Souce: aseaofblue.com / The top 15 had a rather routine week, but there was plenty of movement at the backend of the rankings once again.

We open up this week in the ACC, where Clemson had been very good thus far on the season, while the conference as a whole has not. The Tigers survived a heck of a scare at North Carolina, stuffing a 2-point conversion attempt by the Tar Heels with just 1:17 left to play, to hang-on for dear life in a thrilling 21-20 victory. Clemson trailed 7-0 & 14-7 in this one, but managed to rally late in the third quarter & early 4th quarter to take the lead. The Tar Heels were coming off a home-loss to Appalachian State, but credit coach Mack Brown for having his boys ready to play. The win keeps Clemson at #2 for now, but with the ACC offering up virtually nothing for quality opponents, that position has become a bit precarious. The SEC & Big TEN both have several contenders closing in.

Source: shakinthesouthland.com / Clemson survived a major scare from UNC this past Saturday - stuffing a 2-point conversion attempt with a little over a minute to play to preserve a 21-20 victory.

Aside from the Tigers' scare, it was a rather pedestrian week for the top 15, as a whole, as all 15 teams stayed the same, with just a couple of minor shifts. Top-ranked Alabama took care of Ole Miss, 59-31, behind 6 TD passes & another on the ground from QB Tua Tagovailoa. #3 Georgia & #4 LSU were both idle, and remain locked in to the top 5.

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At #5 is where we have our first change in the top 25 this week, as the Ohio State Buckeyes were uber-impressive once again, this time in a nighttime road matchup @ Nebraksa. OSU led 48-0 in the 3rd quarter, pounding the Cornhuskers in surprisingly dominant fashion, and then let the backups ride out a 48-7 victory. The win bumped Ohio State up to 5 this week, and dropped the Florida Gators a spot to #6. The Gators blanked FCS foe Towson 38-0, ahead of this week's blockbuster showdown against Auburn in the Swamp.

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Rounding out the top 10, the Oklahoma Sooners throttled Texas Tech 55-16, to open up Big XII play. Meanwhile, Wisconsin welcomed Northwestern to Madison, and then struggled offensively, leaning on a pair of defensive TDs in a 24-15 victory over the Wildcats. The Sooners & Badgers flip this week, with OU up a spot to 7 after the man-handling of Tech, and UW drops a spot to #8. Auburn dismantled Mississippi State, 56-23, in a game that wasn't even that close, to remain at 9, and Texas was idle to remain at 10.

Source: Indystar.com / #11 Notre Dame got a big bounce-back victory over previously 4-0 Virginia this past week.

Notre Dame bounched-back nicely from their close loss at Georgia with a 35-20 victory over previously #20 Virginia to go to 3-1. Behind the Irish at 12, are the Penn State Nittany Lions, who moved up a spot fresh off their 59-0 beatdown at Maryland last Friday. They flipped with Boise State - who was off this past week. Oregon was idle as well and remain at 14, and Iowa rounds out the top 15 after their 48-3 walk- in -the-park against Middle Tennessee.

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While the top 15 was void of much drama, the same cannot be said of the backend of the top 25, where there was plenty of shifting once again. Starting right at #16, Cal lost not only their QB, but dropped a 24-17 set-back to Arizona State at home last Friday night. The loss dropped the Golden Bears to #22, and sent Arizona State back into the top 25 after a week hiatus. That makes two impressive road wins on the year for the Sun Devils, and has them at #21 this week. Meanwhile, fellow Pac-12 foes, Washington & Utah took advantage of Cal's stumble, and moved up to #s 16 & 17, respectively. The Huskies took down #18 USC - who were back into the top 25, 28-14 in WA & dropped the Trojans back out of the rankings yet again.

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#20 Virginia also dropped out following their 35-20 loss @ Notre Dame, allowing both Michigan & UCF to move up 4 spots a piece to #s 18 & 19, respectively. They are followed by Oklahoma State at #20 - the Cowboys are into the rankings for the first time after knocking off previously 3-0 #21 Kansas State, 26-13, in Stillwater. The loss dropped the Wildcats back out of the top 25.

Source: texasmonthly.com / There has been much to celebrate for the Mustangs as SMU returned to the AP Poll for the first time since 1986. After a 5-0 start, Dallas is rocking. Can they continue their magical start?

Meanwhile the SMU Mustangs got a dominant 48-21 victory at South Florida to improve to 5-0 and jumped up a couple of spots from #25 to 23 this week. The Mustangs also made it into the AP Poll for the first time since the program became the first - and to date - only to receive the NCAA's "Death" Penalty which completely disbanded the team for the 1987 season. The remaining players transferred, left the team, etc, which meant the program canceled the 1988 season as well as they didnt have enough healthy players to field a viable team. The Mustangs had been the winningest program in all of college football from 1980-1984. They never really recovered, and spent two decades rebuilding, but have never quite reached the heights that they did in the early-to-mid 80s. Welcome back SMU, it's been a long hiatus!

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Rounding out the top 25 are the Army Black Knights once again at #24, who were idle this past week, and the Wake Forest Demon Deacons - fresh into the rankings this week at #25, after getting a 27-24 hard-fought victory at Boston College to improve to 5-0.

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As always, there are a plethora of teams just outside of the top 25 in the "next" group of teams. Baylor is the very next team just outside of the rankings this week after improving to 4-0 following a big victory over Iowa State. They are joined by Virginia, Michigan State, Texas A&M, Memphis - who is now 4-0, Appalachian State, who is also 4-0, TCU, Kansas State, and Colorado.

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College Football Ultimate Top 25

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1 ALABAMA (5-0)

2 CLEMSON (5-0)

3 GEORGIA (4-0)

4 LSU (4-0)

5 OHIO STATE (5-0)

6 FLORIDA (5-0)

7 OKLAHOMA (4-0)

8 WISCONSIN (4-0)

9 AUBURN (5-0)

10 TEXAS (3-1)

11 NOTRE DAME (3-1)

12 PENN STATE (4-0)

13 BOISE STATE (4-0)

14 OREGON (3-1)

15 IOWA (4-0)

16 WASHINGTON (4-1)

17 UTAH (4-1)

18 MICHIGAN (3-1)

19 UCF (4-1)

20 OKLAHOMA STATE (4-1)*

21 ARIZONA STATE (4-1)*

22 CAL (4-1)

23 SMU (5-0)

24 ARMY (3-1)

25 WAKE FOREST (5-0)*

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*-New to the rankings this week

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Dropped Out:

18 USC, 20 Virginia, 21 Kansas State

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Next:

Baylor (4-0), Virginia (4-1), Michigan State (4-1), Texas A&M (3-2), Memphis (4-0), Kansas State (3-1), Appalachian State (4-0), Colorado (3-1), TCU (3-1)

Source: bleacherreport.com / Michigan State invades Columbus on Saturday night - can Sparty slow down the red-hot Buckeyes?

This week's action gets going with an intriguing matchup out of the American Athletic Conference as #19 UCF travels to Cincinnati tonight to take on a quality Bearcats team. UCF has scored 30 or more in 31 straight games, will Cincy have the firepower to keep up? The Saturday slate is highlighted by 3 big-time matchups- Michigan State is @ #5 Ohio State in a primetime matchup in the Big TEN, unbeaten #15 Iowa visits #18 Michigan in another huge Big TEN battle, where the Wolverines need a win to have any realistic chance at still reaching the Big TEN title game, and #9 Auburn visits #6 Florida in the SEC. A win would solidify Auburn's resume as easily the best to date of any team out there. It should be a heck of a defensive battle from the Swamp. There are plenty of other quality matchups as well, so as always make sure to check back next week for another edition of the College Football Ultimate Top 25 presented by @sportsguychris. As always I'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments section! Thank you for the support & enjoy all of the quality action this weekend!