The Top 25 Teams in College Football, Week 4

After another thrilling day of football (although teams ranked in the Top 25 almost invariably came out on top), I am proud to unveil Week 4's Top 25 teams. Although I didn't make any predictions per se in last week's edition, some of my comments proved themselves to be somewhat significant nuggets of wisdom. I pointed out my concerns with Georgia's offense under the hands of Matthew Stafford, and they of course found themselves in a 13-0 hole against winless Colorado. I suggested that Arizona State would break hard if they played anyone decent, and they also proved me right in a 49-21 blowout loss to Cal. Correspondingly, Cal will make a return to my Top 25 in their place. Along with ASU, Boston College also falls out of the Top 25 this week. Their 4th close game in a row saw them losing unimpressively to NC State. They may have beaten a Clemson team that I like a lot, but their other performances have been less than stellar.

1. Ohio State
The performance of Ohio State and other top teams today, even in wins, suggested to me that we may not see any undefeated squads by season's end. No one is looking dominant like USC and Texas could last year.
2. Michigan
Michigan tentatively holds the #2 spot this week, as they only pulled away late against Wisconsin, and saw their Notre Dame win somewhat cheapened by the Irish's performance against Michigan St.
3. USC
After a 20-3 win, this is clearly a new breed of USC team, but they may be just as dominant.
4. Auburn
5. Florida
6. West Virginia
Unlike the official polls, I don't hesitate to move teams down even in wins. WVU has to show me more than this.
7. Louisville
8. Texas
9. LSU
10. Clemson
I may be totally jumping the gun on this one, but despite a loss to now-unranked-by-me BC just 2 weeks ago, I really think Clemson is the team to beat in the ACC. They seem solid in all areas of play, especially on the offensive line. I also am unimpressed by a lot of the teams I jumped them over this week, which helps their cause.
11. Georgia
We'll see if Joe Cox can finally get the offense going, but Georgia was lucky to escape today, and they've got a long way to go towards being a national championship contender.
12. Virginia Tech
I just feel bad for a scrappy Cincinnati team that gamely battled both Ohio State and Virginia Tech on the road before falling apart in each game around the fourth quarter.
13. Oregon
14. Notre Dame
I may have given a positive word about their defense too soon. Only MSU's conservative playcalling in the second half (all runs, really?) let Notre Dame back in the game.
15. TCU
16. Oklahoma
For the first time in awhile, Oklahoma looked dominant again. Sure, it was against Middle Tennessee, but the Sooners didn't play like this against UAB.
17. Florida State
18. Tennessee
19. Iowa
Being a depressed fan of the Fighting Illini, I watched all of today's Iowa-Illinois match. Although Iowa took control of the game late in the second quarter, I am still skeptical as to how good Iowa is. I have a lot of faith in Drew Tate, but he is not going to be able to lead a weak supporting cast against Ohio State next weekend.
20. Penn State
Lost 28-6, but of course, the game was much closer than the score. I'm moving them up this week because I've never understood the logic of dropping a team that gives the #1 team a good fight.
21. Nebraska
I don't know if many people will notice this, but Nebraska just pounded the same Troy team that nearly beat Florida St. 56-0. Perhaps Bill Callahan is onto something this year.
22. California
I'm not totally sold yet, but I think I gave them a bad rub by not including them at all in last week's top 25. They could win a lot of games in the Pac-10.
23. Georgia Tech
24. New Hampshire
I'm going to stick to my guns on this one as long as NH stays dominant. And dominating they were this weekend, dropping Dartmouth 56-14.
25. Rutgers
The second new team in the Top 25 this week, I think they could play spoiler in the WVU-Louisville race for the Big East.

Team to Watch:

Houston (4-0)

I first noticed this team when I was playing NCAA Football 2007, and saw they were rated surprisingly well. They started the season without much aplomb, beating lowly Rice by just 1 point, but were led by star senior quarterback Kevin Kolb's 314 passing yards to a 34-25 victory over Oklahoma State today. With a win over a Big 12 team now under their belt, they look like an early favorite to win Conference USA. My one qualm is that they play at Miami next week, who will be hungry for any kind of win at 1-2. At the very least, the game will let us know just how far Miami has fallen.