After five rollicking days of college football action, the dust has finally settled from a wild Week 1. This looked like one of the most loaded opening slates in the sport's history, and it didn't disappoint, from Arch Manning's flop at Ohio State to LSU's road upset of Clemson, Miami's rainy win over Notre Dame and even (or perhaps especially, depending on your persuasion) Bill Belichick getting smoked in prime time in his debut at UNC.
A whole lot went down over the holiday weekend, and that means a whole lot of information for AP voters to take in ahead of the Top 25 for Week 2. Here's how this week's poll has shaken out, with the Buckeyes your new top-ranked team after defeating the preseason No. 1 Longhorns on Saturday afternoon.
- Ohio State (1-0) (1,636 points, 55 first-place votes)
- Penn State (2-0) (1,558 points, 7 first-place votes)
- LSU (1-0) (1,514 points, 3 first-place votes)
- Georgia (1-0) (1,410 points)
- Miami (FL) (1-0) (1,360 points)
- Oregon (1-0) (1,302 points, 1 first-place vote)
- Texas (0-1) (1,293 points)
- Clemson (0-1) (1,135 points)
- Notre Dame (0-1) (1,068 points)
- South Carolina (1-0) (882 points)
- Illinois (1-0) (855 points)
- Arizona State (1-0) (850 points)
- Florida (1-0) (737 points)
- Florida State (1-0) (705 points)
- Michigan (1-0) (686 points)
- Iowa State (1-0) (566 points)
- SMU (1-0) (561 points)
- Oklahoma (1-0) (519 points)
- Texas A&M (1-0) (424 points)
- Ole Miss (1-0) (393 points)
- Alabama (1-0) (360 points)
- Tennessee (1-0) (339 points)
- Indiana (1-0) (257 points)
- Texas Tech (1-0) (247 points)
- Utah (1-0) (227 points)
Others receiving votes: BYU 102, Auburn 94, Georgia Tech 67, Southern Cal 64, Louisville 59, TCU 49, Missouri 42, South Florida 25, Tulane 18, Nebraska 13, Kansas St. 7, James Madison 4, Liberty 4, UNLV 4, Duke 4, Navy 2, Pittsburgh 2, Baylor 2, Virginia 2, Memphis 2.
While it's hard to argue with Ohio State's placement, nor with LSU leaping up into the top three, not all of the choices are so airtight. Here are three teams who are being overrated in the AP poll as well as two that need some more love after Week 1.
No. 14 feels a bit too steep a climb for Florida State
Yes, I get it. The Noles didn't just beat Alabama on Saturday; they manhandled them physically for darn near 60 minutes. Gus Malzahn was deep in his bag, Tommy Castellanos was spearheading a diverse and dangerous running game and a defensive front that was all too soft last season found its teeth again. It was an impressive win, and Florida State fans should be over the moon right now.
And yet ... can we at least wait another week before we leap them all the way into the top 15? I understand that this is a very, very different team than the one that went 2-10 last year, and I'm certainly not trying to argue that they don't deserve to be ranked right now. But still: We'd always do well not to overreact to Week 1, and both Castellanos and Malzahn have something of a track record of fading as the season goes on and opponents get tape on what they're trying to do. (Alabama's strategy in regards to Castellanos, especially, was maddening: He was benched at Boston College because teams figured out that you just need to pen him in and force him to make plays with his arm, and yet Tide defenders time and again over-pursued and allowed him to break contain.)
Let's all just take a breath on this one. Florida State is clearly loads better in the trenches than they were in 2024, but I need to see more from their skill guys, and I need to see them do it on a weekly basis before I'm buying them as ACC title contenders alongside Clemson and Miami.
Utah deserves better than just eking into the top 25
I do not need to see anything else, on the other hand, from Kyle Whittingham and the Utes, not after they pasted UCLA in the Rose Bowl on Saturday night. Granted, the Bruins are not the stiffest competition, but it's also worth pointing out that Utah was hardly able to win even the easiest battles in the trenches last season. The offensive line is finally healthy and ready to establish itself as among the best in the nation, and the Jason Beck/Devon Dampier go-go option attack looks awfully dangerous.
Utah was already a bounce-back candidate based on just how badly they got hit by the injury bug last season. If the new offense is clicking like this, and the Utes are healthy, they're as physically imposing as any team in the Big 12 and a legitimate College Football Playoff threat; beating the snot out of bad teams on the road is the stuff that great teams do, and was a more impressive statement than several of the teams ahead of them in this week's poll.
Indiana is lucky to even be ranked at No. 23
Speaking of one of those teams: I'm very much still on the Curt Cignetti bandwagon, but it's a bit puzzling to me that Indiana remains ranked after Week 1. To be clear, the box score of the Hoosiers' 27-13 win over Old Dominion on Saturday is one of the most misleading you'll ever see: Monarchs QB Colton Joseph ripped off TDs of 75 and 78 yards — the latter of which came in the fourth quarter with the game already out of reach — and outside of that, ODU averaged under four yards per play. The outcome here never felt remotely in doubt.
At the same time, it was hardly the most auspicious debut for QB Fernando Mendoza and a new-look Hoosiers offense. They kept things churning on the ground for the most part, but that has as much to do with the level of competition as anything else. Maybe they were just keeping it in second gear so as not to reveal anything when they didn't have to, but for a team we had some questions about entering the season, Week 1 didn't do a whole lot to answer them. Considering how well the two teams behind them, Utah and Texas Tech, played — plus still-unranked teams like TCU, Georgia Tech and Auburn which scored road wins over P4 teams — it's a bit of a head-scratcher.
Tennessee outplayed its No. 22 ranking on Saturday
Everyone was busy fretting over the offseason departure of Nico Iamaleava, but the dirty secret is that for all his physical gifts, the former five-star left a bunch of plays on the field for the Vols last season. Joey Aguilar doesn't have the big frame or the rocket arm, but he does bring more consistency to the table — and when you're built through the trenches like Tennessee is at this point in the Josh Heupel era, consistency at quarterback is really all you need.
That was on full display on Saturday, when Tennessee spent all 60 minutes against Syracuse being the emphatically bigger, stronger and faster team. The Orange are replacing quite a bit from last year's squad, but it was still an impressive showing from the Vols, who outgained 'Cuse by nearly three yards per play and ran for nearly 250 yards. The explosives in Heupel's veer-n-shoot get all the headlines, but this is a scheme and a team built around line play, and they figure to once again be able to push around most of the teams on their schedule (especially when five-star true freshman tackle David Sanders returns to the lineup). Tennessee looked the part of a top-20 team, and they're only behind some of the teams ahead of them because of preconceived notions about Iamaleava and Aguilar.
SMU doesn't look like a top-20 team right now
SMU turned the ball over three times, committed eight penalties and allowed Texas A&M-Commerce to hold the ball for nearly 40 minutes of game time in a 42-13 win on Saturday. A couple of pick-sixes played a part in that disparity, but then again, they also made the final score look a lot different than it otherwise might have — especially a 95-yarder in the third quarter that turned what could've been a 21-10 game into a 28-3 lead.
Kevin Jennings and Co. only scored two offensive touchdowns in the first three quarters against an FCS team that went 3-9 last season. That's ... not great, to say the least. Sure, the Mustangs also started slow last year too before going on a run to the CFP — remember when they almost lost to Nevada? — but this is a dangerous game to be playing, and one of the team's leading receivers, Jordan Hudson (no, not Jordon Hudson) went down with an elbow injury on SMU's first play from scrimmage. It's hard to buy this team as a legitimate ACC contender based on how they looked Saturday.