Josh’s College Football Rankings 2026–Week 5

I like to do a fun retro logo post each year.  This year I picked 1966, which was a little tough since some schools did not have an official logo until later (in those cases I tried to find one close to the 60s).

Why 1966? That was Joe Paterno’s first season at Penn State. They went 5-5 that year, with losses to #1 Michigan State, #4 UCLA, and #5 Georgia Tech. They also lost to Army and Syracuse. Do you think fans were regretting hiring this guy from Brown after a start like that? Probably not, it was a totally different era. But I would like to urge Penn State fans to take a deep breath and give Matt Campbell time. He took over the job a bit later than you would want, so it was always a bit of a given that this year might be a down year. I am more interested in seeing how things go next year.

Okay, now we have that out of the way. The SEC decided to make it difficult to do my rankings this week. At the end of the day I was left with this info:

Alabama > Mississippi State > Missouri > Florida > Ole Miss > LSU…and then somewhere Texas and Tennessee fit. Not going to lie, I changed my mind like 30 times with these teams. It did not help that these losses were not close.

So without further adieu…this week’s rankings!

1. Georgia (5-0)–#1–W 38-14 #40 Vanderbilt. Gunner Stockton keeps looking better and better each week. But it is the defense that continues to impress.
2. Texas (4-0)–#2–BYE
3. Ohio State (4-1)–#3–W 31-14 #20 Iowa. The Buckeyes just wore down the Hawkeyes defense. Sayin picked them apart, and then the running game opened up. This team is just too dynamic for the rest of the league.
4. Alabama (5-0)–#7–W 56-23 #16 Mississippi State. I thought this game would be close. The Tide decided to shut everyone up about the Bulldogs.
5. Notre Dame (5-0)–#4–W 37-26 UNC. This game made me question how dominant the Irish are this year (or maybe UNC is a decent team…not sure yet).
6. Miami (5-0)–#5–W 41-13 Clemson. Another solid conference win (weird saying that about Clemson).
7. Indiana (5-0)–#6–W 47-15 Rutgers
8. BYU (4-0)–#9–W 17-10 TCU. I am not convinced that BYU is a top ten team, but who else are we putting in this spot? Another 1-loss team? One of those ones that lost by like 30 points? Tough to justify.
9. Utah (4-0)–#10–BYE
10. Texas Tech (5-0)–#14–W 29-7 Colorado. I think one of these Big XII teams is probably a top ten team, so it makes sense to have them all in this spot, and then when they play each other, or lose to someone else, it will work itself out.
11. Tennessee (4-1)–#17–W 24-14 #27 Auburn. Listen, I respect this win against Auburn more than other folks probably do. In fact, I did have the Vols at #8, but changed my mind.
12. Ole Miss (3-1)–#11–BYE
13. LSU (4-1)–#12–W 63-14 McNeese State
14. Oregon (3-1)–#13–BYE
15. SMU (4-1)–#18–W 25-16 Boston College. Another team I am just not sure about. I mean, they lost to Louisville, and I was high on them, but then the Cardinals just lost their third game, so maybe I was wrong about them.
16. Mississippi State (4-1)–#16–L 56-23 #7 Alabama. So maybe this team was not as good as Bama (but maybe the Tide are one of the top tier teams, and this was an expected blowout). You have to respect what this team has done the previous weeks.
17. Missouri (4-1)–#24–W 45-17 #8 Florida. The Tigers absolutely steamrolled the Gators.
18. Florida (4-1)–#8–L 45-17 #24 Missouri. So why do I have Ole Miss still so high? I think missing Lacy really changed that game. The Gators were able to keep the Rebels a little one-dimensional, and that game spiraled out of control. I do not think that it happens again if they play with a healthy Lacy.
19. Houston (4-1)–#15–W 27-17 UCF. The Cougars are not going to dominate games, but they just keep finding ways to win.
20. USC (5-1)–#19–W 25-21 #38 Washington. Seriously, is this team any good? I just cannot figure them out.
21. Wisconsin (4-1)–#21–W 31-3 Michigan State. The Badgers are looking much better since that loss to Notre Dame in week one. They have a tough stretch here in October, but if they can get through these three weeks with just one more loss, they are looking at a 9 or 10 win season.
22. Oklahoma State (4-1)–#22–BYE
23. Pittsburgh (5-0)–#26–W 35-33 #29 Virginia Tech. The Panthers escaped Lane Stadium with a win on a missed last second field goal. Who cares how you win, just as long as you win.
24. Nebraska (5-0)–#28–W 48-23 Maryland. Undefeated Nebraska…I am still not ready to rank them higher until they actually play someone.
25. Minnesota (4-1)–#33–W 20-14 #25 Michigan. The Gophers won the Little Brown Jug for the first time at home since 1977! Hell, that only their 7th win against the Wolverines since 1965.
26. Iowa (4-1)–#20–L 31-14 #3 Ohio State. I am sorry to the other ranking sites, I just do not see what they see in this team.
27. Duke (4-0)–#30–BYE
28. Kentucky (4-1)–#31–W 35-34 OT South Carolina
29. Northwestern (3-1)–#37–W 34-13 #23 Penn State. Just a dominant performance against the Nittany Lions to open their new stadium.
30. Virginia Tech (4-1)–#29–L 35-33 #26 Pittsburgh
31. Arizona (4-1)–#35–W 34-7 #39 Cincinnati
32. UCLA (4-0)–#36–BYE
33. Auburn (3-2)–#27–L 24-14 #17 Tennessee. I think the Tigers are the best two-loss team. Tough losses to Florida and Tennessee, but I think this team will be just fine.
34. Boise State (4-1)–#34–W 37-18 Utah State
35. Wake Forest (4-1)–HM–W 57-3 Stanford
36. Baylor (4-1)–HM–W 55-19 Arizona State
37. Kansas State (3-1)–HM–BYE
38. James Madison (5-0)–HM–W 45-17 Marshall
39. Michigan (3-2)–#25–L 20-14 #33 Minnesota. I just cannot believe this team can be this bad. I believe they will make some changes, and all of a sudden, they will rattle off a bunch of wins.
40. North Dakota State (5-0)–NR–W 28-0 Wyoming. The Bisons first FBS shutout of a conference opponent. I think they are transitioning to the new level just fine.

Honorable Mentions
Washington (3-2)–#38–L 25-21 #19 USC
Cincinnati (4-1)–#39–L 34-7 #35 Arizona
New Mexico (4-1)–NR–W 61-7 UTEP. The Lobos have a legitimate defense, and the battle with NDSU in a few weeks should be a fun one.
Fresno State (4-1)–NR–W 26-6 Washington State. Only loss was an opening week shutout by USC. Probably not the most impressive thing, but they have rebounded well, and are sitting at 4-1 in the new Pac-12.
Vanderbilt (3-2)–#40–L 38-14 #1 Georgia. Come on, was this result unexpected? Their other loss? Auburn. So keep an on the Commodores, they will probably upset someone this season.

This begins the point of the season where we get games every night of the week! I know, I am weird, but I absolutely love watching a game on Tuesday. Who cares if it is Southern Miss at Troy??? It is still college football. 

I am not going to list all the ranked matchups this week, there are not that many. Instead, we should just talk about the game that everyone should watch: #1 Georgia at #4 Alabama! Stockton vs. Russell. This has the potential to be an incredible game. It is a test to see if Kalen DeBoer has Alabama at that top tier with Kirby’s Bulldogs. 

Okay, some other games to check out…
#7 Indiana at #24 Nebraska–The Cornhuskers finally play someone, could they pull off the massive upset?
#32 UCLA at #14 Oregon–Are the Bruins for real this year? We are about to find out. If they can go into Eugene and beat the Ducks…I would say the Big Ten would start paying attention to Bob Chesney and UCLA.
#13 LSU at #28 Kentucky–Lane Kiffin vs. Will Stein. The battle of new coaches. The Wildcats have one big win, can they pull off another one??? Or will the Tigers silence the excitement in Lexington?

I will not be able to watch too many games since I am taking the kids to the White Out game with my brother. Yep, we are going to see #20 USC coming into Happy Valley. 

Tiny But Mighty
We had one win of a G6 over a P4: UNLV (MWC) over California (ACC) 39-31. 

Instead of talking about that, can we talk about how good Pennsylvania is for Division II football? There are three PSAC schools in the Top 25 (Kutztown #4, Slippery Rock #9, and IUP #13). I think I have mentioned how IUP has been a powerhouse over the years (Curt Cignetti was the head coach for five years). The cool thing about this IUP team is that the OC is actually the former OC from Saint Francis. They dropped to Division III this year from the FCS level. Coach Pecora is also the Richland elementary wrestling coach. 

I was looking at the IUP roster, and it looks like he brought a few players along with him from St. Francis. And it is also cool to see that IUP has players who transferred from FBS programs like Western Michigan, Eastern Michigan, Penn State, and even Ohio State!

Coaching Hot Seat
Mike Locksley and Greg Schiano are going to be out by the end of the year. I do not think anything can save them. But I think Shane Beamer is possibly the top candidate to be fired during the season. It feels like Gamecocks fans are ready to run the man out of town. I also have to mention that Lincoln Riley may find his seat warming up. Imagine if his Trojans lose to Penn State, or just underperform like previous years. USC is not going to take being mediocre very well. 

Heisman Watch
Jeremiah Smith–WR–Ohio State…206 yards, 2 more TDs. He now has 823 yards on the season, and 9 TDs. It is his award at the moment. Everyone else is just fighting for second place.