| Rank | Team | Comments | Prior | |
| 1 |  | Alabama | Alabama stays atop The Madness Top 25 with their win over Florida. A whipping of Vanderbilt is up next. | 1 |
| 2 |  | Oklahoma | The Red River Rivalry is here. Texas is looking much better and should at least hang around with the Sooners. | 2 |
| 3 |  | LSU | LSU never has two easy games in a row. Thus, after beating Kentucky handily, Florida is coming to town. | 3 |
| 4 |  | Wisconsin | Wisconsin gets a week off after their very, very impressive win over Nebraska. UW is looking good for a BCS game. | 4 |
| 5 |  | Oklahoma State | Oklahoma State has a couple tough road games coming up, but first they will host a struggling Kansas squad. | 6 |
| 6 |  | Boise State | Boise State will get Fresno State's best shot in front of a national television audience on Friday night. | 7 |
| 7 |  | Stanford | Stanford has not had many major challenges yet and they won't this week when Colorado comes to Palo Alto. | 8 |
| 8 |  | Clemson | Clemson made a huge statement with their road victory at VT. Hosting BC should keep Clemson rolling. | 11 |
| 9 |  | Oregon | The Ducks host California on Thursday night. The Bears did a great job stopping OU last season in a loss. | 10 |
| 10 |  | Nebraska | Nebraska will try and earn their first ever Big Ten win against Ohio State. It should be easier at home. | 5 |
| 11 |  | Texas | Texas is rolling right now. The Red River Rivalry will let everybody know if UT is capable of winning the Big 12. | 14 |
| 12 |  | Arkansas | Arkansas had a nice comeback win against TAMU last week and Auburn will keep it close this week. | 17 |
| 13 |  | South Carolina | South Carolina needs to rebound after their tough loss to Auburn and Kentucky is a good way to do that. | 9 |
| 14 |  | Florida | Florida is not at the same level as Alabama and it does not get any easier with a trip to LSU coming up this week. | 12 |
| 15 |  | West Virginia | West Virginia should have little trouble against Connecticut at home and begin their trip towards the BCS. | 18 |
| 16 |  | Virginia Tech | The Hokies lost at home to Clemson and now they have to host Miami. VT needs to turn things around this week. | 13 |
| 17 |  | Michigan | Michigan's defense will face a much, much tougher test against the Wildcats of Northwestern this week. | 21 |
| 18 |  | Arizona State | Arizona State can take another huge step in wrapping up the Pac-12 South with a win at Utah on Saturday. | 19 |
| 19 |  | Florida State | Florida State has lost to a couple good teams and beat a couple cupcakes. WF will provide a better indication. | 16 |
| 20 |  | Michigan State | The Spartans defense shut down Ohio State last week. The offense needs some work during the bye week. | NR |
| 21 |  | Georgia Tech | GT keeps running and are turning into serious ACC contenders. Maryland won't be able to slow them down. | 24 |
| 22 |  | Auburn | Auburn never fails to provide a thrilling game. It should be another fun game this week at Arkansas. | NR |
| 23 |  | Illinois | It took a big comeback for Illinois to beat Northwestern. The Illini should be 2-0 after a trip to Indiana. | 25 |
| 24 |  | Texas A&M | Texas A&M has now lost two in a row afer falling to Arkansas. A trip to Texas Tech will not be an easy game either. | 15 |
| 25 |  | Penn State | Penn State is not winning pretty, but they are winning. This week's game against Iowa might be ugly. | 22 |
Week 5 Football Top 25
Fri, 09/30/2011
