ESPN's Computer Releases Its Week 5 Top 25 Rankings

Week 4 of the 2026 college football regular season is in the books on Sunday morning.

The fourth week of the 2026 college football regular season was an important one. Michigan fell to Iowa, Florida took down Ole Miss, Ohio State blew out Illinois and Texas topped Tennessee on the road, among other games.

ESPN’s computer model, the Football Power Index, has released its new Top 25 rankings on Sunday morning. The new Top 25 rankings come from ESPN’s projection-based computer system.

1. Georgia
2. Notre Dame
3. Ohio State
4. Texas
5. Miami
6. Alabama
7. Indiana
8. LSU
9. Oregon
10. Florida
11. Tennessee
12. Utah
13. Texas Tech
14. Nebraska
15. Penn State
16. Texas A&M
17. BYU
18. USC
19. Ole Miss
20. Mississippi State
21. Oklahoma
22. Pittsburgh
23. Michigan
24. Auburn
25. Iowa

ESPN’s computer model has a new No. 1 team, as the Ohio State Buckeyes dropped out of the No. 1 spot, after Ryan Day’s team gave up a ton of yards in a win over Illinois on Saturday afternoon.

How does ESPN’s FPI work, though?

Here’s how ESPN’s computer model works

“The Football Power Index (FPI) is a measure of team strength that is meant to be the best predictor of a team’s performance going forward for the rest of the season. FPI represents how many points above or below average a team is. Projected results are based on 20,000 simulations of the rest of the season using FPI, results to date, and the remaining schedule. Ratings and projections update daily. FPI data from seasons prior to 2019 may not be complete,” ESPN writes.

This story was originally published by The Spun on Sep 27, 2026, where it first appeared in the College Football section. Add The Spun as a Preferred Source by clicking here.