming Saturday, and College GameDay’s gonna be there.
Good news! This upcoming week will be the last without official Playoff rankings. Actually, that might be bad news, upon further review. (As you can see, the computers still like the Buckeyes.)
| AP (prev, if diff) | Coaches | S&P+ | Massey | |
| 1 | Alabama | Alabama | Michigan | Alabama |
| 2 | Michigan (3) | Michigan (4) | Louisville | Michigan |
| 3 | Clemson (4) | Clemson (3) | Alabama | Clemson |
| 4 | Washington (5) | Washington (5) | Clemson | Ohio State |
| 5 | Louisville (7) | Louisville (7) | Ohio State | Washington |
| 6 | Ohio State (2) | (tie) Nebraska (9) | Washington | Texas A&M |
| 7 | Nebraska (8) | (tie) Baylor (8) | Auburn | Louisville |
| 8 | Baylor (9) | Ohio State (2) | LSU | WVU |
| 9 | Texas A&M (6) | WVU (13) | Florida | WMU |
| 10 | WVU (12) | Texas A&M (6) | Wisconsin | Wisconsin |
| 11 | Wisconsin (10) | Wisconsin (10) | Baylor | Auburn |
| 12 | FSU (13) | Florida | Virginia Tech | Boise State |
| 13 | Boise State (14) | Boise State (14) | Oklahoma | FSU |
| 14 | Florida (15) | FSU (15) | FSU | Nebraska |
| 15 | Auburn (21) | Oklahoma (16) | Texas A&M | Tennessee |
| 16 | Oklahoma | Utah (18) | Penn State | Florida |
| 17 | Utah (19) | Auburn (24) | Colorado | Colorado |
| 18 | Tennessee | Tennessee (19) | Boise State | LSU |
| 19 | LSU (25) | LSU (23) | Ole Miss | Baylor |
| 20 | WMU | UNC (21) | USC | Wash. State |
| 21 | UNC (22) | WMU (20) | WVU | Oklahoma |
| 22 | Navy (24) | Navy (25) | Nebraska | Utah |
| 23 | Colorado (NR) | Colorado (26) | Miami | Houston |
| 24 | Penn State (NR) | Houston (11) | WMU | USC |
| 25 | Virginia Tech (NR) | Virginia Tech (31) | SDSU | UNC |
The four rankings used here
The Associated Press Top 25: The longest-running and best-respected human poll. Didn't have any official bearing on the latter years of the BCS, and doesn't have any official bearing on the Playoff. Most outlets (including SB Nation) will use the AP's rankings as the standard until the committee takes over in November, though. You can expect these rankings to drop early Sunday afternoon.
The USA Today Coaches Poll: Formerly part of the BCS, and now just a poll. It tends to react more cautiously than the AP's. Though polling athletic departments in order to rank other athletic departments is dubious, we still want multiple human polls in here, and this is the other big one. These rankings typically come in Sundays around noon.
The Massey computer composite: A collection of dozens of ratings, all combined into one. We include the latest version as of publication. (It does also include the two human polls, but they can't sway it all that much.)
Bill Connelly's S&P+ ratings: SB Nation's favored advanced stat, which arrives a bit later than the others. An important thing to keep in mind: for the first few weeks, it also factors in preseason projections. It'll look pretty weird early on, but it's proved to be a very strong predictor against the Vegas spread over the long term.