Steppe’s Week 5 AP ballot: Illinois, BYU earn spots after ranked wins

IOWA CITY — Bret Bielema’s Illinois team has been one of the bigger surprises through four weeks of the college football season.

National writer Phil Steele picked the Illini to finish 13th in the Big Ten. ESPN’s preseason SP+ projections had the Illini finishing 14th in the league. Athlon Sports had the Illini 15th in its Big Ten preview.

I have not had enough caffeine this morning (after figuring out how to get out of the Minnesota parking garage at 1 a.m. Sunday when the gate wasn’t opening) to remember where I picked Illinois to finish, but it probably was not much better than that.

Now, Illinois is one of two teams across the country to have multiple wins against AP-ranked foes on its resume after defeating then-No. 19 Kansas earlier this month and then-No. 22 Nebraska on Friday. The latter was on the road as Nebraska celebrated its 400th consecutive sellout.

The Illini are No. 17 on my ballot this week (and sixth among teams in the Big Ten).

The only other team to have two wins so far this season against ranked foes is Tennessee. Speaking of the Volunteers, they moved up to No. 4 on my ballot after their road win at No. 15 Oklahoma. They moved ahead of Ole Miss and Alabama, at least for now.

Jaxson Dart is putting together a potential Heisman-caliber season at Ole Miss, but Tennessee’s resume has wins against ranked-at-the-time NC State and Oklahoma teams. Ole Miss’ best win is against Wake Forest, which has not finished with a winning conference record since 2021.

USC fell out of my top 10 after losing at Michigan, but the Trojans’ win earlier this year against LSU was enough to keep them from falling farther. (A loss at reigning national champion Michigan is obviously a lot better than Notre Dame’s home loss to Northern Illinois.)

Kansas State fell off my ballot after its 29-point loss to then-unranked BYU. At the same time, BYU is up to No. 20 after its throttling of the Wildcats.

Pittsburgh enters my ballot as one of the last unranked-but-undefeated Power Four teams out there. UCF received consideration for that same reason, but the Panthers’ two Power Four wins outnumber UCF’s one.

Here is my full ballot ahead of the poll’s release at 1 p.m. Central time:

John Steppe’s Week 5 AP ballot

Others warranting consideration: UCF, South Carolina, Kansas State

Comments: john.steppe@thegazette.com

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