Goz’s College Football Top 25 Poll (Week 4)

This season I’ll be providing my own personal Top 25 poll each week during the college football season. My poll philosophy is ranking the teams I believe are the best twenty five best in the country following that given week’s games. Below are my rankings and comments about each week’s biggest shake up and changes.

1) Alabama

2) Louisville

3) Ohio State

4) Stanford

5) Michigan

6) Houston

7) Clemson

8) Washington

9) Wisconsin

10) Michigan State

11) Texas A&M

12) Georgia

13) Tennessee

14) Florida State

15) LSU

16) Baylor

17) Ole Miss

18) Florida

19) Baylor

20) Miami

21) San Diego State

22) Arkansas

23) Nebraska

24) Utah

25) Georgia Tech

Why Louisville over Ohio State at #2? In last week's poll (http://1045theteam.com/gozs-college-football-top-25-poll-week-3/) you may remember I noted that the winner of Florida State-Louisville would be in the #2 spot. Louisville's performance was so impressive it was hard to keep them out of that spot. Ohio State is no doubt a very good team, but just so far this season, Louisville's wins over Charlotte, Syracuse and Florida State have been more impressive than Ohio State's over Bowling Green, Tulsa and Oklahoma.

Why Stanford at #4 over Michigan, Houston, and Clemson?-This is the part of my polls each week that has drawn the most questions from readers. In the AP Poll, Stanford comes in at #7 this week but this week they remain a top 4 team in my poll. Before the season began I felt Stanford was the third best team in the country behind Alabama and Clemson. Besides playing on the west coast, what has Stanford done to not gain support from voters? Stanford finished last year as the #2 team in the country, returned arguably the best running back in the country and have won their first two games. Between Houston, Clemson, and Michigan, the best win among the three is Houston's win over Oklahoma, which looks less impressive after the Sooners were blown out by Ohio State. Stanford defeated USC over the weekend. The Trojans have lost to two top five teams and will improve later on this season. Until a team below Stanford impresses me against a strong opponent, I continue to keep the Cardinal at 4. .

Is Texas A&M too high at 11?- I have had to re-rank before posting more times than any this season leading into this week's poll because of the Aggies. Last week I had them at #20, and I jumped them 9 spots because they beat Auburn? Remember I had Auburn ranked as the 23rd best team in the country last week but still the Aggies win doesn't make them that much better does it? The reason I had to put the Aggies that high is because the teams below them have had too many questionable outcomes for me to make an argument they are better than Texas A&M. Yes the Aggies needed overtime to beat UCLA but that win is still better than Georgia almost losing to Nicholls State or Tennessee losing to Appalachian State. Michigan State was tested by Furman but the Spartans win over Notre Dame is better than any the Aggies have.

Look out for Georgia Tech at 25-The Yellow Jackets are undefeated and host Clemson on a Thursday Night this week. The triple option is tough to plan against on a short week. If the Yellow Jackets win, they will be the biggest leapers in next week's poll.

Tom “Goz” Goslowski is both a Heisman Trophy voter and College Football Hall of Fame Voter. You can hear him weekdays on Levack and Goz 2-7pm on 1045 The Team ESPN Radio Albany.