Week 4 college football rankings: Penn State’s higher than USC in every poll?

Week 3 of the college football season had some interesting outcomes, but it was without too many major upsets, despite some scares. The previous top-five teams all won, with USC beating Texas, 27-24, in double overtime. Clemson had a big win on the road, containing Lamar Jackson to beat Louisville, 47-21.

We ended up with several other ranked teams losing. The most eye-opening score of the weekend was Mississippi State defeating LSU 37-7 in Starkville. Florida beat Tennessee on a 63-yard buzzer-beater, San Diego State beat Stanford with the lights literally going out, Vanderbilt beat Kansas State ahead of Bama week, and Memphis knocked off UCLA in an early thriller.

Other teams that looked especially impressive included Oklahoma State going to Pitt and hanging 59 points and Wisconsin beating BYU by 34 on the road. Pitt’s last opponent, Penn State, absolutely rolled over Georgia State. Apparently that was enough to convince voters that the Nittany Lions are still better than USC.

There won’t be Playoff rankings for another month. Until then, we’re waiting on all of these, then filling them out in here as they arrive:

The gold standard of human polls, until the Playoff committee starts releasing its top 25s later in the year.

One of the human polls. It doesn’t matter much, other than usually being out before the AP.

Every poll and rating smashed into one continually updating ranking, basically. Early in the season, it still includes some preseason projections.

SB Nation’s favored college football advanced stat, which tends to perform very well against the Vegas spread.