College Football Rankings: Hits and Misses in Week 4 Top 25

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Sep 19, 2015; Los Angeles, CA, USA; Stanford Cardinal tight end Austin Hooper (18) carries the ball on a 24-yard reception in the second quarter against the Southern California Trojans at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

Who is Ranked Too Low? Who was Left Out?

Stanford looked terrible in a 16-6 season-opening loss to Northwestern, and rightly dropped out of both sets of college football rankings the following week. But, after beating UCF 31-7 and dropping USC 41-31 in the Pac-12 opener (coupled with the fact that Northwestern is 3-0 and ranked No. 17 in the AP Top 25 and No. 19 in the Coaches Poll), the Cardinal are back in. Ranked No. 21 by the AP and No. 24 by the coaches, it’s odd that Stanford is ranked two spots behind the Trojans in one poll and a full six spots in the other.

Of course, there are other teams ranked too low this week. Lost in the SEC shuffle following LSU and Ole Miss’ big wins are the Georgia Bulldogs, who looked dominant on both sides of the football in a 52-20 victory over Steve Spurrier and South Carolina. Sure, the Gamecocks aren’t nearly as good as they were a couple of years ago, but it was an impressive performance that probably shouldn’t have resulted in being jumped by both the Rebels and Notre Dame in the AP Poll. The Bulldogs are currently No. 7 in the AP Top 25 – same as last week – and rose two spots to No. 6

As for the teams that were left out of this week’s college football rankings, West Virginia may have the best case. The Mountaineers are barely on the outside looking in following a bye week, but have impressive wins over defending Sun Belt champ Georgia Southern (44-0 in Week 1) and a 41-17 victory over FCS opponent Liberty (who beat Montana over the weekend). If West Virginia handles Maryland next week, expect them to crack the Top 25.

Also, Toledo is making a case to be the highest ranked Group of Five team after scoring a second straight victory over a Power Five opponent. Sure, BYU took UCLA to the wire and already has upsets over Nebraska and Boise State, and Temple has looked like a Top 25 team in wins over Penn State and Cincinnati (though they barely escaped with a 25-23 victory over UMass Saturday), but the Rockets have a shot to go undefeated after beating Arkansas and Iowa State and have now received points in both polls, but are yet to be ranked.

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