Week Six brought the biggest changes to the Bottom 25 we've seen this season. Two of our Bottom Five teams picked up their first wins as Nevada knocked off Hawaii and Bowling Green took down Miami (Ohio). Both remain in our rankings this week, but they dropped out of the Bottom 10, causing a lot of teams to shuffle positions.
In fact, we now have a Power Five school in our Bottom Five. Which one?
We'll get there in a second, but first, a quick reminder of how these rankings work (full explanation here).
- My opinion plays no factor in the rankings
- There is true equality to start the season as math doesn't play favorites
- Wins and losses mean more than anything
- The formula is in no way predictive; it's a meritocracy
- I won't share the formula
The Bottom 25
| Team | Rank | Record | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
 | 25. Hawaii | 2-4 | Hawaii makes its Bottom 25 debut this season because the Warriors lost to Nevada. (Last week: Not ranked) |
 | 24. Air Force | 1-4 | Air Force put together a remarkable comeback against Navy on Saturday and then blew it. It was the most exciting game you didn't watch. (NR) |
 | 23. Ball State | 2-4 | Ball State has been outscored 86-6 in two conference games. (NR) |
 | 22. North Carolina | 1-5 | Maybe Mitch Trubisky was the greatest college quarterback of all time. (23) |
 | 21. Rutgers | 1-4 | The Knights hit the road to take on Illinois in a game that's very winnable. (21) |
 | 20. Tulsa | 1-5 | The Hurricane gave up 62 points to Tulane. (22) |
 | 19. South Alabama | 1-4 | The Jaguars took the weekend off but play Troy on Wednesday night. (19) |
 | 18. Coastal Carolina | 1-4 | The Cleers are 0-2 in the Sun Belt, but both losses have come by a total of only 14 points. (20) |
 | 17. Nevada | 1-5 | Nevada beat Hawaii, and I think that eliminated it from title consideration. It has a couple more winnable games left to play. (5) |
 | 16. Missouri | 1-4 | Mizzou at least looked competent in its 40-34 loss to Kentucky. Baby steps! (15) |
 | 15. BYU | 1-5 | Bronco Mendenhall is 4-1 at Virginia, by the way. (14) |
 | 14. Oregon State | 1-5 | This week's game against Colorado might be the Beavers best hope for another win. (10) |
 | 13. Kansas | 1-4 | Maybe the Jayhawks will catch Iowa State at the perfect time after the Cyclones beat Oklahoma? (18) |
 | 12. Bowling Green | 1-5 | The Falcons picked up their first win of the season, but it was the third straight week they looked competent. The signs were there this was coming. (3) |
 | 11. UConn | 1-4 | It's hard to win games when you allow 70 points. (16) |
 | 10. Rice | 1-5 | They're just entering the Bottom 10 now, but I don't think the Owls are done climbing these rankings. (13) |
 | 9. ECU | 1-5 | The entire world holds its breath in anticipation of ECU's date with BYU on Oct. 21. It has to deal with UCF first, though. (12) |
 | 8. Kent State | 1-5 | Kent State mustered only 131 yards of offense in its 24-3 loss to Northern Illinois. (11) |
 | 7. San Jose State | 1-6 | San Jose State heads to Hawaii for The Bottom 25 Game of the Century of the Week. (6) |
 | 6. Texas State | 1-5 | The Bobcats hung with the Cajuns for a half, but then their championship pedigree shined through in the second half. (9) |
 | 5. UMass | 0-6 | The Minutemen had a bye last week and are off again this week due to their originally scheduled game with USF being canceled. (8) |
 | 4. Baylor | 0-5 | The Bears were off last week but climb into the Bottom Five because of others dropping out. (7) |
 | 3. Charlotte | 0-6 | To be honest, I was impressed the 49ers only lost to Marshall by 11. (4) |
 | 2. UTEP | 0-6 | Is Mike Price going to ruin UTEP's title hopes? They barely lost to Western Kentucky 15-14 in his debut. (2) |
 | 1. Georgia Southern | 0-4 | Georgia Southern forced five Arkansas State turnovers last week and still lost by 18. If that isn't championship mettle, I don't know what is. (1) |
No longer ranked: Temple (25), Georgia State (24), Louisiana (17)
