| Rank | Team | Comments | Prior | |
| 1 |  | Alabama | Not surprisingly Alabama had no problem with Florida Atlantic. The Tide return to SEC play this week with Ole Miss. | 1 |
| 2 |  | LSU | It may not have been pretty, but LSU won on the road against a pretty good Auburn team and that's what matters. | 2 |
| 3 |  | Oregon | Oregon's offense was not as explosive as most expected, but they did get the job done against Arizona. | 4 |
| 4 |  | Florida State | The Seminoles might be different this year. However, they need to be careful with a trip to USF on Saturday. | 6 |
| 5 |  | Georgia | Georgia knocked off Vanderbilt without any major problems. Tennessee will be looking for a signature win. | 5 |
| 6 |  | South Carolina | South Carolina stiffled Missouri's potent offense. A trip to Kentucky should not yield many more points. | 7 |
| 7 |  | Stanford | Stanford got the week off to bask in the glory of beating USC. They head to Washington for a Thursday night game. | 8 |
| 8 |  | West Virginia | Maryland kept it close against WVU, but the Mountaineers got the win. This weekend they host Baylor. | 12 |
| 9 |  | Notre Dame | The Irish are 4-0 with some quality wins over the Big Ten slate. The schedule never gets easy for Notre Dame. | 16 |
| 10 |  | Kansas State | KSU usually loses in games like the one Saturday night at Oklahoma. This time they didn't. | 20 |
| 11 |  | Oklahoma | Oklahoma needs a week off to regroup after losing at home to Kansas State. After that they head to Lubbock. | 3 |
| 12 |  | Ohio State | Ohio State did not look very impressive against UAB. This week they head to an equally unimpressive MSU. | 10 |
| 13 |  | USC | USC let a struggling Cal team stick around for a while, but they pulled together and got the much needed victory. | 11 |
| 14 |  | Florida | Florida shutout Kentucky 38-0. They will get a week off to prepare for a huge game against LSU in the swamp. | 14 |
| 15 |  | Texas | Texas needed a week off. They travel to OSU, host WVU and head to Dallas to take on OU in the next three weeks. | 15 |
| 16 |  | Clemson | Clemson's defense failed them against FSU. They won't fall too far, but winning the Atlantic now will be tough. | 9 |
| 17 |  | Michigan State | Le'Veon Bell had another great game as MSU pulled away from EMU in the second half. The Ohio State is next. | 17 |
| 18 |  | Virginia Tech | The Hokies rebounded nicely from their shocking loss to Pitt. Playing Cincinnati will be a little tougher. | 18 |
| 19 |  | Oklahoma State | The Cowboys got last week off to get ready for a big game against Texas. OSU has won two in a row against UT. | 19 |
| 20 |  | TCU | TCU had no problem with Virginia, beating them 27-7. The Iron Skillet is on the line this weekend against SMU. | 23 |
| 21 |  | Michigan | Denard Robinson accounted for five turnovers against Notre Dame. It was ugly and a week off is much needed. | 13 |
| 22 |  | Louisville | Louisville remained perfect on the year with a hard fought 28-21 win over FIU. A trip to Southern Miss is next. | 24 |
| 23 |  | Boise State | It certainly was not a pretty Thursday night game, but Boise State knocked off a tough BYU squad 7-6. | 21 |
| 24 |  | Nebraska | Nebraska hardly needed Martinez to do anything in a blowout win over Idaho State. Burkhead changes this team. | 25 |
| 25 |  | Oregon State | Beating Wisconsin may not be all that impressive these days, but going to UCLA and winning is not bad at all. | NR |
Week 4 Football Top 25 Rankings
Sat, 09/22/2012
