College Football Rankings, USA Today Poll: 3 Teams Rank Higher Than Expected

It happens every week and definitely causes a debate: Who got ranked higher than expected?

Now when it's only something as minimal as one or two spots, for instance, then it's not nearly as significant.

However, anything more than that and the water cooler becomes a popular hot-spot.

That being said, the following three teams are ranked higher than expected. You be the judge as to how significant the ranking is.

Click the link for a full view of the most recent Top 25 Coaches' Poll.

No. 9 South Carolina Gamecocks

Sure they're 4-0 overall and 2-0 in the SEC East, but the South Carolina Gamecocks have not been playing like the No. 9 ranked team in college football.

Against East Carolina in Week 1 they got off to a very slow start, whereas the defense allowed 42 points in Week 2 versus Georgia.

In Week 3 the defense did pick it up, and held a strong Navy offense to only 21 points, and then shut down the confident Vanderbilt Commodores to only three points.

But right now QB Stephen Garcia is the Gamecocks' Achilles Heel, as he's thrown only three TDs to seven picks.

RB Marcus Lattimore and WR Alshon Jeffery are amazing, but you need a solid QB under center if you want to win the conference championship.

No. 14 South Florida Bulls

Other than then-ranked No. 16 Notre Dame, the South Florida Bulls haven't beaten any ranked school.

Week 2 was Ball State, Week 3 was Florida A&M, and Week 4 was UTEP.

Yes, South Florida most definitely deserves to be ranked in the Top 25, or even the Top 20, but not the Top 15 with the lack of talent they've won over.

Even Notre Dame isn't ranked anymore, so that has only hurt their strength of schedule.

However, as long as they keep winning then no one can really complain, but if they fall even once, the Bulls will drop quite a bit.

No. 22 Illinois Illini

Just like the two previously mentioned teams, head coach Ron Zook's Illinois Fighting Illini are 4-0.

Only problem is their best win came over the then-ranked No. 18 Arizona State team at home in Week 3, but they've been unranked since.

Illinois' other wins came against Arkansas State, South Dakota State, and Western Michigan.

And with Big Ten play beginning this week, it's uncertain as to how legit these 4-0 Illini are.

Of course we'll learn more when they play schools like Michigan, Wisconsin, and Penn State.

But until then, Fighting Illini fans should enjoy being ranked because it's not going to last long if they continue to struggle against average teams (Western Michigan and Arizona State).

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