Heading into Week 5, the Wisconsin Badgers were sitting at 3-1, coming off a major upset over the No. 13 Penn State Nittany Lions on the road. They were ranked as the top team receiving votes outside the AP Top 25, and looked poised to crack the rankings with a win on Saturday.
Well, the Badgers did exactly that, taking care of business in a 31-3 win over the Michigan State Spartans, playing a very complementary game en route to their fourth straight win. However, the victory didn’t catapult them into the Top 25. Instead, they actually fell in the rankings.
Wisconsin went from the top team receiving votes to the No. 3 team receiving votes, as the Top 25 had minimal shakeup this week. Only one team, the No. 24 Kentucky Wildcats, fell out of the Top 25, and they went down two spots to be the top team receiving votes.
Meanwhile, Pitt, coming off a 35-33 road upset of Virginia Tech, found themselves in the rankings at No. 25. Apart from that, it wasn’t a very eventful week in the AP Poll. Each of the bottom five teams won, and three of them still dropped spots (Houston, Boise State, SMU).
Missouri, which was the most controversial team to be ranked last weekend, jumped all the way to No. 14 after whooping the No. 8 Florida Gators at home.
In addition to Kentucky, Wake Forest, led by Wisconsin native Jake Dickert, was ahead of the Badgers in the teams receiving votes. The Deacons have looked great to start the year, going 4-1 so far. They had a 57-3 beatdown of Stanford after upsetting No. 16 Louisville on the road in Week 4. So far, Wake Forest’s only loss is to Miami by 13.
Wisconsin now gets a bye in week six, but they’ll have a big opportunity to hit the rankings in two weeks, as they face the UCLA Bruins, who have been on a roll under head coach Bob Chesney, and are currently ranked.
