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Mike's top 25 college football teams heading into Week 5 of the 2025 season. His complete top 25 rankings, including Ohio State Oregon, LSU, and more.
Week 5 College Football Power Rankings
It was another wild weekend in college football. Clemson is off to its first 1-3 start since 2004, and is unranked in the AP Poll for the first time since 2014. Florida is also 1-3. Georgia Tech and Vanderbilt are both ranked in the same week for the first time since October of 1984.
Expect some more fluctuation in the rankings, as we saw a couple of paper tigers get shredded. Money may not be able to buy love, but it can buy a pretty good football team in Lubbock. You’re still not going to see Penn State and its JV schedule in my rankings. Next week you might, even if they lose…but it would have to be close.
25. Maryland (4-0)
Last week: NR
Result: W 27-10 vs. Wisconsin
The Terrapins went to Camp Randall and jumped around all over the Badgers. If you haven’t watched Malik Washington yet, rectify that this weekend (or in a replay of this game). He’s almost as exciting as Bryce Underwood. I can’t wait for the Maryland-Michigan game on November 22!
24. Syracuse (3-1)
Last week: NR
Result: W 34-21 at Clemson
If we’re going to give LSU credit for winning in Death Valley, we need to do the same for the Orange. The Orange lost in Knoxville, but again, that’s not a bad loss. A tough road loss and a road win against a Power 4 team count for more than beating up on weak Group of 5 teams and FCS teams.
23. Michigan (3-1)
Last week: NR
Result: W 30-27 at (23) Nebraska
Michigan had a tough loss in Norman and won in a place that is notoriously tough to win in. Justice Haynes has at least 100 rushing yards and at least one touchdown in all four games as a Wolverine. Oklahoma’s and Nebraska’s run defenses were in the top 25 of FBS before running into Haynes.
22. Arizona State (3-1)
Last week: NR
Result: W 27-24 at Baylor
If we’re giving Auburn credit for a tough road loss and winning in Waco, the same needs to be done for Arizona State. The Sun Devils have created a Franken-back with three running backs to try and replicate Cam Skattebo. You know what? They’re getting kind of close…
21. TCU (3-0)
Last week: NR
Result: W 35-24 vs. SMU
The Toadies are 2-0 in the ACC. The bad news is that they still play in the Big 12 (16). Eric McAllister finally had that breakout game that we have been waiting for. He nuked SMU for 254 yards and three touchdowns on eight receptions.
20. USC (4-0)
Last week: 21 (⇑1)
Result: W 45-31 vs. Michigan State
The Trojans’ offense was impressive against a solid defense, but the USC defense leaves some questions after giving up a lot of points against another offense that is near the bottom of the Big Ten (18). I know that Aidan Chiles had his homecoming, but USC was firmly in control of this game before the Spartans dominated the third quarter to get back in it.
19. Auburn (3-1)
Last week: 18 (⇓1)
Result: L 17-24 at (10) Oklahoma
I’m not going to dock Auburn for a tough road loss. The Tigers were in this game the whole time and had a few chances to win it. The win in Waco loses a little bit of luster since Arizona State did the same thing, but you can’t say that Auburn isn’t tested.
18. Missouri (4-0)
Last week: 20 (⇑2)
Result: W 29-20 vs. (25) South Carolina
Missouri has the best run game in the country. The Tigers are 25-5 over their last 30 games. It feels like this program isn’t respected enough. Two of those losses were very close losses to Georgia, one of which they should have won. The schedule is lined up for the Tigers to make a run. They have the easiest SEC schedule, and are the first team since 1985 to have its first six games at home.
17. Tennessee (3-1)
Last week: 17 ⇔
Result: W 56-24 vs. UAB
Jalen Kitna threw for 364 yards on this defense, which has to be at least a slight concern heading into a tilt with Mississippi State. Blake Shapen is better than Kitna, and we know that the Mississippi State receivers are better.
16. Iowa State (4-0)
Last week: 13 (⇓3)
Result: BYE
If ever a team needed a bye, it was the Cyclones. The “big” wins no longer look as big, and scuffling on the road against Arkansas State has many rethinking the ranking of the Cyclones…especially after watching Texas Tech beat up Utah in Salt Lake City.
15. Oregon (4-0)
Last week: 16 (⇑1)
Result: W 41-7 vs. Oregon State
Oregon demolishing its rival is a good look, no matter how bad the Beavers may be. Dante Moore lacks the experience of Bo Nix and Dillon Gabriel, but you can see that he learned a lot from sitting behind them for the last two years.
14. Texas (3-1)
Last week: 14 ⇔
Result: W 55-0 vs. Sam Houston
Texas still has the best loss, but no wins to go with it. Your hyped-up phenom breaking out of his slump, then flexing on Sam Houston, isn’t doing it for me. If you want to do it on the bench, fine. Doing it in the end zone against a clearly overmatched opponent is a bad look.
13. South Florida (3-1)
Last week: 12 (⇓1)
Result: W 63-14 vs. South Carolina State
Hey, South Florida’s wins are still better than any other one-loss teams. The Bulls shouldn’t be punished that much for a loss on the road against the top-ranked team in my rankings. Time is running out on the Bulls, as all of the other teams will move up for winning conference games.
12. Georgia Tech (4-0)
Last week: 8 (⇓4)
Result: W 45-24 vs. Temple
The win over Clemson isn’t as impressive now, and the defense struggled some with Clemson. Ole Miss jumps Tech with a blowout win over Tulane, a team that many think could make the College Football Playoff.
11. Mississippi (4-0)
Last week: 9 (⇓2)
Result: W 45-10 vs. (19) Tulane
Honestly, the win over Tulane is more impressive than the Arkansas win, but big road wins by other teams moved the Rebels back a touch. Trinidad Chambliss changed this team for the better. Ole Miss is going to be very dangerous in the SEC.
10. Vanderbilt (4-0)
Last week: 5 (⇓5)
Result: W 70-21 vs. Georgia State
It was revenge for the Commodores, who lost to Georgia State last year. Wins at Blacksburg and South Carolina don’t look as good as they once did, but two road wins against Power 4 opponents count for more at this point in the season.
10. LSU (4-0)
Last week: 2 (⇓8)
Result: W 56-10 vs. Southeast Louisiana
The Tigers are still getting credit for a win in the other Death Valley, but Clemson and Florida both going in the tank not only highlights the pointlessness of preseason rankings, but it really hurts LSU’s standing.
9. Florida State (3-0)
Last week: 7 (⇓2)
Result: W 66-10 vs. Kent State
This is horrible competition, but Florida State has scored 65 or more points in back-to-back games for the first time since 1992. Charlie Ward was the quarterback of that team.
8. Texas A&M (3-0)
Last week: 6 (⇓2)
Result: BYE
The win at Notre Dame still looks good. It could look better if the Irish can take down USC. It will look worse if the Irish lose in Fayetteville. The accomplishments of the opponents a team beats should matter. The BCS wasn’t perfect, but it accounted for this. You know the current system doesn’t.
7. Mississippi State (4-0)
Last week: 11 (⇑4)
Result: W 38-10 vs. Northern Illinois
A big win by Arizona State in Waco helps elevate the Bulldogs this week. Alabama hasn’t proven anything yet. A win over Arizona State is marginally more impressive than a win over Alabama so far. If Alabama beats Georgia, then we’ll talk. That will catapult Florida State back up the rankings, as the folks in Tallahassee are taking it easy following the big opening-week win.
6. Texas Tech (4-0)
Last week: NR
Result: W 34-10 at (24) Utah
Rice-Eccles is a tough place to play. We finally got to see what Tech could do against a good team. This was domination. The defense, particularly the defensive line, was excellent. Backup QB Will Hammond was better than Behren Morton after Morton left with a concussion. Is there another early QB controversy among the top 25 teams?
5. Indiana (4-0)
Last week: NR
Result: W 63-10 vs. (15) Illinois
The AP was much kinder to the body of work for Illinois than I was. Still, Indiana did whatever they wanted, whenever they wanted, against one of the top defenses in the conference. Fernando Mendoza had more touchdowns (5) than incompletions (2). The Hoosiers and the stable of backs ran for 312 yards. I talked about this in preseason. Indiana’s offense might be better than last year, and I know the defense is better. Last year wasn’t a fluke.
4. Oklahoma (4-0)
Last week: 10 (⇑6)
Result: W 24-17 vs. (18) Auburn
Oklahoma now has two ranked wins, but they are both at home, and they were also against teams in the lower part of the rankings. We’ll give Ohio State and Georgia the benefit of the doubt for bigger wins. Quality trumps quantity this early in the season.
3. Georgia (3-0)
Last week: 4 (⇑1)
Result: BYE
That win in Knoxville is going to look like a monster for a while…especially if Tennessee keeps winning.
2. Ohio State (3-0)
Last week: 3 (⇑1)
Result: BYE
How in the world does Ohio State move up a spot when they didn’t even play? Well, both of LSU’s wins continued to lose. The win over Texas is still a monster one.
1. Miami (FL) (4-0)
Last week: 1 ⇔
Result: W 26-7 vs. Florida
We don’t know if Florida is that good or not, and we may never know with that schedule. Florida could be the best 4-8 team in history. All of that is speculation. What I saw in Coral Gables was another methodical dismantling of a solid team. It wasn’t anything worth moving Miami down in the rankings.
