College football rankings 2023: Winners and losers from preseason AP Top 25

College football rankings 2023: Winners and losers from first AP Top 25 Poll

Winner: Winner from No. 8 Florida State vs. No. 5 LSU’s neutral-site game in Orlando

Without question, the best game during Labor Day Weekend will be the one in Orlando between two top-10 contenders from the Power Five in No. 8 Florida State taking on No. 5 LSU at Camping World. Oh, it will be a hoot and a half, alright. No doubt about it, these teams deserve to be ranked inside the top 10. The rematch of last year’s amazing game in New Orleans could be even sweeter.

See, whoever wins this game immediately becomes a serious College Football Playoff contender overnight. The loser will drop down in the rankings, but as long as the victor keeps on winning, they are still alive to make the four-team field. It is a shame that college athletic directors do not have the stones to put someone of note onto the schedule in the non-conference often enough.

Let’s just say the winner of this game could find itself ranked as high as No. 3 in the country.

Loser: No. 14 Utah Utes

In a similar boat as defending Big 12 champion Kansas State, two-time defending Pac-12 champion Utah finds itself between a rock and a hard place in the initial AP Poll. Not only are the Utes ranked eight spots back of a team they beat twice last year in USC, but they are four spots back of Washington. They are just one spot ahead of Oregon and four ahead of … Oregon State.

While I expect the Pac-12 to go out with a bang this season, it is abundantly clear that the AP voters are not all that high on Kyle Whittingham’s team this year. It may have more to do with quarterback Cam Rising working his way back from a torn ACL suffered in another Rose Bowl loss to a Big Ten East team, but maybe they don’t have the upward trajectory of other conference foes?

Fortunately, the Utes might have the runway to potentially make the playoff for the first time ever.