Week 5 winners and losers

As another weekend of college football came to a close, conference championship races became a bit clearer. Oklahoma emerged victorious from the Red River Rivalry, while Florida State and Virginia Tech won ACC road games to take the lead in the Atlantic and Coastal divisions.

Some teams left Saturday feeling great; others left nauseated. Let's break down the weekend's winners and losers.

WINNERS:
Oregon -- The Ducks rose to the occasion and stomped No. 9 Stanford, 52-31 on Saturday night. After trailing 21-3 at the end of the first quarter, Oregon's duo of quarterback Darron Thomas and running back LaMichael James combined for seven touchdowns. Thomas was electrifying, finishing with 238 yards passing and 117 rushing, while James added 31 carries for 257 yards. With the win, Oregon rose to No. 3 in the rankings.

Alabama -- It doesn't seem to matter who Alabama plays each week. The result is always the same: a convincing win for the Crimson Tide. This week's victim was Florida, who some pegged as a National Championship contender coming into the season. Alabama blew the game wide open early, going on to win 31-6 after putting it in neutral after the third quarter. Some would argue it's Alabama's title to lose at this point.

LOSERS:

Michigan's defense -- The Wolverines beat Indiana 42-35, but nearly beat themselves on Saturday. Make no mistake about it: Indiana, despite a 3-1 record, is bad. Not average, but flat out bad. Yet, the Hoosiers were able to rack up 568 yards of offense -- 480 of which came in the air -- and took the game to the wire. If Michigan wants to get to the next level, it'll have to figure out how to stop good teams, much less bad ones.

Boise State -- A 59-0 road win over New Mexico State was pretty much all Boise State could have done, but that pesky strength of schedule came into play. Instead of staying put as the No. 3-ranked team in the country, the Broncos dropped to No. 4 as Oregon's win over No. 9 Stanford allowed the Ducks to leapfrog Boise State.

Georgia -- Nice knowing you, Mark Richt! The Georgia coach is almost definitely on his way out the door after leading the Bulldogs to a 1-4 record this year. The latest stumbling block? A botched handoff in field goal range while down two points late against Colorado. The Bulldogs simply needed to run out the clock and center the ball, but turned it over and it cost them the game.

USC/Penn State/Texas -- For the first time in I don't know how long, Southern Cal, Penn State and Texas are all unranked, and deservedly so. USC is 4-1 with wins over nobody of note, and a recent last-minute loss to Washington. Penn State fell to 3-2 with a lopsided loss to Iowa on Saturday, and Texas is 3-2 after losing its second game in a row -- most recently to Oklahoma.