College Football Rankings Week 4: 5 Most Surprising Moves

Another week of college football is in the books, and the new AP poll has come out reflecting the results.

There wasn't a whole lot of movement among the ranked teams this week, as most of them played and beat heavy underdogs.

But there were a few that moved a considerable amount or made moves that were just considerable in themselves.

Here are the five most surprising poll movements that resulted from this past week's action.

Ohio State Unranked

Is it surprising that Ohio State lost on the road to Miami? No.

Is it surprising that they fell out of the Top 25? Not at first glance.

This week will be the first time the Buckeyes are unranked in seven years.

I was shocked when I heard that stat. Seven years. No other program can boast that type of consistency over the same period.

LSU Vaults Alabama

Alright, I know LSU had one of the biggest games of the week against a ranked Mississippi State team, whereas Alabama had a very lopsided matchup against a completely overmatched North Texas squad.

But still. I think this one is built, not on just the action of this week, but on that of the entire season.

LSU has beaten both Mississippi State and Oregon, a Top 10 team. Alabama has beaten North Texas, Kent State, and a Penn State team that looks pretty bad after a narrow escape against Temple this week.

I get it. But it's still surprising, especially considering Alabama's preseason hype.

It will be interesting if Alabama does the same to LSU later in the season.

Arizona State Falling Out of the Rankings

After they beat a pretty good Missouri team last week, Arizona State had me convinced they were a dark-horse Pac-12 title contender.

I guess that's what I get for being a prisoner of the moment.

Arizona St. fell this week to Illinois, a less than impressive team that hadn't beat anyone of any merit until they defeated ASU.

Against Missouri, Arizona State had looked like a good defensive team with a capable offense. Against Illinois, they looked like a team with an OK defense and no offense to speak of.

Florida State Drops to No. 11

First off, let me give a bit of disclaimer by saying that this may be just me. I've never understood how poll voters justify dropping a ranked team that lost by a small margin to a team ranked higher than them.

If I told you that the No. 5 and No. 1 teams in the nation were playing on national television in prime time, what would you generically predict the score to be?

If I told you that the outcome would be 23-13 in favor of the No. 1 ranked squad, you would probably think that the teams had been ranked fairly correct in respect to one another.

And yet, every time this happens, the losing team always moves down significantly. Why?

I can see moving them down one or two spots. But six spots? Really?

Like I wrote above, maybe it's just me.

5 Teams Newly Ranked

Clemson, Michigan, USC, Illinois and Georgia Tech are all in the Top 25 this week.

Not surprising. But it is surprising that they all moved into it simultaneously.

USC defeated Syracuse, Georgia Tech beat Kansas, Michigan beat Eastern Michigan, Illinois defeated Arizona State and Clemson gave defending champion Auburn their first loss in 15 games.

One can make the case that Clemson and Illinois belong in the Top 25, since both defeated then-ranked teams.

But the other three beat nothing teams by lots of points.

Why should they put them among the best in the nation? I guess voters had to put somebody in those spots.