Whether we're ready for it or not, chaos always wins in college football. And if you were a team inside the AP Top 25 college football rankings coming into Week 6, you definitely learned that the hard way on Saturday.
Of the seven Top 10 teams in action on Saturday, two were upset: the previously No. 3 Texas Longhorns and previously No. 10 Notre Dame Fighting Irish. Granted, both losses came against ranked opponents in Oklahoma and Louisville, respectively, but it was still a tough scene. And that wasn't where the upsets stopped as four more ranked teams also fell on Saturday.
So what will the AP Top 25 college football rankings look like after all of this madness in Week 6? Let's take a look at our projections for the poll that will be released on Sunday afternoon.
Dropped out of Top 25 rankings: Miami (17), Kentucky (20), Missouri (21), Fresno State (24)
Projected AP Top 25 college football rankings after Week 6: No. 25-21
25. Air Force Falcons
Air Force hasn't exactly played the best of competition to this point, but the Falcons have also run through the opening stretch of their season at 5-0. They're one of a few teams who didn't play in Week 6 with an off day that will be able to crack the AP Top 25, but they will get a test right out of the gate next week as they face off with a highly talented Wyoming team next week.
24. Wisconsin Badgers
Wisconsin handled its business on Saturday against Rutgers, as you'd have hoped the Badgers would. Luke Fickell's team is far from perfect as the offense has been maddeningly inconsistent so far this year, but their one loss to Washington State in Pullman looks far less damning than it did in the moment, which allows Wisconsin to climb into the Top 25.
23. Tulane Green Wave
Tulane only has one blemish on their record through the first five games in the season, a 17-point loss to a Top 20 Ole Miss team when quarterback Michael Pratt was unable to play. The Green Wave were off in Week 6, but they'll be back in action on Friday night against Memphis. Even with the idle week, though, it feels like Tulane has earned enough goodwill that they can climb back into the AP Top 25.
22. LSU Tigers
Something has to get figured out with this LSU defense because, for as good as Jayden Daniels and the Tigers offense is, sustaining a style of play wherein this team gets into a shootout basically every week is not a recipe for success. They survived this week to beat Missouri in a ranked-on-ranked matchup, but giving up nearly 40 points yet again still doesn't inspire much confidence in LSU moving forward.
21. UCLA Bruins
It's hard not to look back on the flat performance Chip Kelly's team put forth against Utah and not think it was a tremendous missed opportunity for UCLA this season. After knocking off Washington State this week, the Bruins are clearly a talented and well-coached team that can compete at least near the upper echelon of the Pac-12. Unfortunately, already having one loss against them won't do the Bruins any favors.
Projected AP Top 25 college football rankings after Week 6: No. 20-16
20. Notre Dame Fighting Irish
For my money, Notre Dame should not be ranked with two losses, even if the teams that they Irish have lost to are a combined 11-0. It's just still too early in the season with too many quality squads for my taste. However, given that LSU was still ranked coming into Week 6, the same will likely still be true for Marcus Freeman's team. There will be no rest for the Irish either as they host USC next week.
19. Tennessee Volunteers
Tennessee showed some real moxie last week in Knoxville by thoroughly taking care of South Carolina before getting this week off. The Vols have still not proven themselves against an upper-tier opponent and the loss to Florida now looks even worse given the Gators dropping off a bit. But we'll find out a lot about Josh Heupel's team next week when they host Texas A&M.
18. Duke Blue Devils
There's a good chance that Duke head coach Mike Elko was thankful that he and his team got the week off after the heartbreaking loss a week ago to Notre Dame. The big concern for the Blue Devils, however, is that Riley Leonard suffered a high-ankle sprain in the loss, which could really send this team into a downward spiral given how critical his presence is to the offense being effective at all.
17. Utah Utes
Kyle Whittingham's team was off in Week 6 after getting clipped by Oregon State in Corvallis last week, and it's starting to get too concerning with Cam Rising given that he still hasn't played this season. Without their star QB, this Utah team just simply isn't a Top 25 team because of how limited the offense is. If he can return close to full strength, though, this defense is more than good enough for the Utes to play spoiler in the Pac-12.
16. Washington State Cougars
After being in Pat McAfee's crosshairs throughout this week, Washington State was unable to keep its perfect regular season alive as they went on the road and lost to UCLA. Wazzu held a 17-12 lead after three quarters in a sloppy game for both teams, but the Bruins pulled ahead in the fourth quarter to get the victory at home in a game wherein they were favored. The Cougs might not be a Pac-12 contender, but this shouldn't make anyone think less of them.
Projected AP Top 25 college football rankings after Week 6: No. 15-11
15. Ole Miss Rebels
Ole Miss continues to be one of the most difficult teams in the country to ultimately figure out. The Rebels won the thriller against LSU last week, and then followed that up this week by messing around with a middling Arkansas team and needing two scores in the fourth quarter to secure the 27-20 victory. It remains to be seen if Lane Kiffin's team is actually one of the 15 best in college football, but they'll be ranked as such after this week.
14. Oregon State Beavers (Playing against Cal)
Yes, Oregon State is coming in ranked ahead of Wazzu despite losing the head-to-head matchup and having the same record. No, I don't believe that makes sense – but if we're projecting the AP Top 25, it just seems like the most likely outcome. Regardless, the Beavs went on the road late on Saturday night to play against a Cal team that can always be a tricky matchup. With a win, though, Oregon State should remain in the Top 15 comfortably.
13. Louisville Cardinals
Louisville is for real. Make no mistake, I was labeling Jeff Brohm's team as fraudulent coming into their primetime matchup at home against Notre Dame – and they made that take look completely ridiculous. The Cardinals offense relied heavily on the rushing attack but it was the defense that really stood out, picking off Sam Hartman three times and stifling Audric Estime to boot. Louisville deserves a major leap in the rankings after that performance.
12. North Carolina Tar Heels
Devontez Walker is freed and he played a role in UNC completely demolishing Syracuse in Chapel Hill on Saturday. Drake Maye found his new weapon for six catches and 43 yards, but the QB had a monster day with 442 passing yards with three touchdowns in addition to 55 rushing yards and another score. The Orange aren't a fearsome offense, but with how the Tar Heels offense is cooking and the defense looking improved, they loom as a viable sleeper.
11. Alabama Crimson Tide
It definitely wasn't pretty from Alabama as they went on the road to College Station on Saturday afternoon, but they got the win by any means necessary. Jalen Milroe found some juice with Jermaine Burton, but the story of the Crimson Tide was the defense. That side of the ball made life extremely difficult for Max Johnson, which was all they needed to do in order to secure the 26-20 victory.
Projected AP Top 25 college football rankings after Week 6: No. 10-9
10. Texas Longhorns
Leave it to Texas to do everything it absolutely needed to do in order to officially be "back" only to then incur far too many self-inflicted wounds against their biggest rivals, play too conservatively (Re: Play for a field goal) in the final minutes, and then lose their first game of the season in heartbreaking fashion.
Quinn Ewers set the tone horribly for this game with a poor throw that led to an interception on the first drive, setting up an easy Oklahoma score. More importantly, though, the defense struggled to contain Dillon Gabriel's rushing ability and let up several chunk passing plays over the top.
I still believe in Texas as one of the five best teams in college football this season. But this was a step in the wrong direction, leaving Steve Sarkisian's team with precisely zero margin for error if they want to make it to the Playoff.
9. USC Trojans (Playing vs. Arizona)
USC, once again, found itself in a position where they were the latest ranked kickoff on Saturday, welcoming Arizona to town. This comes one week after they almost messed around far too much with Colorado last week and put themselves in real danger of blowing a big lead and getting upset in shocking fashion.
Unfortunately, the same worrisome signs we saw from the Trojans a year ago do not appear to have gone away. Caleb Williams and the offense are as electric and explosive as they come, but Alex Grinch's defense remains an extremely problematic spot for this team. They no longer look like a College Football Playoff contender because of that defense – but there is still time to turn that narrative on its head, though that seems unlikely at this point.
Projected AP Top 25 college football rankings after Week 6: No. 8-7
8. Oregon Ducks
Oregon was one of a few ranked teams that were able to escape the calamity of Week 6 by not playing this week. The Ducks followed up their shellacking of Colorado in Eugene by going on the road last week to Stanford and winning by the exact same score, 42-6. Bo Nix continued to pad his Heisman resumé with another big game from the veteran quarterback and the defense continues to show signs of improvement after some shaky early performances.
Going on the road to face Washington next week, though, will be a major test of just how good Oregon is. Though they've won impressively in every game except the trip to Lubbock to face Texas Tech, a team with preseason hype they've failed to live up to, the level of competition has not been all that great. Now, they need to go to Seattle and make a statement against another potential CFP contender if they want to be taken seriously nationwide.
7. Washington Huskies
There were three Top 10 teams who weren't in action this week and the Washington Huskies were one of them. Kalen DeBoer's group got a proverbial bye before they get set for a mammoth Pac-12 showdown in Seattle against Oregon next week – and one could argue that they needed it after what we saw a week ago.
Washington was tested for the first time, shockingly by Arizona. Michael Penix Jr. and the offense continued to cook at an extremely high level, to be sure, but the Huskies defense was far too generous, even when the Wildcats backup QB had to come into the game. They got the 31-24 win, but they'll have to be much sharper, specifically on the defensive side of the ball, to earn a Top 10 win over Oregon next week.
Projected AP Top 25 college football rankings after Week 6: No. 6-5
6. Penn State Nittany Lions
Penn State was off in Week 6 after going on the road to Northwestern last week and beating the brakes off of the lowly Wildcats. Through their 5-0 start to the season, the Nittany Lions have only played one game in which they won by fewer than 23 points (Week 3 at Illinois, a 30-13 victory).
We still haven't seen a true breakout game from quarterback Drew Allar, but that actually should make Penn State seem even more dangerous. They've largely been winning games on the back of an elite defense and a stout, multi-faceted rushing attack. If Allar can continue to get more comfortable and make more plays late in the season, the Nittany Lions could legitimately be one of the best teams in college football and in line for a Top 4 Playoff spot.
They'll face UMass next week before the massive clash in Columbus with Ohio State.
5. Florida State Seminoles
There was a moment right out of halftime when it seemed like Florida State might be heading into another hairy situation, this time shockingly against an ailing Virginia Tech team. The Hokies returned the opening kick of the second half 99 yards for a touchdown to cut the Seminoles lead to 22-17. From there, however, it was all about Trey Benson and FSU asserting their dominance.
Benson reeled off touchdown runs of 62 and 85 yards on Saturday afternoon in the second half, ending his day with 200 yards rushing and two scores on just 11 carries. Jordan Travis, meanwhile, was efficient in his 18-of-24 for 170 yards and two touchdowns on the night.
Florida State's defense remains slightly concerning in terms of playoff or title potential. Having said that, the Noles are still extremely potent offensively and should be able to outscore almost anyone they play when they have everything clicking – which we actually may not have seen for more than a few quarters this season.
Projected AP Top 25 college football rankings after Week 6: No. 4-3
4. Ohio State Buckeyes
I've been anything but shy about voicing concerns about this year's Ohio State team and that looked as if it might come to a head on Saturday in the first half against Maryland. The teams were knotted 10-10 going into halftime and the Terps then took a 17-10 lead quickly coming out of the locker room. Whatever Ryan Day said from then, however, must've been taken to heart, because the Buckeyes turned it on and didn't look back with 27 unanswered points to secure the victory.
Kyle McCord was awful early in this game but pulled it together late, most notably leaning heavily on Marvin Harrison Jr. – which seems like a quality strategy in most instances. But it was Jim Knowles' defense that continues to turn heads. They were nails after that early third-quarter Maryland touchdown, harassing Taulia Tagovailoa and forcing bad decisions.
I'm still not all the way there on the Buckeyes as a Playoff contender, but this was another step toward getting there.
3. Oklahoma Sooners
Big jump for the Sooners in the forthcoming college football rankings, but it's more than deserved. The big question about Brent Venables' Oklahoma coming into the week was whether or not they could continue to win against upper-tier competition given that they'd faced a relatively weak schedule to get to their 5-0 start.
They answered that and more on Saturday in Dallas. OU came out of the gates hot, particularly on defense, as they caused some early issues for Texas. But the real story was Dillon Gabriel, who was a stud in this game, accounting for just under 400 yards of total offense and two touchdowns, including the last-minute game-winner to Nic Anderson.
Oklahoma looks absolutely for real after the win and they take the Longhorns' place as the No. 3-ranked team in college football after the monster victory in Red River.
Projected AP Top 25 college football rankings after Week 6: No. 2-1
2. Michigan Wolverines
It's looking more like we're only going to see the full arsenal of what Michigan has to offer in two regular season games in the 2023 campaign. They went on the road to Minnesota this week and some people labeled it as a potentially tricky spot. It was anything but that as they easily handled the Golden Gophers.
The second play from scrimmage was a Michigan pick-six and that pretty much told the story of this matchup. The Wolverines defense made life miserable for Athan Kaliakmanis and Minnesota throughout the night, which meant that the Wolverines offense simply wasn't required to do a whole lot in this matchup.
Jim Harbaugh clearly was interested in making this easy work of this game and then getting out of dodge. They bled clock, ran a shockingly small number of offensive plays, and moved to 6-0 in a game where the outcome was never in question.
1. Georgia Bulldogs
Particularly with Georgia's first two conference games against South Carolina and Auburn being far too close for comfort, everyone was starting to question if Kirby Smart's team was deserving of the No. 1 ranking still and, more pressingly, if the team had an extra gear that they would be able to hit as they went deeper into SEC play.
Much to the chagrin of Kentucky fans watching on Saturday night, they indeed have an extra gear – and looked every bit like a threat to go back-to-back-to-back as national champions.
Though he threw an interception when the game was already out of reach, Carson Beck was magnificent, throwing for nearly 400 yards and four touchdowns. The Georgia defense was also stifling, limiting Devin Leary to under 50% completions and holding Ray Davis, who had nearly 300 yards rushing last week against Florida, to under 4.0 yards per carry. If this is the Dawgs we're going to see moving forward, everyone else better brace themselves.
