After week 5 of the 2014 College Football season, we still have 17 undefeated teams: Five from the SEC (Alabama, Texas A&M, Auburn, Ole Miss, Mississippi State), three from the Pac-12 (Oregon, UCLA, Arizona), three from the Big 12 (Oklahoma, Baylor, TCU), two from the ACC (Florida State, Georgia Tech), two independent (Notre Dame, BYU), one from the Big Ten (Nebraska) and one from conference USA (Marshall).
A few teams lost their status as undefeated which will hurt them in the rankings, if they were even in the top 25: Arizona State were crushed at home 62-27 by UCLA, which means they’ll take a nasty fall from #15; Penn State were stunned at home by Northwestern in a 29-6 loss; North Carolina State couldn’t hold on to an early lead against #1 Florida State, losing 41-56; Washington lost 20-13 at home to Stanford, another big miss against a ranked team; Cincinnati were beaten roughly by Ohio State, 50-28; Duke lost for the first time, falling in Miami 22-10; Utah were beaten by the big passing game of Washington State 28-27; and Oregon State lost at USC 35-10.
Alabama didn’t play, while Texas A&M managed to escape a scare against Arkansas, winning 35-27 in overtime. Auburn, beating Louisiana Tech 45-17, had a much easier time as they improved to 4-0. Ole Miss looked solid in a 22-3 win over Memphis, and Mississippi State had the week off after their huge win over LSU.
Oregon didn’t play, but UCLA had the biggest win of the weekend and not just in the Pac-12, coming away with a 62-27 drubbing of the Sun Devils in Arizona. Arizona themselves didn’t play, remaining at 4-0.
Oklahoma was another one of the title contenders having a bye week, while Baylor improved to 4-0, winning their first conference games of the season, beating Iowa State in Ames 49-28. TCU are now 3-0 thanks to the terrible SMU, beating the crumbling Mustangs 56-0.
Florida State might lose their #1 status after once again struggling to dispatch of a much weaker team, eventually winning by 15 points against North Carolina State. Georgia Tech didn’t play.
Of the Independent teams, Notre Dame beat Syracuse 31-15 on the road with another big game from Everett Golson, while BYU had themselves a week off. Nebraksa, with a 45-14 win over Illinois, might find themselves in the top 20 finally, while Marshall also got a rest from beating weaklings.