College Football 2019: Week 6 AP Top 25 winners, losers

Even a relatively quiet week in college football featured some major movement in the polls. Here are the AP Top 25 winners and losers heading into Week 6.

Week 5 went fairly to expectation. With a slew of ranked teams on bye weeks, there was only so much that could happen on the field. But the action that did take place offered up some big winners and some big losers in the AP Top 25 when the poll came out on Sunday afternoon. 

There were upsets and near-upsets that changed perceptions about some powerhouses around the FBS, and some surprises allowed teams to jump into the poll at one point or another.

Keep reading as we look at the winners and losers in the last AP Top 25 of September, starting with the biggest winner and the biggest loser.

Big Winner: Arizona State (No. 37 in Others Receiving Votes to No. 20)

Arizona State is on something of a yo-yo trend at the moment. After upsetting Michigan State in Week 3 in East Lansing, the Sun Devils jumped into the poll. When they followed up that statement win out of conference with a 34-31 loss against Colorado in Pac-12 South play, Herm Edwards’ team dropped right back out of the poll.

Entering Week 5, Arizona State had just five points and was sitting on the cusp of total obsolescence. After a week away, though, they jumped right back into the AP Top 25 all the way to No. 20 after going to Berkeley dishing Cal their first loss of the season. The Sun Devils should stay in the poll next week while they are on a bye, and then they get a chance to make some real noise in conference play when Washington State comes to Tempe on October 12. If they win they will continue to feature among the winners in the weekly poll.

Big Loser: USC (No. 21 to No. 35 in Others Receiving Votes)

USC is another team that has been on a roller-coaster ride in the AP Top 25 this season. Entering the year unranked, the Trojans took down Fresno State and then-No. 23 Stanford in the opening weeks of the year and vaulted up to No. 24 in the poll. But their hold on that spot was tenuous, and an overtime defeat at BYU in Week 3 knocked Clay Helton’s crew right back out of the poll.

Week 4 saw the Trojans topple Utah and look like they were ready to take control of the Pac-12 South race. But they sacrificed all that goodwill on Saturday in a 28-14 loss at No. 17 Washington that was nowhere near as close as the final score indicated. This week they fell 14 spots in the poll, shedding 250 of the 257 points they held entering Week 5.

A road trip to South Bend follows a Week 6 bye, and that will either vault USC back into the land of the winners or push them irrevocably into the land of the losers outside the poll entirely.