Late September is a pretty volatile time for college football ratings. Preseason projections are getting phased out in favor of the season’s small-sample results, and ratings tend to see some rather significant week-to-week shifts.

Last week, only three teams moved up more than 10 spots in the S&P+ ratings, while only two teams moved down by more than 10. This week, six teams moved up by that amount, and eight teams moved down. We will probably see similar movement next week.

Below are this week’s S&P+ ratings. You can find full unit rankings (and a yearly archive) at Football Outsiders. (Also, if the chart below isn’t loading friendly on your mobile device, that Football Outsiders link should work.)

One thing I’ve included in this week’s table: where a team would be ranked if there were no preseason projections involved. Early in the year, you have to include projections if you want any sort of predictive success, but I figure including this both addresses a lot of questions people might have (“How is [Losing Team A] ranked so high???”) and gives you a better feel for which teams are moving up or down.

Alabama remains your top team after a businesslike win over Colorado State. The Crimson Tide have been perfectly fine this year and will likely continue to grow into themselves in the coming weeks. But two upcoming road opponents — Vanderbilt (Sept. 23) and Mississippi State (Nov. 11) — have been better if we look at nothing but this season’s results.

What the Top 10 would now look like, if there were no preseason projections

Matt Bush-USA TODAY Sports

1. Mississippi State (3-0)
2. Penn State (3-0)
3. Oklahoma State (3-0)
4. Washington (3-0)
5. Wake Forest (3-0)
6. Miami (1-0)
7. Michigan State (2-0)
8. Oklahoma (3-0)
9. Vanderbilt (3-0)
10. Wisconsin (3-0)

That Mississippi State has throttled decent FCS (Charleston Southern) and G5 teams (Louisiana Tech) was reasonably impressive. That the Bulldogs then treated LSU almost as poorly as Charleston Southern was staggering. They have been tremendous in the first three weeks of the season. S&P+ reminds us that being good for three weeks isn’t the same as being good for 15, but so far, so good, to say the least.

Meanwhile, it’s probably a very good thing for college football that its two funnest teams — Penn State and Oklahoma State — have also been two of its best teams so far.

Top movers (good)

Jeremy Brevard-USA TODAY Sports

1. UTSA (up 15 spots, from 90th to 75th)
2. Rutgers (up 15 spots, from 97th to 82nd)
3. Wake Forest (up 14 spots, from 50th to 36th)
4. Purdue (up 14 spots, from 85th to 71st)
5. South Alabama (up 13 spots, from 119th to 106th)
6. Minnesota (up 12 spots, from 60th to 48th)
7. Southern Miss (up 10 spots, from 80th to 70th)
8. Ohio (up 10 spots, from 99th to 89th)
9. Iowa State (up 10 spots, from 62nd to 52nd)
10. Florida Atlantic (up 10 spots, from 98th to 88th)

Based solely on 2017 performance, Wake Forest has been a top-five team through three weeks. Because of this, the Deacs have moved up more than 30 spots since the start of the season. Granted, Presbyterian, Boston College, and Utah State haven’t provided the stiffest of competition, but if nothing else, Mississippi State proves that dominance of iffy teams can often be predictive of performance against better teams.

Top movers (bad)

Jeff Blake-USA TODAY Sports

1. Missouri (down 17 spots, from 47th to 64th)
2. Oregon State (down 17 spots, from 75th to 92nd)
3. Colorado State (down 15 spots, from 42nd to 57th)
4. BYU (down 15 spots, from 70th to 85th)
5. South Carolina (down 13 spots, from 41st to 54th)
6. Pitt (down 12 spots, from 57th to 69th)
7. Old Dominion (down 12 spots, from 88th to 100th)
8. Bowling Green (down 11 spots, from 102nd to 113th)
9. Georgia State (down 10 spots, from 110th to 120th)

I’ve already said what I needed to regarding Missouri’s pathetic performance against Purdue, so instead we’ll use this space to talk about South Carolina.

The Gamecocks began 2017 with a series of what were toss-up games on paper. They were outgained by both NC State and Missouri but rode the Little Things™ to victory; that will eventually catch up to you, and it very much did at home against Kentucky. They actually outgained the Wildcats by five yards but fell, 23-13, and in the process lost Deebo Samuel, by far their best player, to injury. Your trajectory can change multiple times throughout a season. South Carolina’s just changed pretty drastically in a single Saturday.