The College Football Blog: 2010 Power Rankings (After Week 5)

Power Rankings after Week 5

1. Alabama 5-0 (1st)
2. Oregon 5-0 (5th)
3. Ohio State 5-0 (2nd)
4. Oklahoma 5-0 (3rd)
5. Florida 4-1 (4th)
6. Boise State 4-0 (6th)
7. TCU 5-0 (7th)
8. Nebraska 4-0 (8th)
9. Iowa 4-1 (9th)
10. Auburn 5-0 (10th)
11. South Carolina 3-1 (11th)
12. Arkansas 3-1 (13th)
13. Stanford 4-1 (12th)
14. Michigan State 5-0 (NR)
15. Arizona 4-0 (NR)

Out: LSU (14th); Wisconsin (15th).

Explanation: I feel like I know who the best 3 or 4 teams in the country are, but after that I really have no clue. Alabama is the clear #1. In fact, at this point Bama is so far ahead of the rest of the teams in my mind that I’m tempted not to have a #2 team, and just resume the rankings again at #3. The defending champs have won 29 consecutive regular season games, and 19 straight games overall. This season they have blown out a couple of weaker opponents, won on the road over a very good Arkansas team, and whipped Penn State and Florida.

Oregon moved up 3 spots in my rankings this week, climbing from 5th to 2nd. For a while it looked like Oregon would again fall, just when everyone was ready to crown them. This has happened to the Ducks several times in the recent past. But after falling behind 21-3 to Stanford, the Ducks stormed back to win 52-31. Oregon did give up 518 yards, but they outscored the Cardinal 28-0 in the 2nd half, and so far no one has been able to stop them.

I moved Ohio State and Oklahoma down a spot from 2nd and 3rd to 3rd and 4th respectively this week, despite the fact that they both won. Ohio State was less than impressive in beating a bad Illinois team. One of the Buckeyes’ potential weaknesses (in my opinion) was shown again this week when Terrelle Pryor was banged up a bit. As big as Pryor is, he is at a risk for injury because he runs the ball so much, both behind and across the line of scrimmage. Without Pryor the Buckeyes would struggle offensively. Even if an athletic defense can manage to hem Pryor in and force him to beat them with the pass, the Buckeyes could be in trouble.

As for Oklahoma, they continue to win unconvincingly, as they did this weekend against Texas, nearly giving the Longhorns a chance to tie it late. Oklahoma has scored more than 31 points just once in 5 games so far this year. Obviously that wouldn’t be a big deal for most teams, but it’s a bit concerning for an Oklahoma team that averaged 51.1 points a game in 2008 and then fell to 31.1 points per game last season.

One of the most controversial things about this week’s rankings would have to be my decision to move the Gators down just 1 spot from 4th to 5th and keep them ahead of the non-BCS powers, even though they lost convincingly to Alabama last week. I’m still not sure how good the Gators are, but I do know that almost every team in the country would lose handedly at Alabama right now. And I simply do not believe at this point that Boise State or TCU would beat Florida on a neutral field in a game that meant everything to both sides. Plus, Florida was killed by turnovers and by missed opportunities in the red zone against Alabama. They actually outgained the Tide and had only 1 fewer first down. Had the game been played in Florida it might have been different.

Boise State and TCU both had the blowout wins over weak opponents that we expected them to have this last weekend, and they stayed put in my rankings at 6th and 7th respectively. Nebraska was off last week and they also remained in place in my rankings this week at #8. I still don’t know how good the Cornhuskers are, and they have suffered a couple of costly season ending injuries, but they haven’t done anything to make me drop them. Iowa bounced back last week with another victory over Penn State, and they remained at 9th in my rankings. Auburn was again 10th after they throttled ULM. South Carolina remained 11th after a bye week.

Arkansas was off last week but I decided to move them up a spot from 13th to 12th for a couple of reasons. First, I realize that I was probably a little hard on them for their loss to Alabama anyway. In addition, my #12 team, Stanford, lost by 21 to Oregon, so I moved them a spot down to 13th. Some might have expected Stanford to fall farther, but they were on the road and playing one of the best teams in the country. When Stanford went up 21-3, I was thinking that we were all going to have to start taking the Cardinal much more seriously. My one concern for Stanford is that I’m just not sure how good any team could be if they allow over 600 yards to another team. But then again Oregon allowed over 500 yards to Stanford. I just never know what to make of Pac-10 teams.

There were 2 new teams in my rankings this week. Michigan State and Arizona entered my power rankings, taking the final 2 spots at 14th and 15th respectively. I’m still a bit suspicious of both teams, but there aren’t many other teams out there that can even be considered. MSU got an impressive win over Wisconsin to get to 5-0. Arizona was idle last week and they only defeated Cal by a point back in week 4, but again, there aren’t many other choices. Plus, I thought Arizona would be a good team going into this season and they did beat Iowa at home a few weeks ago.

With 2 teams coming into my rankings, 2 teams had to fall out. LSU dropped out of my rankings from 14th, despite the fact that they won at home to stay undefeated. Regardless of the final outcome, LSU proved again last week that they are not the team they were a few years ago, and they are capable of losing to almost anyone at this point. They are poorly coached and they don’t have a QB. They deserved to lose to Tennessee last week, and that was a game that shouldn’t have been close. I also dropped Wisconsin from the final spot in my rankings for more obvious reasons, as they lost to MSU by 10 points. I hadn’t been impressed by the Badgers so far this year, and I was actually not at all surprised that they fell to the Spartans on Saturday.