Zak Drapeau's Top-25 College Football Power Rankings Post Week 5

Zak Drapeau
Sep 29
4 min read

by Zak Drapeau 9/29/2025 Sportz Nation

Current Rankings

AP Top-25 (9/28) Zak's Top-25

1. Ohio St 1. Ohio St

2. Oregon 2. Miami

3. Miami 3. Oregon

4. Ole Miss 4. Texas

5. Oklahoma 5. Texas A&M

6. Texas A&M 6. Oklahoma

7. Penn St 7. Alabama

8. Indiana 8. Penn St

9. Texas 9. Indiana

10. Alabama 10. Ole Miss

11. Texas Tech 11. Georgia

12. Georgia 12. Iowa St

13. LSU 13. LSU

14. Iowa St 14. Texas Tech

15. Tennessee 15. Notre Dame

16. Vanderbilt 16. Tennessee

17. Georgia Tech 17.Georgia Tech

18. Florida St. 18. Vanderbilt

19. Missouri 19. Illinois

20. Michigan 20. Michigan

21. Notre Dame 21. Florida St

22. Illinois 22. Arizona St

23. BYU 23. Missouri

24. Virginia 24. BYU

25. Arizona St 25. Utah

Honorable Mentions

USF

Maryland

Memphis

Virginia

Houston

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Zak's Changes from

Last Week

Oregon, Ole Miss and Alabama Climb

After Huge Wins

The most impressive win of the weekend goes to Oregon for their win in Happy Valley but Alabama and Ole Miss also had wins against Top-5 opponents.

Oregon's 2OT-thriller was awesome to watch. The atmosphere in the white out was spectacular and Dan Lanning and Dante Moore proved their elite status and earned a Top-3 rank.

Alabama's beginning of the season is FAR in the rear view after putting an end to the longest home winning streak in the country, giving the Bulldogs their first loss in Georgia in 34 games.

Ole Miss' win against LSU wasn't as impressive as a Top-5 win should be because LSU has been an overrated team all season. Mississippi's Top-15 in offensive yards and points so far this season but their defense hasn't been elite besides the LSU game. Still, Miss deserves a lot more respect after last week.

Georgia and Penn St Drop After Good Losses

Neither team had a bad showing even though they both lost at home this week. Both teams had very good defenses against their respective Top-10 opponents.

Georgia's 33-game home win streak finally comes to an end thanks to Kalen DeBoer's marquee win in his 18-game Alabama career so far. Georgia's second half was a great half of football but unfortunately for them it was too late after Ty Simpson carved them up to get the win.

Penn State drops form #2 to #8 because even though they lost at home in the Whiteout, they lost to one of the best teams in the nation in 2OT of a game they came back down 17-3 in the 4th Quarter.

LSU Drops to #13 and Looks Bad

We just talked about Ole Miss' win not being as impressive as it should've been and that's because LSU was as weak of a #4 rank we've seen in a while. After their "Big Win" against Clemson in Week 1 looks worse by the week, now losing to Ole Miss in the fashion they did means they should be happy they didn't fall farther down.

Florida St Drop After Virginia Loss

Florida St is a little bit like LSU in that they were overrated after an early win. This week they had their first real test since their home win vs Alabama and it wasn't even that big of a test in Virginia. Falling 10 spots all the way to #21 in my rankings, FSU will have the toughest test of their season this week against Miami but will luckily be doing so at home.

Arizona St and Utah Make My Rankings

Arizona State fell out of my rankings after Week 2 but come back as #22 after beating TCU. Currently on a 3-game streak, the Sun Devils have the hardest part of their schedule after this week's BYE but still have one of the best QB-WR duos in the nation to get them through it.

Utah may have had a terrible loss to Texas Tech at home last week but they still have such a good team and dominant wins that they squeak onto my list at #25. Just beating out teams like USF, Maryland and Virginia, Utah makes the rankings based off their roster still being really good.

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Differences Between

AP and Zak's Top-25

Miami over Oregon for Zak

Oregon may have had the signature win of the season last week in Penn State but let's not forget that Miami's beaten Notre Dame, Florida and USF this season while also having a Heisman-level QB. You could easily call these teams 2a and 2b but I have to give the nod to the Canes.

Texas and Ole Miss Basically Swapped

Arch Manning may still be unpredictable but Texas' defense and Steve Sarkisian easily make this team among the Top-5 for me. In my opinion, the media has Texas entirely too far down at 9 and are doing so just because of the early struggles for Arch.

Notre Dame Much Higher for Zak

Even after Notre Dame started their season 0-2 I had them at 15 where they haven't moved from in 2 weeks. Marcus Freeman is a truly special coach and along with Jeremiyah Love and CJ Carr, showed they're still capabale of making noise in the CFP this year with a dominant 56-13 win in Arkansas.

Missouri Much Higher for AP

Missouri moves down my list even after a 42-6 win this week for one reason; They are 5-0 and have yet to have a road game. Ahmad Hardy is leading the country in rushing yards and is a weapon for the Tigers but until I see this team have a better win than the Gamecocks at home I can't put them inside the Top-20 like the AP has.

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