The top four teams in the power rankings remain unchanged after all four recorded road wins this past week.  Three of the top four teams are ranked in this week’s BCS Top 25. Boise State is fifth, Houston is 11^th, while Southern Mississippi comes in at 22^nd.

Only one team falls out of the top 10. Toledo falls out after a wild 63-60 loss at home against Northern Illinois. The Huskies are 10th in this week’s rankings.

With the Big East reeling from the recent defections of Pittsburgh and Syracuse to the ACC and TCU for the Big 12, the conference’s remaining six members announced it will add six teams. Among the schools being mentioned as possible invitees are Air Force, Army, Boise State, Central Florida, East Carolina, Houston, Navy, SMU and Temple.

In the BCS era, only Utah, who joined the Pac-12 this year, and TCU, who will join the Big 12 next season, have been invited to join an automatic-qualifying (AQ) conference while a member of a non-AQ conference.  Each school had played in two BCS bowls as non-AQ schools. So how do the schools being considered by the Big East stack up against Utah and TCU?

It has been a strange odyssey for Texas Christian since the Southwest Conference broke up after the 1995 season.  Since that departure the Horned Frogs have played in three conferences and developed into one of the nation’s top programs.

After playing in the SWC from 1923-95, the Horned Frogs were left behind as Baylor, Texas, Texas A&M and Texas Tech merged with members of the Big Eight conference to form the Big 12. TCU landed in the WAC (1996-2000), then moved to Conference USA (2001-2004) and eventually became a member of the Mountain West Conference (2006-11). After posting eight seasons of 10+ wins and two BCS bowl appearances between 2000 and 2010, the Horned Frogs were set to join the Big East in 2012. But that may never happen, since it is now likely that TCU will accept an invitation to join the Big 12.  

The best of Saturday’s mid-afternoon games feature a MAC game between preseason favorite Toledo and upstart Eastern Michigan. Air Force, coming off its big win over Navy, will travel to South Bend to play Notre Dame. Southern Mississippi and Navy should be an exciting matchup as two powerful offenses face off.

Week five was a week of rivalry games, good and bad streaks being snapped and great individual performances. Here is a look at the highs and lows:

Give me the skillet – In the Battle of the Iron Skillet, SMU defeated TCU 40-33 in overtime. It was SMU’s first win over the Horned Frogs since 2005, snapping a four-game losing streak in the series. It also marked the first win for the Mustangs over a ranked team since defeating No. 22 (AP poll) TCU 21-10 in 2005. SMU is 4-1 for the first time since 1986. TCU’s 22-game home win streak ends with the loss.