College Football Rankings Week 6: Why These Are Our Top 25 Teams

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We take this college football rankings thing way too seriously.

Do we get too pretentious with them? Yeah, but only because if we don’t fine-tooth every aspect of all 138 teams, they’re not credible. And no, we don’t get them right. There are always misfires, and there’s almost always something we’re missing, but that’s what next week is for. This is fluid, with big adjustments coming each and every week.

Our job is to come up with the most accurate list of the top 25 teams possible, with one main mantra: respect the results. What we think comes later. As long as it’s possible, we go by what happened on the field.

And with that, here are the 25 best college football teams going into Week 6 – and why they are where we do.

2026 College Football Rankings: The 25 Best Teams in Week 6

25. USC Trojans

Record: (5-1) 
Last Week Rank: 30 
Week 5: USC 25, Washington 21 
Up Next: at Penn State
Beating Washington is good, especially considering things weren’t going right. Don’t blow off the 39-0 win over a Fresno State team that rocked over the last four games since losing in Los Angeles.

24. Nebraska Cornhuskers

Record: (5-0) 
Last Week Rank: 20 
Week 5: Nebraska 48, Maryland 23 
Up Next: Indiana
5-0 is 5-0 is 5-0, and for Nebraska, it’ll happily take that without any hesitation. And now we get to see just what this team can really do. Indiana next week, at Oregon after. If you want to be a player in the Big Ten, Big Red, here we go.

23. Minnesota Golden Gophers

Record: (4-1) 
Last Week Rank: 29 
Week 5: Minnesota 20, Michigan 14 
Up Next: at Purdue
Getting rocked by Mississippi State doesn’t look so bad now. Beating Washington and Michigan in back-to-back weeks – remember, the Gophers had to go to Seattle, come home, and adjust their clocks in a hurry for the Wolverines – deserves credit.

22. Oregon Ducks

Record: (3-1) 
Last Week Rank: 25 
Week 5: OPEN DATE 
Up Next: UCLA
Beating Boise State and USC should be enough to put the Ducks higher, but both games were a struggle, and there’s still a massive question about the team’s consistency. For now, it still has to be ranked behind …

21. Oklahoma State Cowboys

Record: (3-1) 
Last Week Rank: 24 
Week 5: OPEN DATE 
Up Next: UCF
There’s still the loss to Tulsa, but at this point, that seems more and more like a funky first game outlier than any sort of fair indication of how good the Cowboys are. They beat Oregon. That’s worthy of a top 20 spot.

20. Texas Tech Red Raiders

Record: (5-0) 
Last Week Rank: 17 
Week 5: Texas Tech 29, Colorado 7 
Up Next: OPEN DATE
Okay, so you beat a bad Colorado team in Boulder – whatever. However, winning at Oregon State and beating Houston wasn’t bad. The Red Raiders are 5-0, but they’re just not looking the part quite yet.

19. BYU Cougars

Record: (4-0) 
Last Week Rank: 16 
Week 5: BYU 17, TCU 10 
Up Next: Iowa State
Ehhhhhhhhhh, that TCU game was hardly inspiring. Again, there’s a big PROVE IT factor when it comes to the Big 12, but for now, beating Arizona by 11 is impressive enough to be here.

18. Wisconsin Badgers

Record: (4-1) 
Last Week Rank: 27 
Week 5: Wisconsin 31, Michigan State 3 
Up Next: OPEN DATE
The only loss is to Notre Dame, and while the final score was a rough 41-13 blowout, it was the season opener, and the Badgers were hanging around for a half. Winning at Penn State and dominating Michigan State was good, but this ranking could change in a blip two weeks from now when they face …

17. UCLA Bruins

Record: (4-0) 
Last Week Rank: 15 
Week 5: OPEN DATE 
Up Next: at Oregon
Totally buying what new Bruin head coach Bob Chesney is selling, the Purdue win is better now after a Boilermaker win at Illinois, but this is mostly based on just how strong the team has looked against mid competition. At Oregon is next. Let’s go.

16. Northwestern Wildcats

Record: (3-1) 
Last Week Rank: 31 
Week 5: Northwestern 34, Penn State 13 
Up Next: Ball State
That wasn’t just a cute performance against Penn State to open up the new Ryan Field; that was masterful. Everything clicked, the team is playing great, and the only loss was at Indiana by six. If this team were named Oregon or USC instead of Northwestern, everyone would be gushing more.

15. Iowa Hawkeyes

Record: (4-1) 
Last Week Rank: 13 
Week 5: Ohio State 31, Iowa 14 
Up Next: at Washington
The lone loss was to Ohio State – that’s fine. Maybe we’re giving too much credit to the win at Michigan, and loving the victory over Iowa State more than we should, but this is looking and playing like a top 15 team.

14. Utah Utes

Record: (4-0) 
Last Week Rank: 11 
Week 5: OPEN DATE 
Up Next: Kansas
The 43-10 win over Arkansas is the key component, and winning at Iowa State is stronger after what the Cyclones just did to West Virginia and how close it came to taking down Iowa. That, and the Utes have been crushing everyone by two touchdowns or more.

13. Tennessee Volunteers

Record: (4-1) 
Last Week Rank: 14 
Week 5: Tennessee 24, Auburn 14 
Up Next: at Arkansas
If we’re going to put Texas No. 1, we’re going to give credit to the team that had a throw to the end zone with a shot at beating the team in the top spot. The overall schedule, though, hasn’t been good enough to move past the other SEC teams, and won’t be until two weeks from now when Alabama comes to town.

12. LSU Tigers

Record: (4-1) 
Last Week Rank: 10 
Week 5: LSU 63, McNeese State 14 
Up Next: at Kentucky
Okay, here’s how this works. We think LSU might win the national title – by the end of the season, the machine should be fully humming. But it’s here because it lost to …

11. Ole Miss Rebels

Record: (3-1) 
Last Week Rank: 9 
Week 5: OPEN DATE 
Up Next: at Vanderbilt
The Rebels have a good win over Louisville, and it beat LSU, so it’s here behind …

10. Florida Gators

Record: (4-1) 
Last Week Rank: 6 
Week 5: Missouri 45, Florida 17 
Up Next: South Carolina
The Gators might have had a rough week in Columbia, Missouri, but the 52-28 win over Ole Miss still matters, and winning at Auburn was good, too. It slots in ahead of the Rebels and behind …

9. Missouri Tigers

Record: (4-1) 
Last Week Rank: 45 
Week 5: Missouri 45, Florida 17 
Up Next: Texas A&M
Give credit where it’s due. Missouri was good when it needed to be in the win over Kansas, and it ran all over and shut down Florida in a dominant performance. Its only loss was to …

8. Mississippi State Bulldogs

Record: (4-1) 
Last Week Rank: 12 
Week 5: Alabama 56, Mississippi State 23 
Up Next: OPEN DATE
Mississippi State got whacked at home by 33, and it moved up? Yup. There’s no punishment for losing to Alabama right now, and winning at Minnesota, at South Carolina, and at home against Mizzou looks better and better.

7. Indiana Hoosiers

Record: (5-0) 
Last Week Rank: 8 
Week 5: Indiana 47, Rutgers 15 
Up Next: at Nebraska
There’s nothing there on the resume other than a nice win over Northwestern. If this wasn’t the defending national champion, and if we weren’t giving Curt Cignetti the benefit of the doubt, with this schedule the Hoosiers would be around 15ish.

6. Miami Hurricanes

Record: (5-0) 
Last Week Rank: 7 
Week 5: Miami 41, Clemson 13 
Up Next: OPEN DATE
The schedule isn’t anything great, but give the Hurricanes credit for going 3-0 in the ACC in three very different games. The trip to Stanford was three time zones away, Wake Forest has turned out to be great, and winning in Death Valley 41-13 over a Dabo Swinney team is impressive no matter what.

5. Georgia Bulldogs

Record: (5-0) 
Last Week Rank: 4 
Week 5: Georgia 38, Vanderbilt 14 
Up Next: at Alabama
If you want to call Georgia No. 1 in the nation, fine. The Dawgs might just be the best team in college football, and they have next week’s game at Alabama to prove it.

4. Notre Dame Fighting Irish

Record: (5-0) 
Last Week Rank: 3 
Week 5: Notre Dame 37, North Carolina 26 
Up Next: Stanford
There’s no panic, no sweating, and the execution when needed is fantastic. The season-opening 41-13 win over Wisconsin now looks amazing, and while the other wins over Michigan State, Purdue, and North Carolina might not seem like anything great, they were all by double-digits. So far, three of the four games against Power Four programs were away from South Bend.

3. Ohio State Buckeyes

Record: (4-1) 
Last Week Rank: 2 
Week 5: Ohio State 31, Iowa 14 
Up Next: Maryland
There are flaws. The defensive front isn’t quite up to Ohio State’s normal dominant standards, and the offensive line has been just okay, but it was a missed kick away from taking down Texas, it was brilliant against Iowa, and the talent is still jaw-dropping when everything kicks in.

2. Alabama Crimson Tide

Record: (5-0) 
Last Week Rank: 5 
Week 5: Alabama 56, Mississippi State 23 
Up Next: Georgia
Alabama is the only team to beat Kentucky. The Florida State win is probably better than it seems, the Tide took out South Carolina with ease, and they hung 56 on the road against a Mississippi State team that handed Missouri and Minnesota their only losses.

1. Texas Longhorns

Record: (4-0) 
Last Week Rank: 1 
Week 5: OPEN DATE 
Up Next: Oklahoma (in Dallas)
Is this really the best team in college football right now? Nah, probably not, but it beat Ohio State and took down Tennessee in Knoxville, and for now, that’s good enough.

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