NCAA Football Rankings 2020: Predicting Top Movers in Week 5 Post-Week 4 Results

College football is still more than a month away from adding its fourth major conference (the Big Ten) back into the fray, but Week 4 wasn't short on intrigue and upsets by any means. With the SEC kicking off this weekend, fans got a good idea of whether their team will be a contender or pretender in the toughest conference in the country. 

After four weeks—and with three major conferences playing and the other two planning a return to football in the next six weeks—here's a look at our predictions for the newest Top 25, including a few new faces (as well as a pair from the Big Ten). 

The following order is the projected AP Top 25, which will be released at approximately 2 p.m. ET on Sunday. 

AP Top 25 Projection

1. Clemson 

2. Alabama 

3. Georgia 

4. Florida

5. Auburn

6. Notre Dame

7. Texas 

8. LSU

9. Oklahoma 

10. Ohio State

11. Texas A&M 

12. Miami 

13. Oklahoma State

14. North Carolina

15. UCF 

16. Penn State 

17. Tennessee 

18. BYU

19. Cincinnati 

20. Louisiana 

21. Virginia Tech 

22. Memphis

23. Pittsburgh

24. Mississippi State

25. SMU

Up and Down Weekend for the SEC

Alabama looked as dominant as ever in a 38-19 win over Missouri, where the final score was much closer than the game ever was.

Mac Jones is no Tua Tagovailoa, but he had no issues finding the Crimson Tide's litany of playmakers, particularly star wide receiver Jaylen Waddle. The junior caught eight passes for 134 yards and two touchdowns before Alabama sat most of its starters in the third quarter. 

In Baton Rouge, though, LSU got a taste of what life will be like without Joe Burrow. And it wasn't exactly pretty.

Mississippi State grad transfer quarterback K.J. Costello threw for an SEC-record 623 yards and six touchdowns in head coach Mike Leach's SEC debut, and the Bulldogs hung 44 points on the defending national champions. Burrow's successor, Myles Brennan, did throw for three touchdowns of his own, but he also threw two costly interceptions that came back to haunt the Tigers.

Georgia and Auburn both won, with the latter looking particularly impressive in a 29-13 win over No. 23 Kentucky.

The Bulldogs, though, have a conundrum on their hands at quarterback. The job was supposed to be Georgia Tech grad transfer Jamie Newman's, but he opted out of the 2020 season because of concerns about COVID-19. USC transfer J.T. Daniels got an immediate eligibility waiver from the NCAA, but he's still not fully recovered from an ACL injury suffered last season. The starting job—for now—is in the hands of D'Wan Mathis, but he was replaced midway through Saturday's game against Arkansas by former walk-on Stetson Bennett, who completed 20 of 29 passes for 211 yards and two touchdowns with no interceptions.

Big 12 Could Be out of the Playoff

It's impossible to say that anything will definitely happen—or not happen—during this pandemic-shortened season, but the Big 12 might have lost its best chance at getting into the College Football Playoff this weekend.

Oklahoma, again thought to be a national title contender, blew a 28-7 lead to Kansas State and lost a 38-35 heartbreaker. It seems like the Sooners have one faceplant game each year, and if there's a bright side, I guess they at least got it out of the way early this year. 

With the Big Ten and Pac-12 playing such shortened schedules, it's hard to predict whether a potentially 9-1 Oklahoma team would get in over an 8-0 Ohio State. But if Saturday's showing was any indication, the Sooners have some things to work on before they need to entertain that scenario. 

Follow Keegan on Twitter @ByKeeganPope.