College football rankings 2022: Projected Week 9 AP Top 25 after Alabama rebounds, Clemson survives, UCLA & Ole Miss stumble

Projected AP Top 25 college football rankings after Week 8: No. 4-3

4. Michigan Wolverines

After beating the brakes off of Penn State a week ago, Michigan got Week 8 off and really got helped behind them. The Wolverines have been flip-flopping with Clemson in recent iterations of the AP Top 25 but the Tigers had their battle with Syracuse, perhaps their most formidable foe to date, and Michigan is on the heels of their dominant win over a ranked Nittany Lions squad. That’s in the favor of Jim Harbaugh’s team to hold firm at No. 4.

Next week, the Wolverines will be back in action as they welcome their bitter rivals from East Lansing in Michigan State to the Big House. Sparty has been struggling but this game is almost always extremely tight, no matter what the records say. Michigan should indeed be locked in but the rivalry matchups can always get a bit tricky.

3. Tennessee Volunteers

One week after knocking off Alabama and getting that elephant-sized monkey off of their backs, Tennessee was in action once again but in name only as they went up against UT Martin in a matchup that was always going to be one-sided. There was never a doubt that the Vols were going to win, but the only question was how badly they would beat the Skyhawks on Saturday afternoon in Knoxville.

With the goalposts back in Neyland, though, Tennessee made quick work of their opponent as they put up a 50-burger in the first half and then cruised to a 65-24 victory at the end of the day. The Vols better have enjoyed that rest as they hope to get Cedric Tillman and a laundry list of key players back soon as a trying two-game stretch against Kentucky and then at Georgia is on deck.