Week 5 brought the hammer for several teams up high in our 18 Stripes rankings. Worst among the bunch was a shocking loss from Florida State while LSU, Georgia, and Penn State all lost to good competition. That equals first defeats to 4 out of the top 7. Now it’s time for a re-rank heading into the month of October.

Here’s the latest poll from 18 Stripes:

18 Stripes Top 20 Poll

Dropped Out:

N/A

Florida State dropped like a rock after their defeat in Charlottesville, but not quite far enough to fall completely out of our poll. That’s a brutal 46-38 overtime loss in which the Noles gained 516 yards but had way too hard of a time slowing down a pesky Cavaliers offense.

For the record, Virginia is now ranked in the latest AP Poll (#24) which is crazy considering I had head coach Tony Elliott, by far, the most likely to be fired before the season. He wasn’t the first fired and he may now survive!

Top Games Recap:

Just when I thought TCU was on the rise, they fall in their Big XII opener 27-24 at Arizona State. I think the Sun Devils are going to remain in the thick of it for the league crown.

It took a while, but Ohio State pulled away from Washington 24-6 in Seattle.

Drew Allar put together a couple nice throws late in Happy Valley among his 137 total passing yards. The announcers were starting to praise him and Allar said, “lemme throw the game ending interception in overtime.” Once again, Penn State loses another big game, this time to Oregon 30-24.

The Trinidad Chambliss era at Ole Miss is still looking good as the Rebels take care of LSU 24-19.

Alabama went into Athens and held off Georgia 24-21 to shoot back up the rankings. Kirby Smart is 1-7 against the Tide.

Texas A&M won a defensive battled 16-10 against visiting Auburn.

The let down game came for Indiana as they needed a late touchdown to escape Iowa 20-15.

USC couldn’t handle a road game in the Midwest. The Trojans lost for the first time in 2025 after Illinois won 34-32 in Champaign.

Interesting Games to Note:

Houston 27-24 Oregon State: An 0vertime win for the Cougars to remain undefeated.

Iowa State 39-14 Arizona: The Cyclones also remain undefeated.

Tennessee 41-34 Miss State: This one went to overtime with the Vols hanging on to win on the road.

BYU 24-21 Colorado: The Buffs open 2025 with a 0-2 record in the Big 12 so far.

Northwestern 17-14 UCLA: Can you find a win on UCLA’s remaining schedule?

Opponent Recap:

Miami (4-0): The Canes were off this week, we’ll discuss this in this week’s picks…do you think they were happy to see Florida State lose?

Texas A&M (4-0): A 7-0 start (Miss State, Florida, Arkansas up next) is looking likely. Although I may give the Aggies too much credit not to Aggie.

Purdue (2-2): Idle this past weekend and hosting Illinois on Saturday.

Arkansas (2-3): The Hogs didn’t wait to save money and ejected Sam Pittman in order to promote Bobby Petrino to the interim head coach position. Good luck to all involved.

Boise State (3-1): The Broncos destroyed App State 47-14 before their visit to South Bend this weekend.

NC State (3-2): Four current ranked teams remain on the Wolfpack schedule and they can’t be happy with a close loss to Virginia Tech.

USC (4-1): We should’ve seen this coming. If they aren’t careful, USC could lose their next 3 games (Michigan, ND, Nebraska) too.

Boston College (1-3): Cal came from behind to win 28-24 all the way across the country for the Eagles’ 3rd straight loss.

Navy (4-0): A less than stellar 21-13 home win over Rice, but still undefeated.

Pittsburgh (2-2): This is now back-to-back losses for the Nard Dog after falling 34-27 to Louisville.

Syracuse (3-2): No Angeli, big problems. Duke came into the dome and dominated the Orange 38-3!

Stanford (2-3): The Cardinal needed a huge 4th quarter rally to get past San Jose State 30-29 on the Farm. We were so close to the Spartans winning this game for the second year in a row.