Alabama, Clemson Stay 1-2 in Polls

September 26, 2017 by Staff

Last week didn't ultimately give us many upsets, but it wasn't for a lack of trying.

Now that the week is over, it's time to take a look at the latest rankings and how they will impact college football week 5 odds.

This week, the AP top five stayed the same with Alabama leading the way after an impressive showing against Vanderbilt. The Clemson Tigers also took care of business against Boston College and remain in the number two spot.

The Oklahoma Sooners struggled with Baylor, but remain in the third spot, while the Penn State Nittany Lions, who escaped with a narrow victory over Iowa, and USC, who defeated Cal, round up the top five.

Despite no movement in the top 5, there was a lot of activity with the teams below them. The Georgia Bulldogs jumped four spots to get to the number seven spot, after defeating Mississippi State easily. The Miss. St. Bulldogs came into the game with a lot of hype after a convincing win over LSU, but couldn't figure out a way to stop Georgia's running back tandem of Nick Chubb and Sony Michel.

Georgia has usually been seen as an underachieving team under former coach Mark Richt, but the team has been impressive this season, their second under Kirby Smart, and might be the last team standing in the SEC East at the end of the season.

TCU jumped seven spots to debut in the top 10 at number nine. The Horned Frogs defeated the Oklahoma State Cowboys, who had dismantled their previous opponents to start the season undefeated. With the win, TCU emerges as the biggest threat to the Oklahoma Sooners in the Big 12.

TCU's win was even more impressive because they not only got the win in Stillwater, they were also able to drop 44 points on the high scoring Cowboys. TCU's defense was equally impressive, holding a Cowboys offense that had scored at least 44 points in all its games this season, to 33 points.

One interesting thing about this season is the amount of parity in the Power 5 conferences. By this time of the year, fans and pundits alike are usually trying to figure out which the best conference is, but this year, it really is too close to call.

The SEC currently has the edge with six teams in the top 25. The Big 12 have 4 ranked teams, as does the Big Ten. The Pac-12 has four as well, and the ACC has five, counting the Notre Dame fighting Irish, who are affiliated with the conference.

Since a lot of these teams will still play each other, which will affect their standings in the rankings, it is a better idea to wait until later in the season to evaluate the conferences. One thing we do know is that there are a lot of good schools in all the power 5 conferences this year.

One game that could potentially shake up the rankings this week is the ACC matchup between Clemson and Virginia Tech. A win for Clemson will give them their third win over a top 15 team this season, which will be more than any other team, and should help them displace the Crimson Tide for number one. A win by the Hokies could land them in the top 5 and drop Clemson out of the top 10, so this will be a game to keep an eye on this weekend.

Also, the game is being played at night in Blacksburg, which is bad news for the Tigers because the crowd noise at Lane Stadium has claimed quite a few top ranked teams in the past.