Goz’s College Football Top 25 Poll (Week 5)

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’ biggest shake up and changes.

1) Alabama

2) Louisville

3) Ohio State

4) Stanford

5) Michigan

6) Clemson

7) Wisconsin

8) Texas A&M

9) Houston

10) Washington

11) Tennessee

12) Florida State

13) Baylor

14) Ole Miss

15) Michigan State

16) Nebraska

17) Miami

18) San Diego State

19) Utah

20) Georgia

21) Arkansas

22) Florida

23) Arizona State

24) LSU

25) West Virginia

The Houston Tumble Begins- It's nothing the Cougars have done wrong, it's the teams below them in the rankings beating better opponents. I can't place Houston in front of teams like Wisconsin or Texas A&M any more. The Badgers have wins over LSU and Michigan State while the Aggies have wins over Arkansas, UCLA and Auburn. Those wins hold more weight than Houston's lone win over a no longer ranked Oklahoma team. If Tennessee, Florida State and Washington all win close games this week, it's very likely if even Houston wins they will fall to #12 in next week's poll.

#16-#19 Benefiting from Losses- The toughest part of the poll this week was ranking Nebraska, Miami, San Diego State and Utah. Are these teams really deserving to be that high in the rankings? Nebraska's best win came against Oregon at home after trailing by 13 points and needing a fourth quarter touchdown with 5 minutes to go. Miami's best win is over Appalachian State. San Diego State's best win was a close game over Cal and Utah barely beat USC on Friday Night. These teams have benefited from early season losses of team's ranked highly in preseason polls. All four are unproven in my eyes but being undefeated is keeping them in those respective spots in the poll.

Should I have ranked North Dakota State? Back to back weeks I have thought about ranking North Dakota State of the FCS level. The only reason I have decided to keep them out of the poll is the FBS vs FCS separation. The FCS has their own poll. North Dakota State is not going to be become a worse team playing against FCS competition this season. They have won five national titles in a row and beat an Iowa program that was one win away from playing in the FBS playoff. North Dakota State can not play in the FBS playoffs so the point of putting them in the poll would not even benefit their program.

Best college football weekend of the season- #2 Louisville @ #6 Clemson, #7 Wisconsin @ #5 Michigan, #4 Stanford @ #10 Washington (Friday night), #11 Tennessee @ #20 Georgia.. Get ready for a lot of shake up coming 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.