Earlier this week the Associated Press released the week four rankings and Louisville made the biggest jump after their lopsided win over Florida State. The Cardinals have the front-runner for the Heisman Trophy in quarterback Lamar Jackson, who has started the year with record setting numbers and with continued success, this football team could be playing in the NCAA Football Playoffs in January.
Despite a close win over Ole’ Miss, Alabama is still on top of the polls. The Crimson Tide received 50 first place votes and have won games with a dominating defense and an up and coming offense that needed a big game this past week against the Rebels.
Big Ten power Ohio State remained second after a victory on the road against Oklahoma. Urban Meyer has assembled another great team with solid talent on both sides of the ball. The Buckeyes have four first place votes this week and a slight lead over Louisville, who received six votes for the top spot.
Michigan started slow on Saturday, but steam-rolled Colorado in the second half and are fourth in this weeks rankings. The Wolverines have a slight point lead over fifth ranked Clemson with both programs sitting at 3-0 to begin the 2016 season.
Houston is the Cinderella story of the college football year as the Cougars are looking to prove last years wasn’t a fluke. The school is the only top-10 side not in a power five conference and will need to go through the year without a loss to have any chance at playing in the playoffs at year’s end.
The PAC 12 is represented with Stanford at seven and Washington at nine, but with the rest of the conference struggling this year, it could prove difficult for either of these schools to win their way into one of the four playoff spots. Both schools are solid on both sides of the ball and with a few more upsets this season, one of these programs could sneak into position to represent the west coast in the final four early next year.
