Irish Breakdown College Football Top 25 - Week 4

Updating the latest rankings for the Irish Breakdown Top 25 heading into week three of the college football season

It was supposed to be a quiet weekend filled with boring games, but that certainly wasn't the case in week three. There were upsets and almost upsets that shook up this week's Top 25 rankings.

Notre Dame handled its business, and most of the Top 10 handled its business, but there were still some rankings movement. Outside of the Top 10 there were some big moves.

Here is the IB Top 25 heading into week four of action.

Dropped Out: #13 Tennessee (lost 29-16 to Florida), #24 Arkansas (lost 38-31 vs BYU)

Notre Dame remains No. 9 in the Irish Breakdown rankings after its 41-17 win over Central Michigan. The rest of the Top 10 remained the same in regard to the teams that make up the ranking, but there was some moving around. 

*** Washington's blowout victory over Michigan State was impressive, and they have shown much-needed improvement on defense as well. They are a very, very impressive team so far and the quality of their wins is good.

*** If I removed all of the preseason assumptions a strong case could be made for USC over Michigan, but not having Jim Harbaugh on the sideline gives Michigan a pass for me. if they don't improve next week against Rutgers with Harbaugh back they might drop another spot or two.

*** Florida State dropped because of how bad they looked against Boston College, a game they very well could have lost. BC is not a very good football team, having lost to Northern Illinois and barely beating Holy Cross. They won, but Florida State dropped a spot with how bad they looked this weekend.

*** Spots 7 through 10 remained the same.

*** Oregon dropped below Colorado last week because they didn't look great in a win over Texas Tech and Colorado was more impressive. The Buffaloes showed a lot of heart coming from behind to beat Colorado State, but on the whole Oregon has been more impressive now that CU has their struggle with CSU, and the Ducks moved back ahead. We'll find out for sure where these two teams stand on Saturday when the Buffaloes head to Eugene.

*** I jumped North Carolina up four spots because of their impressive win over Minnesota. They now have two double digit Power 5 wins over teams that were in bowl games last season. The wild part is their offense hasn't found its rhythm yet, and the defense is playing much better, holding South Carolina to 17 points and Minnesota to 13 points.

*** The biggest drops from the week are Alabama (who dropped 8 spots), Kansas State (who dropped 6 spots) and Tennessee, who went from 13th to unranked. Tennessee's No. 13 ranking last week had a lot to do with their preseason ranking, which was based a lot on last season. I was very unimpressed with their wins over Virginia and Austin Peay, and Florida thoroughly smashed Tennessee last night. They have not looked like a Top 25 team this season. Arkansas dropped four spots after a sloppy win against Kent State, and they completely dropped out after suffering a home loss to BYU.

*** Washington State and Syracuse are the new teams in the Top 25. The Cougars have impressed through three games. Their win over Wisconsin was solid, and the 50-24 win over Colorado State looks a lot better now after seeing what the Rams did against Colorado. Syracuse smacked Purdue on the road, and their three wins haven't been close. I wasn't on board with Syracuse after their 2-0 start because they weren't quality wins, but the win over Purdue was a stronger win. My No. 25 spot came down to Syracuse and Fresno State, who both beat Purdue, but Syracuse had a more impressive win.

*** Fresno State, Kansas, BYU and Missouri were the next four teams to receive consideration for the Top 25.

RANKINGS CRITERIA

With everyone now having three games under their belt the current resume has the biggest impact on this week's rankings. There is still some preseason assumptions built in, and it's the last week that will be the case. The majority of this ranking is built on what we've seen through three games.

The ranking follows the College Football Playoff ranking more than anything else, as I am a believer that each week your resume and ranking should be completely re-evaluated and re-defined. It's not based on the most recent game, but how your entire resume now looks with the new data imported. You don't stay in a ranking spot just because you won, for example.

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