Most Underrated College Football Teams in Week 5 AP Poll

When the action on the field of college football ends, the voting action picks up. And bad officiating isn't just a prerogative of the officials on the field-- the voters in the AP Poll can be just as shaky, if not more so. Here's a rundown on some teams getting an unfair shake from the Week 5 AP Poll.

Kentucky (unranked)

The Wildcats were No. 24 going into a road game at South Carolina. Kentucky was a slight underdog on the road, delivered the team's first win over Carolina since 2021... and fell out of the AP voting. SMU stays in despite losing to a Louisville team that's now 2-3. UCLA jumped two spots with a week off. Pittsburgh jumps the Wildcats on the strength of a 5-0 mark but hasn't beaten anyone in ESPN's Top 40 in FPI. The overachieving Wildcats overachieved... and it somehow still wasn't enough.

Indiana (7th)

Indiana took a drop of a spot despite a 47-15 win over Rutgers. The Hoosiers are undefeated and lost a few style points playing close to Northwestern... but Northwestern's beatdown of Penn State demonstrates the Wildcats are a legitimate opponent. The issue here is that voters dropped Indiana below Alabama, but presumably saw Notre Dame edge past an awful North Carolina team 37-26 as a three-touchdown favorite. Notre Dame's undefeated season is somehow judged superior to Indiana's. No wonder the golden domers will keep playing an ACC-lite schedule.

Florida (16th)

Florida and Jon Sumrall took a steep dive in the Week 5 AP Poll. Maybe a little too steep.... (Matt Pendleton-Imagn Images) | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

It's not that Florida's brutal 45-17 loss to Missouri wasn't awful. It's the inconsistency in treating a bad loss. A week ago, Florida hosted No. 4 Ole Miss and battered the Rebels 52-28. Ole Miss fell five spots to ninth, where they stayed in Week 5 despite being off. The Gators were similarly beaten by a team in the bottom five of the top 25 on the road... and dropped eight spots. What's happening here is obvious-- voters didn't want to leave Florida ahead of Missouri, so the Gators took a deeper drop than the Rebels. That doesn't mean it's necessarily fair or reasonable.

North Dakota State (Not Ranked)

Pitt gets a ranking for being 5-0 against miserable competition, but North Dakota State is likewise 5-0 in the Mountain West... and barely got any votes-- 7 total points. The Bison beat Wyoming 28-0 and are giving up less than 10 points per game on the season. They averaged 33.6 points per game and have only committed three turnovers on the year. Maybe if NDSU wins at New Mexico and UNLV in the next three weeks, somebody will finally notice. If not, they might just surprise all the way to the College Football Playoff.

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