DISCLAIMER: I work for a national media affiliate but do not have a vote in the Associated Press poll so my opinion means virtually nothing. These rankings have nothing to do with preseason polls or last season’s results; they’re based on games that have been played this year only. The rankings will be volatile, especially early in the season.
The 27th day of September, in the year of our Lord 2025 provided a historic day of television for those who fancy themselves connoisseurs of college football. Virginia’s upset of #8 FSU set the table for a day so momentous that its impacts won’t soon be forgotten in the national conversation. Ole Miss at LSU, Auburn at A&M Tennessee at Miss. State and GT vs. Wake Forest all came down to the wire in the early state, even Vanderbilt looked to be on upset alert early hosting a pesky Utah State team.
What culminated Saturday night were two instant classics in Oregon/Penn State and Alabama Georgia and a little dessert for the west coast watchers in BYU visiting Colorado, which stirred more controversy in the stands than on the field.
Putting together rankings for this week was difficult, I relied heavily on the transitive property and quality of wins, rather than strength of schedule, injuries and quality of losses. This is especially apparent in my rankings of Georgia, Alabama, FSU and Virginia.
Biggest Winners of Week Five:
Alabama has rebounded spectacularly and could win the SEC for the first time in this new college football landscape. DeBoer remains undefeated against Sark, Lanning and Smart. The Tide are back on track and if that one lady wins the state lottery, she can keep the $71M.
Lane Kiffin is an obvious one; that’s a game you have to win to keep order at home.
Hoosier Nation is undefeated after what some would call the most fraudulent 11-win season in the history of the Big Ten. Winning at Kinnick is never easy and they have the bye week to recover from that 20-15 rock fight.
Iowa State is unbeaten, already got Iowa out of the way and doesn’t have to play Texas Tech or Utah in the regular season.
Biggest Losers:
USC complained about the early kickoff as if they didn’t dismantle the conference predicated on playing late games and mitigating travel among spread out western power schools. Expect them to keep suffering in this cornfield-laden hell that they anointed themselves to.
James Franklin can’t win a big game unless it’s against a crippled Utah team in the Rose Bowl. I commend Penn State for choosing Oregon for the whiteout game but next year, maybe play Michigan State. Penn State will make the playoffs but I’d bet my life they don’t win the national championship.
Arkansas – Players can’t redshirt after five games without losing a year of eligibility so you knew this would be Sam Pittman’s final stand and they laid an egg. Bobby Petrino back in Fayetteville coaching with nothing to lose will be entertaining at the very least.
My Top 25:
- Oregon has the best resume in the country featuring a top five win on the road; they can add to this resume when they take on a top ten Indiana team with both squads coming off the bye. Dante Moore is my Heisman favorite.
- Ohio State has the second best resume, beat a number one ranked team and handled business at Washington, a place where Oregon is known to struggle. The two schools don’t have each other on the schedule and see themselves on a collision course for a postseason rematch.
- Ole Miss hosted LSU in a huge top ten, SEC matchup. Lane Kiffin coached marginally better than Brian Kelly and the Rebs head into the bye unbeaten.
- Miami didn’t play this week, remained undefeated and sits atop the ACC with the FSU loss.
- Texas A&M put up another quality win, this time over Auburn. They don’t put too much reliance on their QB which limits turnovers. They do rely heavily on Le’Veon Moss who has been a machine this year, contributing 139 and a score on the ground last week.
- Indiana is a 5-0 Big Ten team and just might be the best team in Indiana. Fernando Mendoza is putting up top tier numbers and could very well take this team back to a Big Ten title game now that Michigan and Penn State have sustained losses. The looming openings for jobs like Florida, Clemson and Arkansas could cast a cloud of uncertainty over Cignetti’s long term future with IU.
- Texas Tech is the best team in the Big 12 and has proven you can absolutely buy a successful roster if you have the right funding, management and coaching. Joey MacGuire has done a fantastic job with this team, especially in the trenches.
- Iowa State will be the best team in the Big 12 the moment Tech takes a loss. The Cyclones and Red Raiders are on the insane track to meet in Dallas for a conference championship.
- Penn State is still an elite team and will qualify for the twelve-team playoff. The Oregon loss will be hard to overcome in terms of getting into the top five but a November matchup with Ohio State will give James Franklin a chance to redeem himself in the eyes of the fan base. Until this team wins a national title, it’s just the same old Penn State.
- Virginia (!) is undefeated and took down FSU in a double overtime thriller which saw a Seminoles receiver possibly get trampled to death. By the transitive property that propels the Hoos into the rankings past FSU who beat Alabama who beat Georgia who beat Tennessee.
- Mizzou
- Georgia Tech
- Florida State
- Alabama
- Georgia
- Tennessee
- Illinois
- Vanderbilt
- Texas
- Mississippi State
- Michigan
- Notre Dame
- BYU
- Arizona State
- Utah
mitchlinsley.com 
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