Sun Belt Conference Football Power Rankings - Week 5

1. James Madison

2. Texas State

3. South Alabama

4. App State

5. Arkansas State

6. Marshall

7. Louisiana

8. Coastal Carolina

9. Old Dominion

10. Troy

11. Louisiana-Monroe

12. Georgia Southern

13. Southern Miss

14. Georgia State

For all of the lack of movement last week, it certainly was made up for in this week’s rankings. The obvious is Major Applewhite’s South Alabama team, who are riding an incredible two-week stretch. After routing Northwestern State last week, they continued that offensive prowess in knocking off the league’s top club in App State on the road 48-14. That’s enough to move them all the way up to the number three spot and would have been higher – if not for James Madison hanging 70 on a Power Four opponent in North Carolina on the road. That type of performance earned them the number-one spot this week.

Outside of that, the rest of the power rankings hold steady as several clubs took expected losses, including Marshall, Arkansas State and Southern Miss. There was some thought of dropping Louisiana after a defeat to another G5 foe in Tulane, but they’ll remain in place. Troy gets the nod over ULM, not that the Warhawks were expected to compete with the No. 1 team in the nation – but we’ll give the Trojans a boost following their win over FCS Florida A&M.