NCAA Week 5 results and Top 25

Fewer upsets, but still some interesting results.  As we get deeper into conference play, we should see more interesting games.  The Big Ten has plenty of tough teams, the SEC teams (with the exception of Alabama and Georgia) are fairly evenly matched, and we still have questions about several ACC and Pac-12 teams.  We also have many American Athletic teams in the rankings, so that conference could impact things as well.

Top 25 [Last week's position]
1. Alabama Crimson Tide (5-0) [1]
2. Clemson Tigers (5-0) [2]
3. Oklahoma Sooners (4-0) [3]
4. Penn State Nittany Lions (5-0) [4]
5. Washington Huskies (5-0) [7]
6. Wisconsin Badgers (4-0) [5]
7. Michigan Wolverines (4-0) [6]
8. Georgia Bulldogs (5-0) [10]
9. TCU Horned Frogs (4-0) [9]
10. Ohio State Buckeyes (4-1) [13]
11. UCF Golden Knights (3-0) [15]
12. Notre Dame Fighting Irish (4-1) [12]
13. Oklahoma State Cowboys (4-1) [14]
14. South Florida Bulls (5-0) [16]
15. Auburn Tigers (4-1) [18]
16. Washington State Cougars (5-0) [17]
17. Virginia Tech Hokies (4-1) [8]
18. USC Trojans (4-1) [11]
19. Texas Longhorns (2-2) [19]
20. Utah Utes (4-0) [20]
21. Miami Hurricanes (3-0) [NR]
22. Navy Midshipmen (4-0) [22]
23. Louisville Cardinals (4-1) [23]
24. Oregon Ducks (4-1) [NR]
25. San Diego State Aztecs (5-0) [NR]

Dropped off: Mississippi State Bulldogs [#21], Minnesota Golden Gophers [#24], Iowa Hawkeyes [#25]
On the Edge: West Virginia Mountaineers (3-1), Kansas State Wildcats (3-1), Texas A&M Aggies (4-1), Michigan State Spartans (3-1), NC State Wolf Pack (4-1), Stanford Cardinal (3-2), Houston Cougars (3-1)

Big Ten Report
The first full week of conference play was interesting.  Half of the games were blowouts and half were close battles.  Ohio State and Penn State engineered two of the blowouts, but surprisingly Nebraska led the other.  The Cornhuskers finally found their offense, and it exploded against Illinois.   Of the close games, Iowa v Michigan State and Maryland v Minnesota were not too surprising, but Northwestern gave Wisconsin all they could handle.  Of course, that is a trend with the Wildcats.  They play a couple of tough conference opponents really tough, but then falter against a weaker opponent.

Upset Alert
Not as many, as certain conference opponents play other conference opponents tough regardless of record.  We had one non-conference upset, though, as the Troy Trojans never trailed against LSU, and held off a fourth-quarter comeback by the Tigers.

Poor Performers
We had a couple of teams for whom offense was a big missing this week.  Interestingly, both played on Friday night.  Duke and Illinois, who had been posting some impressive offensive numbers in previous weeks, could not get anything going this past week.  At least they had some squads working.  Both Mississippi State and Tennessee completely collapsed.

One team proved the importance of turnovers.  Memphis had difficulties holding onto the ball, and those turnovers led to their first loss.

Great Performers
A few teams had not had great performances so far in the season stepped up this week.  Florida State was one.  The Seminoles were determined to not suffer a 0-3 start, and they kept ahead of Wake Forest in order to prevent that. Marshall also stepped it up excellently this week.  They proved that they have the strength to compete for the Conference USA title.

One team performed well in a loss.  Charlotte had previous been atrocious this season, deserving their winless record.  While they could not crack into the WIN column this week, they only barely missed it, and showed that they have the skill and power to achieve that first win soon. Another team performed well, and their loss was likely due because their opponent ALSO had a great performance.  For the first time since I've tracked these great (and poor) performances, the same game produced two nominees.  That game was the Oklahoma State v Texas Tech bonanza.  The lead changed several times, and that's because both teams were driving on both sides of the ball.  While it is not unusual that Big 12 games are high-scoring affairs, that is often because defense is lacking in many of their teams.  That was not so in this game.  While the offenses were definitely clicking, the defenses had many good plays as well.  This was just a textbook example of an old-fashioned slugfest, where each yard is achieved by a clash between offense and defense.