College football rankings: 5 Top 25 teams that will lose first in 2022
By John Buhler
College football rankings will look different after these five top 25 teams lose for the first time.
With the preseason AP Top 25 Poll being released a few weeks ahead of the 2022 campaign, these college football rankings will serve as our guiding light until the College Football Playoff Selection Committee meets for the first time a few months from now.
Though upsets always happen, and we should absolutely expect to see them in the first weekends of September, pinpointing when a ranked team is going to lose for the first time is never an easy ask. Fortunately, we can forecast a few losses coming down the track. Expect for these five ranked teams to lose for the first time before the end of Week 2. So which teams are most likely to fall?
Here are five teams ranked inside of the AP Top 25 that are definitely losing games by Sept. 10.
5. No. 25 BYU Cougars vs. No. 10 Baylor Bears (Week 2, Sept. 10, 8:15 p.m. MT kickoff)
It is almost certain that BYU and Baylor will be ranked heading into their Week 2 meeting in Provo. The Cougars should be able to beat a bad South Florida team in Tampa in their season opener. If not, well, then we grossly miscalculated how good, or bad, the 2022 Cougars really are. As for Baylor, there is no way they lose their season opener at home to Albany under any circumstance.
Though Baylor could definitely lose on the road in Provo, the Bears won 12 games last year, won the Big 12 Championship game over a strong Oklahoma State team and bested Ole Miss in the Sugar Bowl. Baylor is a top 10 team in the country for a reason, as Dave Aranda is cooking with gas over in Waco. This is a brutal first home game of the season for Kalani Sitake to open up with.
No matter what happens over Labor Day Weekend, someone is leaving this game with a defeat.