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College football rankings 2022: Projected Week 8 AP Top 25 after Tennessee downs Alabama, USC falls, Michigan rolls

By Cody Williams

Oct 15, 2022; Knoxville, Tennessee, USA; Tennessee Volunteers quarterback Hendon Hooker (5) is forced out of bounds after a run by Alabama Crimson Tide defensive back Terrion Arnold (3) during the first half at Neyland Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Randy Sartin-USA TODAY Sports
Oct 15, 2022; Knoxville, Tennessee, USA; Tennessee Volunteers quarterback Hendon Hooker (5) is forced out of bounds after a run by Alabama Crimson Tide defensive back Terrion Arnold (3) during the first half at Neyland Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Randy Sartin-USA TODAY Sports /
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AP Top 25 college football rankings Week 8
North Carolina Tar Heels. Mandatory Credit: Jaylynn Nash-USA TODAY Sports /

Tennessee upset Alabama, USC fell to Utah, Michigan steamrolled Penn State and much more on Saturday so we now project the AP Top 25 college football rankings. 

Chaos reigns supreme in college football. And we saw every bit of that on Saturday, particularly at the top of the AP Top 25 college football rankings.

At the end of the day, three teams ranked inside the Top 10 of last week’s poll fell to lower-ranked teams — though it should be noted that none of the losers were knocked off by unranked opponents — as Alabama, Penn State and USC all suffered their first losses of the season on Saturday.

With that and much more, we have to take stock of how things stand now with our projections for the Week 8 AP Top 25 college football rankings.

Projected AP Top 25 college football rankings after Week 7: No. 25-21

25. Mississippi State Bulldogs

What happened to the Mississippi State team we saw at every turn prior to Saturday night in Lexington? Will Rogers and the offense could find nothing against Kentucky and the defense let up one too many plays and the Bulldogs took the loss. This team is a bit of a rollercoaster under Mike Leach right now but their highs keep me thinking that they get an SEC boost to stay at the back of the Top 25.

24. North Carolina Tar Heels

It wasn’t pretty as North Carolina needed a missed field goal from Duke and then a late-game drive to earn the Victory Bell and stay with just one loss on the season, but the Tar Heels keep winning behind Drake Maye and an electric offense. With the ACC up in the air beyond Clemson, UNC has as good of a case as any as the team that could potentially meet the Tigers in the conference championship matchup.

23. NC State Wolfpack

Should NC State still be ranked based on what they showed without Devin Leary on Saturday against Syracuse? Possibly not. At the same time, though, the Wolfpack still only have two losses on the season, both against teams that have yet to lose a game. They will likely have more defeats coming their way without Leary based on what they showed in Week 7 but they have earned the right to not drop out of the Top 25 just yet.

22. Tulane Green Wave

Don’t look now, but Willie Fritz has something cooking with the Green Wave cooking right now. Outside of a now-inexplicable loss to Southern Miss at the end of September, Tulane has been putting forth some impressive efforts in the AAC, most recently taking down South Florida handily on Saturday while on the road.

21. Cincinnati Bearcats

It would feel a little bit dirty to move Cincinnati up in the rankings after an off week considering that you could’ve made the case that they should’ve dropped out of the rankings after their awful performance against South Florida that saw the Bearcats eke out a win last week. But they didn’t take a loss or even have another narrow victory this week, so that ends up working in their favor.

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