College Tiers after five weeks of play ("week four")

What a great weekend of football! The routs were as exciting as the close games! For every Duke upset over Georgia Tech (34-20), there was a Utah 62-20 smackdown AT Oregon (read that again slowly if you need to). The amazing way Boise wiped out Virginia 56-14 was as fascinating as the ridiculous pinball qualities of TCU's 55-52 win over Texas Tech! The 28-27 Florida win over Tennessee was tremendous viewing, but so was the Notre Dame point fest over U Mass, 62-27!

Here are the new tiers for the 128 FBS teams; we'll add the FCS squads to the post soon. Listings are in alphabetical order; no ranking is implied by who's listed first (except, of course, tier A is higher than tier B, and so forth).

FF tier	Team	Conference	Conf Record		Overall Record
A	Clemson	accA	1	0	3	0
A	Georgia	secE	2	0	4	0
A	LSU	secW	2	0	3	0
A	Notre Dame	ind			4	0
A	Oklahoma	b12	0	0	3	0
A	UCLA	pacS	1	0	4	0
B	Alabama	secW	0	1	3	1
B	Michigan St	b10e	0	0	4	0
B	Ohio St	b10e	0	0	4	0
B	Ole Miss	secW	2	0	4	0
B	USC	pacS	1	1	3	1
B	Utah	pacS	1	0	4	0
C	Baylor	b12	0	0	3	0
C	Florida St	accA	1	0	3	0
C	Mississippi St	secW	1	1	3	1
C	Tennessee	secE	0	1	2	2
C	Texas A&M	secW	1	0	4	0
C	Wisconsin	b10w	0	0	3	1
D	Boise St	mwM	0	0	3	1
D	BYU	ind			2	2
D	Miami-FL	accC	0	0	3	0
D	North Carolina St	accA	0	0	4	0
D	TCU	b12	1	0	4	0
D	West Virginia	b12	0	0	3	0
E	Auburn	secW	0	2	2	2
E	Georgia Tech	accC	0	1	2	2
E	Houston	aacW	0	0	3	0
E	Michigan	b10e	0	0	3	1
E	Stanford	pacN	2	0	3	1
E	Virginia Tech	accC	0	0	2	2
F	Boston College	accA	0	1	3	1
F	Florida	secE	2	0	4	0
F	Kansas St	b12	0	0	3	0
F	Kentucky	secE	2	1	3	1
F	Louisville	accA	0	1	1	3
F	Northwestern	b10w	0	0	4	0
F	Oregon	pacN	0	1	2	2
G	Arizona	pacS	0	1	3	1
G	Duke	accC	1	0	3	1
G	Iowa	b10w	0	0	4	0
G	Louisiana Tech	cusaW	1	1	2	2
G	Missouri	secE	0	2	3	1
G	Navy	aacW	2	0	3	0
G	Toledo	macW	0	0	3	0
H	Nebraska	b10w	0	0	2	2
H	Northern Illinois	macW	0	0	2	2
H	Ohio	macE	0	0	3	1
H	Oklahoma St	b12	1	0	4	0
H	South Carolina	secE	0	2	2	2
H	Texas Tech	b12	0	1	3	1
H	Western Kentucky	cusaE	1	0	3	1
I	Arizona St	pacS	0	1	2	2
I	Arkansas	secW	0	1	1	3
I	California	pacN	1	0	4	0
I	Memphis	aacW	1	0	4	0
I	Minnesota	b10w	0	0	3	1
I	North Carolina	accC	0	0	3	1
I	Vanderbilt	secE	0	2	1	3
J	Appalachian St	sun	0	0	2	1
J	Bowling Green	macE	0	0	2	2
J	East Carolina	aacE	0	1	2	2
J	Indiana	b10e	0	0	4	0
J	Marshall	cusaE	0	0	3	1
J	Texas	b12	0	1	1	3
J	Washington	pacN	0	1	2	2
K	Air Force	mwM	1	0	2	1
K	Cincinnati	aacE	0	2	2	2
K	Iowa St	b12	0	0	1	2
K	Pitt	accC	0	0	2	1
K	South Florida	aacE	0	0	1	2
K	Temple	aacE	1	0	3	0
L	Central Florida	aacE	0	0	0	4
L	Georgia Southern	sun	1	0	3	1
L	Middle Tennessee	cusaE	1	0	2	2
L	Penn St	b10e	1	0	3	1
L	Purdue	b10w	0	0	1	3
L	Tulsa	aacW	0	0	2	1
M	Arkansas St	sun	0	0	1	3
M	Central Michigan	macW	0	0	1	3
M	Illinois	b10w	0	0	3	1
M	Maryland	b10e	0	0	2	2
M	Southern Miss	cusaW	0	0	2	2
M	Syracuse	accA	1	0	3	1
M	Virginia	accC	0	0	1	3
N	Ball St	macW	1	0	2	2
N	Colorado	pacS	0	0	3	1
N	Colorado St	mwM	0	0	2	2
N	Nevada	mwW	0	0	2	2
N	Oregon St	pacN	0	1	2	2
N	Rice	cusaW	1	0	2	2
N	U Conn	aacE	0	1	2	2
O	Florida International	cusaE	0	1	2	2
O	Hawai'i	mwW	0	0	2	2
O	Kent St	macE	0	0	1	3
O	San Jose St	mwW	0	1	1	2
O	SMU	aacW	0	0	1	3
O	Utah St	mwM	0	0	1	2
O	Washington St	pacN	0	0	2	1
P	Akron	macE	0	0	2	2
P	Buffalo	macE	0	0	2	2
P	Fresno St	mwW	0	0	1	2
P	Troy	sun	0	0	1	2
P	Wake Forest	accA	0	1	2	2
P	Western Michigan	macW	0	0	1	3
Q	New Mexico	mwM	1	0	2	2
Q	San Diego St	mwW	0	0	1	3
Q	Texas St	sun	0	0	1	3
Q	UL-Lafayette	sun	0	0	1	2
Q	UNLV	mwW	0	0	0	3
R	Florida Atlantic	cusaE	1	0	1	3
R	Miami-OH	macE	0	0	1	3
R	Old Dominion	cusaE	0	0	2	2
R	Rutgers	b10e	0	1	2	2
R	UL-Monroe	sun	0	0	1	2
R	UT-San Antonio	cusaW	0	0	0	4
S	Army	ind			1	3
S	Eastern Michigan	macW	0	1	1	3
S	Kansas	b12	0	0	0	3
S	South Alabama	sun	0	0	2	2
S	U Massachusetts	macE	0	0	0	3
S	Wyoming	mwM	0	1	0	4
T	Georgia St	sun	1	0	1	2
T	Idaho	sun	0	1	1	3
T	North Texas	cusaW	0	1	0	3
T	Tulane	aacW	0	0	1	2
T	UNC-Charlotte	cusaE	0	2	2	2
T	UTEP	cusaW	0	0	2	2
T-	New Mexico St	sun	0	1	0	3

Obviously, records aren't that important at this stage, because each school chose the quality of its opposition. Charlotte, for example, is 2-2 in its first year as an FBS school, but their schedule so far: 23-20 win against Georgia State (last year's #128), a win over tier W FCS school Presbyterian, and two big losses to Middle Tennessee and Florida International in conference. On the other hand, tier F Louisville is only 1-3, but those three losses are to big time opponents Auburn, Houston, and Clemson, and all were within a touchdown.

Next week opens league play in earnest, and teams will be playing their peers for the most part from here on out. Thursday Thoughts this week will separate "the men from the boys" a bit, after we've been able to dig into the numbers a bit more, and give you a new prediction for conference finishes, the four Playoff teams, bowl teams, and the Top Eight and Bottom Five for each level.

Thanks for all the support, readers - we'll keep delivering the goods! If we miss a post or two because we can't keep up, hey...asi es la vida! But we'll do our best, and we'll make sure we're having fun doing it!