The Couch Power 10, Week 4
- Daniel Woodiwiss
- Sep 22
- 5 min read
Just last week, I started off this piece talking about how there are always ebbs and flows to college football slates, and it doesn't seem like the "on week/off week" trend is stopping any time soon. Week 3 was a day loaded with high-stakes matchups, and this Saturday holds one of the juiciest slates of college football season yet. But in between, over last weekend, we had a relatively calm Week 4.
What was notable from Week 4, though, was how short the day was on memorable games. Oklahoma and Auburn played a down-to-the-wire thriller that saw the Sooners eke out another big win at home, but the other two all-ranked affairs were snoozers, with Indiana and Texas Tech blowing out Illinois and Utah (respectively) by a combined 77 points. The College Gameday + primetime slot went to Miami against unranked rivals Florida, but the Hurricanes barely broke a sweat in their 26-7 win over the Gators, and the lone "upsets" on the day happened in the unranked levels of the landscape, such as Syracuse over Clemson and Maryland over Wisconsin. All this doesn't mean it was a completely uneventful week in our rankings, though; the sole games between AP Top 25 teams brought about two new entries into the Couch Power 10, and a new entry into the honorable mentions section as well.
Just a refresher, in case you forgot: this is not a definitive ranking on how good the teams are, or on who I think will be/deserves to be in the playoff at the end of the year. Rather, it's more of a "What if preseason rankings and bigwig bias didn't predetermine the top teams" kind of thing, an ideal ranking of the country's teams based on what they've actually proved on the field to date. Don't be mad cuz I'm doin' me better than you doin' you:
1. Ohio State
Daniel's Meritocracy Preseason Ranking # 1 and reigning national champs had a bye week. The 3-0 Buckeyes are coasting on that season-opening win over Texas, no doubt, and the jury is still out on just how good the Longhorns actually will be this year, but the Buckeyes have showed us no reason to drop them from their top spot (yet).
2. Miami
There is an argument to be made that some teams have had more impressive starts to the season than the champs, though, and foremost among them are Miami. The new-look Hurricanes played their third once-ranked opponent in 4 weeks, and once again passed the test convincingly. Florida's defense did a good job hounding and frustrating Carson Beck and Miami's offense, but the Hurricanes' defense returned the favor and then some, nearly keeping the Gators off the scoreboard entirely. A bye week awaits now before a huge, potentially-all-unbeaten showdown with archrivals Florida State.
3. Georgia
Georgia got put at #6 after their (so far) season-defining win at rivals Tennessee...so how exactly do they get bumped up to #3 after a bye week? Because of my well-documented SEC bias, of course! No, what it really is is a belated recognition of the Dawgs' own placement in Daniel's Meritocracy Preseason Rankings, AND their quality win trumping just about all of their peers' thus far, as Tennessee looks a more viable postseason contender than just about any other team with a loss, perhaps including last year's semifinalists Texas and Notre Dame.
4. Florida State
Florida State was the victim of Georgia's bye week rise, but lest the move bring back Vietnam flashbacks from Playoffgate 2023, fear note: the 'Noles are still in the Top 4. And what's more, a 66-10 win in their return from their early bye week shows they have no sign of slowing down soon. They have to avoid the obvious trap game on the road at UVA this weekend, but if they do so, it will set up the biggest Florida State-Miami rivalry game in... oh, I don't know, 20 years??
5. Indiana
Indiana, the underdog darlings of last season, don't have a lot in common with Georgia, but they share a similar fate of: preseason Couch-ranked Top 10 team that played ugly in their first game and thus fell off the radar for a but until BAM!, a big-time win brought them back into the fold. To be fair to the Hoosiers, they recovered quickly from their uninspiring Week 1 slog with Old Dominion, beating their next two lowly opponents by a combined scoreline of 129-9. And to their immense credit, when the opportunity for their first big win arose, they got the absolute most out of it, crushing border rivals and fellow unbeaten Top 10 foes Illinois 63-10. Their shocking dismantling of the Illini shot IU up the 'strength of record' metric and increased their season's average margin of victory from their 4-0 start to 46.5. Their average margin of victory.
6. Oklahoma
Oklahoma started off most people's radar (and out of The Couch's preseason ranking), but Brent Venables appears to have his boys firing on all cylinders again, one year on from a wholly disappointing season. With transfer QB John Mateer at the helm, OU has now knocked off two AP Top 20 sides in MIchigan and Auburn, and interspersed between those close gritty wins were two blowouts in which their average scoreline was 39-3. The bad news? The Sooners' schedule doesn't get any easier, as a murderers row lines up in October, and now they are without Mateer for said murderers' row, as the star QB is expected to miss a month as a result of hand surgery. Make it through this trying month unscathed somehow, and you can go ahead and Sharpie Oklahoma's name in the playoff field.
7. Texas A&M
Texas A&M got a bye week to recover emotionally from their thrilling, last-second win at Notre Dame 9 days ago. But the Irish finally getting into the win column (and somehow moving up in the polls for it) helped the Aggies' strength of record remain atop the charts.
8. Vanderbilt
Last year, just one week before shocking Alabama on their home field, Vanderbilt capitulated to Georgia State, a low moment in an otherwise memorable season. So you could forgive Commodore fans for being a little nervous about a purported "easy win" against Georgia State this past weekend, just one week removed from their huge beatdown of favored South Carolina. Never in doubt, though, the 2025 edition of Vandy proved their mental strength by leaving zero doubt and running away with a 70-21 win. If they can get more of the same against heavy underdogs Utah State this weekend, they'll be an almost-unprecedented 5-0 heading into October, and boy would they like that. Their October opponents? Alabama. LSU. Missouri. Texas.
9. Penn State
10. Oregon
Once again, and likely for one last time, the two teams from last year's Big Ten Championship are joined at the hip in these rankings. The Nittany Lions and Ducks have looked as impressive as any team in America thus far, but just haven't played anyone of note yet. Oregon's schedule strength is actually the slightly stronger of the two, but Penn State keeps their slight edge due to the Ducks looking almost human in the first half against a bad opponent for the second consecutive week (last time against Northwestern, this past weekend against Oregon State). Given that these two face off in primetime this very Saturday, and my "no ranking teams with a loss" rule is good for at least a few more weeks, I'm gonna go out on a limb: next week one of these teams will be much higher in the Power 10, and the other won't be ranked at all.
Just missed: Texas Tech, Mississippi State, Ole Miss, LSU, Missouri, Bill Belichick's contract negotiation skills
The Playoff Picture according to The Couch:
(5) Indiana v (12) Memphis
(6) Oklahoma v (11) Texas Tech
(7) Texas A&M v (10) Oregon
(8) Vanderbilt v (9) Penn State
ROSE BOWL: (1) Ohio State v VAN/PSU winner
ORANGE BOWL: (2) Miami v A&M/ORE winner
SUGAR BOWL: (3) Georgia v OU/TT winner
COTTON BOWL: (4) Florida State v IU/MEM winner
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