Week 5 Roundup and College Football Rankings Entering Week 6

Posted by D.Zamzack on Sunday,September 28, 2014 11:00, EDT in

Entering Week 5 of the 2014 College Football season, there were 25 undefeated teams among the 128 in FBS. After last Saturday, only 17 remain unbeaten, which had a direct impact on the current college football rankings. Almost half of these teams are coming from the Southeastern Conference (Alabama, Auburn, Mississippi State, Texas A&M, Ole Miss), 3 teams are from Pac-12 (Oregon, Arizona, and UCLA) and two more are independent (Notre Dame and BYU).

For the most part, Week 5 didn’t bring many surprises, in fact the top 5 teams in the nation closed the weekend without incurring real damage, but by looking the current standings and AP rankings, a few things are becoming quite clear days ahead of Week 6:

  • SEC and Pac-12 are the best conferences so far.
  • With the exception of the No.21 ranked Nebraska Cornhuskers (5-0), the Big Ten conference is nothing but a big disappointment this season.
  • Florida State isn’t playing like the No.1 ranked team in the nation.
  • Arkansas has not been able to win a conference game and now is 0-14 against SEC rivals.

With the first whole month of college football action in the record books, the playoff field is slowly starting to take shape up. So here’s a quick look at what’s happened in Week 5:

Texas A&M’s comeback

At some point of the game between the Razorbacks and Aggies, fans and bettors got the impression that Arkansas was about to blow Texas A&M. The game in fact looked like it was Arkansas’ to win several times, but it just went to show why the Aggies are one of the top programs in the NCAA.

Led by QB Kenny Hill, Texas A&M was down 28-14 in the fourth quarter, but Hill showed the Aggies are fine without QB Johnny Manziel, connecting touchdown passes of 86 and 59 yards and taking the game to OT. Hill did it again in OT, throwing a 25-yard touchdown pass on the first play. The Aggies stopped the Razorbacks on a 4 and 1 to ultimately win the game 35-28.

Kentucky Wildcats won their first SEC game in 17 tries.

Week 5 was a highly productive for most SEC teams (With the exception of Arkansas), and even the non ranked teams achieved good results. The Kentucky Wildcats snapped its 17-game SEC losing streak with a 17-7 victory over Vanderbilt on Saturday, the first win since a streak-busting win over Tennessee Vols on November 26, 2011. With this victory, the Wildcats are off to their best start since 2010 with 3 wins and 1 loss. The Wildcats will now prepare to play the No.13 ranked South Carolina Gamecocks at home on next Saturday.

UCLA stands up as a true playoff contender.

The UCLA Bruins had a tremendous performance against No. 12 Arizona State Thursday night, beating the Sun Devils 62-27. The Bruins were behind 10-6 in the first quarter before rallying the Sun Devils 21-7 rally in the second quarter to take a 27-17 lead entering the second half. ASU tried to battle back, but UCLA was just too tough for them, stretching its run to 35-10 on the second half of the game to win this pivotal Pac-12 showdown and stop ASU in their own territory.

FSU rallies from 17 down to win its 20th straight game.

Last week, the Clemson Tigers were just inches from knocking off the No. 1 Florida Seminoles without a suspended Jameis Winston. This week, the Seminoles had to overcome a 24-7 deficit in the first quarter to avoid a loss to NC State.

It marked the first time in program history that the Seminoles had given up 24 points in the first quarter, but fortunately for FSU, Heisman winner Jameis Winston, who was coming back from a one-game suspension, led the top-ranked Seminoles back on the winning track, throwing 365 yards and four touchdowns to help FSU rally from 17 down to beat the Wolfpack 56-41, and extending Florida’s winning streak to a program-record of 20 games.

College football rankings for Week 6:

1             Florida State (3-0)
2            Oregon (4-0)
3             Alabama (4-0)
4             Oklahoma (4-0)
5             Auburn (3-0)
6             Texas A&M (4-0)
7             Baylor (3-0)
8             Notre Dame (3-0)
9             Michigan State (2-1)
10           Ole Miss (3-0)
11           UCLA (3-0)
12           Georgia                (2-1)
13           South Carolina (3-1)
14           Mississippi State (4-0)
15           Arizona State (3-0)
16           Stanford (2-1)
17           LSU (3-1)
18           USC (2-1)
19           Wisconsin (2-1)
20           BYU (4-0)
21           Nebraska (4-0)
22           Ohio State (2-1)
23           East Carolina (3-1)
24           Oklahoma State (2-1)
25           Kansas State (2-1)

So now that we checked what happened over the week and had a view on the latest rankings for college football, it’s time to get ready for another round of betting. We’ll get your action covered with game previews, college football odds analysis and tips coming this week, starting with the hottest games heading into Week 6 of the NCAA football season.