NCAA Football Power Rankings, Week 5

Once again, my #1 team lost, as LSU fell to Georgia. On a selfish note, this makes the SEC East a bit tougher for Mizzou now, not that I think we had an excellent chance of winning it.

Ohio State snuck up on me and surprised me at #1, though that's largely because they're the only 5-0 team. Still, they've got 5 wins and no one else does.

Both Missouri and Virginia Tech (Hi, Spankee) got votes in the polls last week, though not enough to be ranked. This week, with another win each, we might see them crack the top 25, but probably not quite up to #9 and #11 where I have them.

USC stole a bit of the spotlight this week by firing Lane Kiffin. I only find that somewhat interesting because, after the Rams Thursday Night Football loss, and subsequent local media meltdown, I had a discussion with a friend about firing coaches. We looked up some records, and Mike Martz, seemingly hated by St. Louis fans and media (and ownership), was far better by pretty much any W-L measure than Steve Spagnolo or Scott Linehan. He took the Rams to the playoffs 2 years in a row, going 1-2 in those games, and was fired during the next season. Officially it was at the end, but there was a health leave and some ownership interference; it was clear he was out long before he was out. Yet the Rams were so bad for Linehan, if Spagnolo had taken the Rams to the playoffs even once, he'd have locked up his job for at least a few more years.

Our - probably obvious - conclusion was, it all comes down to expectations. The same can be said at USC. The "real" rankings don't go past 25, or 35 if you extrapolate all the votes, but I've got USC at #47, meaning they're better than nearly 2/3 of teams. If Southern Miss, 0-for-2012, was 3-2 this year, the new coach would already have a 5 year extension. Of course, USC has likely recruited some talent with better potential than other teams, especially being in a big conference and having relative success lately. So the quick hook was likely justified in this case.

The NFL and NCAA are vastly different in terms of signing players and competitive balance, but here's a short but interesting Freakonomics article on the effect of firing the head coach.

Now, on to the rankings.

1	Ohio State	5-0
2	Alabama	4-0
3	Florida State	4-0
4	Clemson	4-0
5	Washington	4-0
6	Texas A&M	4-1
7	Stanford	4-0
8	Oregon	4-0
9	Missouri	4-0
10	Oklahoma	4-0
11	Virginia Tech	4-1
12	Northern Illinois	4-0
13	Fresno State	4-0
14	Texas Tech	4-0
15	LSU	4-1
16	Northwestern	4-0
17	Louisville	4-0
18	Maryland	4-0
19	Minnesota	4-1
20	Houston	4-0
21	Bowling Green	4-1
22	Iowa	4-1
23	Oregon State	4-1
24	Michigan	4-0
25	Georgia	3-1
26	Ball State	4-1
27	Miami (FL)	4-0
28	Arizona	3-1
29	Arizona State	3-1
30	Auburn	3-1
31	Washington State	3-2
32	South Carolina	3-1
33	Baylor	3-0
34	Pittsburgh	3-1
35	Florida	3-1
36	Oklahoma State	3-1
37	West Virginia	3-2
38	Nebraska	3-1
39	Utah	3-1
40	UCLA	3-0
41	Texas State	3-1
42	Rutgers	3-1
43	Georgia Tech	3-1
44	Penn State	3-1
45	Illinois	3-1
46	Tennessee	3-2
47	USC	3-2
48	Ohio	3-1
49	East Carolina	3-1
50	UCF	3-1
51	Ole Miss	3-1
52	Arkansas	3-2
53	Duke	3-2
54	North Carolina State	3-1
55	Boise State	3-2
56	UNLV	3-2
57	Notre Dame	3-2
58	Wisconsin	3-2
59	Tulane	3-2
60	Michigan State	3-1
61	Cincinnati	3-1
62	Utah State	3-2
63	Wyoming	3-2
64	Western Kentucky	3-2
65	Nevada	3-2
66	South Alabama	2-2
67	Navy	2-1
68	Vanderbilt	3-2
69	Colorado	2-1
70	North Texas	2-2
71	TCU	2-2
72	Boston College	2-2
73	Middle Tennessee	3-2
74	Mississippi State	2-2
75	Indiana	2-2
76	Syracuse	2-2
77	Marshall	2-2
78	Toledo	2-3
79	Rice	2-2
80	Virginia	2-2
81	Brigham Young	2-2
82	Kent State	2-3
83	Louisiana-Lafayette	2-2
84	Buffalo	2-2
85	Kansas State	2-2
86	UTSA	2-3
87	Louisiana-Monroe	2-3
88	Kansas	2-1
89	Texas	2-2
90	Wake Forest	2-3
91	Arkansas State	2-3
92	Colorado State	2-3
93	Army	2-3
94	California	1-3
95	Troy	2-3
96	Southern Methodist	1-3
97	Iowa State	1-2
98	North Carolina	1-3
99	San Jose State	1-3
100	Akron	1-4
101	Memphis	1-2
102	Eastern Michigan	1-3
103	San Diego State	1-3
104	Tulsa	1-3
105	UAB	1-3
106	Kentucky	1-3
107	Purdue	1-4
108	Central Michigan	1-4
109	New Mexico	1-3
110	Idaho	1-4
111	Louisiana Tech	1-4
112	Florida Atlantic	1-4
113	Air Force	1-4
114	Florida International	0-4
115	Hawaii	0-4
116	Connecticut	0-4
117	Southern Miss	0-4
118	UTEP	1-3
119	Temple	0-4
120	Massachusetts	0-4
121	Western Michigan	0-5
122	South Florida	0-4
123	Miami (OH)	0-4
124	New Mexico State	0-5

2013 History
Week 1
Week 2
Week 3
Week 4