Week Six College Football Top 25 and CFP Bracketology at a Glance

A week off leads to significant changes…including a new #1

We took a week break, and as week six rolls around, gone are the preseason weights. The only thing that matters now is what happens on the field.

Here is the new Top 25:

TOP 10 BREAKDOWN

1. ALABAMA CRIMSON TIDE | SEC | 4-0
↳ Fresh off the biggest win of the college football season, Alabama has cultivated an early body of work that has catapulted them to the top of the rankings through four games. Jalen Milroe has firmly cemented himself atop the Heisman watchlist after posting four total touchdowns and nearly 500 total yards against Georgia. He has proven to be the ultimate quarterback to run Kalen DeBoer’s system, and Ryan Williams has emerged as a top five wide receiver in the country at just 17 years old.

2. TEXAS LONGHORNS | SEC | 5-0
↳ The top five is pretty close, so Texas falling is at no fault of their own. Simply staying the course while Ewers gets healthy is paramount for the Longhorns right now. They’ll get a bye week this week then it’s Red River.

3. OHIO STATE BUCKEYES | Big Ten | 4-0
↳ Two things can (and are) true about Ohio State: they haven’t played anyone yet, and they appear to have the all-around best team in the country. Their running game is elite, their receivers are as good as it gets, but a test comes this week for Will Howard and especially for Ohio State’s offensive line against Iowa and their always lockdown defense. Whatever they need to get cleaned up, this is the perfect week to do so as the Buckeyes head to Eugene on October 12.

4. TENNESSEE VOLUNTEERS | SEC | 4-0
↳ Tennessee is coming off a bye week after putting together a dominant performance at Oklahoma that still left some meat on the bone. They’ll head to Fayetteville this week, and then it’s Rivalry Month for the rest of October. Florida, Alabama, Kentucky. The growth of Nico Iamaleava will continue to be the focal point of this offense, but Lance Heard is back healthy, meaning the Vols will roll into Hog Country with a fully healthy offensive line.

5. PENN STATE NITTANY LIONS | Big Ten | 4-0
↳ Penn State is quietly piecing together a very good start to their season, and outside the randomly close game against a very solid Bowling Green squad, they have rolled along with little resistance. Illinois came into last week with a solid defense, and Penn State grinded them to a pulp, rattling off 239 yards rushing on 5.4 yards per carry. Drew Allar is managing the game much better this year, and the Nittany Lions have a very good defense that forced a pair of turnovers against the Illini. Combine that with the fact that Penn State has just two remaining ranked games (@ USC, Ohio State) at this point, and this feels like a Playoff team, regardless of how they may get there.

6. MIAMI HURRICANES | ACC | 5-0
↳ Cam Ward did Cam Ward things against Virginia Tech, helping Miami both nearly lose but ultimately win* that game. Suffice to say, Miami is lucky to be here. If you saw the play, you know what I’m talking about. Miami’s offense has looked great, but they’ve also not played a team over .500 up to this point yet. That will change this week as the ‘Canes hit the road to the West Coast to face Cal. Virginia Tech ran all over Miami. If Miami can stop Cal’s Jadyn Ott, they win. If not, we’re going to see if they can squeeze by yet again.

7. GEORGIA BULLDOGS | SEC | 3-1
↳ The highest ranked team with a loss, Georgia has now had back to back underwhelming performances with the narrow, one-point win at Kentucky and then the loss at Alabama in a game in which the Dawgs were favored, and those results have combined for such a stark drop over the past two weeks. Carson Beck has also struggled in consecutive games, and his three interceptions were major blows to Georgia’s comeback bid against the Tide. Beck is obviously very talented, but he needs to play cleaner football to help his defense because while this defense is still great, it’s susceptible.

8. OREGON DUCKS | Big Ten | 4-0
↳ This is clearly a good football team. Don’t buy into the doubt towards this team. They absolutely had a rusty start, playing a closer than comfortable game against FCS Idaho before nearly falling at home to Boise State, but this Ducks team has bounced back with suffocating performances against Oregon State and UCLA. The litmus test for how real this team is comes next week in Eugene when the Ducks welcome Ohio State into Autzen Stadium.

9. OLE MISS REBELS | SEC | 4-1

10. NOTRE DAME FIGHTING IRISH | 4-1
↳ Notre Dame being top 10 versus where I perceive this team are on opposite ends of the spectrum. On one hand, they may just have the best secondary in the nation. On the other hand, their offense is extremely underwhelming. The Irish offense is currently 86th in the nation with a 41.5% success rate on offense, and though their defense is good enough to get them through it against most opponents, Riley Leonard keeps me from believing in this team as a contender.

BIGGEST RISER: LSU TIGERS

Since we last talked, LSU went from fringe top-25 to firmly in the top-15 with decisive wins over UCLA and South Alabama at home. This defense is still a major concern as despite the scoreboard stating they’ve had two straight blowout wins, anyone who saw the UCLA game knows better. Their success rate against of their past two games mirrors that of their first four games (41.6% v. 41.9%), but the offense has hit another gear. Nussmeier is finding his footing under center, and while this team won’t make it look as easy as the Daniels/Nabers/Thomas combo did a season ago, they will continue to be very prolific.

COLLEGE FOOTBALL PLAYOFF: AT A GLANCE

NEW: Iowa State, Notre Dame, James Madison
GONE: Kansas State, USC, Memphis

BUBBLE WATCH

Non-Power Conference Auto-bid Tracker

As it turns out, Troy and Florida State have already proven to be paper tiger wins for the Memphis Tigers. Navy also ran all over them, handing them their first loss of the season.

James Madison is once again off to a great start, and they hold the G5 at-large right now. The Dukes may have lost their head coach and multiple other key contributors from a season ago, but they haven’t missed a beat. Alonza Barnett III leads the team in both passing and rushing and has thrown for 10 touchdowns in his past two games. JMU made their statement with their beatdown in Chapel Hill over North Carolina, 70-50, and it wasn’t even that close.

As you’ll see below, this is an incredibly tight race. Boise State sits just outside the top 25, but the difference between 25 and 31 is closer than the difference between Alabama and Texas.

Now, let’s get back to the end of that first paragraph…it’s time to respect the troops again? In recent years, it’s been Air Force, but now it’s Navy and Army? Navy’s offense is off to a blistering start, posting 24 touchdowns in just four games, and they appear to have another one of those outlier stars on their hands, a la Keenan Reynolds. Blake Horvath is the quarterback for the Midshipmen, and he has 15 total touchdowns — 7 passing, 8 rushing — and is already over 1,000 total yards of offense this season. They blitzed Memphis, rushing for 361 yards and five touchdowns. Navy hasn’t had a game where they didn’t rush for at least 225 yards thus far.

As for Army, they’re off to their best start under Jeff Monken in four seasons. They too haven’t had a game where they’ve rushed for fewer than 225 yards, but they’ll up the ante a bit: they only have one game where they haven’t rushed for 300+ yards. It was 288 against Rice. They won by 23. With Army now in the American Conference, at the pace we’re going, Army/Navy will be played twice.

Top 10 Group-of-Five/PAC-12:

Here are how every conference stacks up against each other with the mean and standard deviation: