Two weeks of the college football season have come and gone, and we've already gotten plenty of shakeups in the rankings so far. Saturday seemed like a bit of a cool-down after a blockbuster opening weekend ... until South Florida came into the Swamp and stunned Florida, Mississippi State took down Arizona State and Oklahoma snuffed out Bryce Underwood and Michigan in Norman.
As a result, the AP Top 25 looks a lot different this week than it did last week, not to mention teams like Clemson and Georgia who managed to win on Saturday but hardly did so in a way that inspired confidence. While it seems like the 2025 season has just begun, the reality is that the College Football Playoff politicking never takes a week off. Each game is a line on your resume, and some teams did more with that opportunity than others in Week 2. How would the field shake out if the season ended today? Let's dive in.
AP Top 25 poll ahead of Week 3: Florida State cracks the top 10, Michigan plummets
Here's how the latest AP poll shakes out, with Ohio State, Penn State and LSU remaining in the top three after relatively comfortable wins on Saturday. Georgia slid a couple of spots after sleepwalking past Austin Peay, while Illinois and Florida State jump into the top 10 on the backs of commanding victories. Oklahoma is up to 13 after beating Michigan, while the Wolverines fall all the way to No. 23. The big newcomer is South Florida, which leaps all the way inside the top 20 after a road win at Florida.
- Ohio State Buckeyes
- Penn State Nittany Lions
- LSU Tigers
- Oregon Ducks
- Miami Hurricanes
- Georgia Bulldogs
- Texas Longhorn
- Notre Dame Fighting Irish
- Illinois Fighting Illini
- Florida State Seminoles
- South Carolina Gamecocks
- Clemson Tigers
- Oklahoma Sooners
- Iowa State Cyclones
- Tennessee Volunteers
- Texas A&M Aggies
- Ole Miss Rebels
- South Florida Bulls
- Alabama Crimson Tide
- Utah Utes
- Texas Tech Red Raiders
- Indiana Hoosiers
- Michigan Wolverines
- Auburn Tigers
- Missouri Tigers
Tennessee and Utah are two more big risers, while Clemson is now all the way down to No. 12 after having to dig out of a 16-0 hole against Troy in an ugly Week 2 win. There's plenty more change to come in the weeks ahead, starting with several marquee matchups next weekend including Georgia at Tennessee, USF at Miami, Texas A&M at Notre Dame and Florida at LSU. But as things stand right now, how would the College Football Playoff picture shake out?
CFP projections: Here’s who’s in based on the Week 3 of the AP poll
In our current day and age, it's never too early to start looking ahead to playoff implications to see who's sitting pretty and who has more work to do. As a reminder: This year's format guarantees five automatic bids to the five highest-ranked conference champions (almost assuredly each Power 4 champion plus the highest-ranked Group of 6 team). But those autobids do not come with any guaranteed seeding; instead, seeding will be determined by the committee's overall ranking.
So, using that rubric, where do we stand? Here's how the bracket would look if the season ended today.
- Ohio State Buckeyes (Big Ten champ)
- Penn State Nittany Lions (At-large)
- LSU Tigers (SEC champ)
- Oregon Ducks (At-large)
- Miami Hurricanes (ACC champ)
- Georgia Bulldogs (At-large)
- Texas Longhorn (At-large)
- Notre Dame Fighting Irish (At-large)
- Illinois Fighting Illini (At-large)
- Florida State Seminoles (At-large)
- Iowa State Cyclones (Big 12 champ)
- South Florida Bulls (AAC champ)
Ohio State, LSU and Miami are all top five teams and the most highly ranked in their respective power conferences. Iowa State leads the Big 12 pack right now thanks to a thrilling win over Iowa and Arizona State's upset loss at Mississippi State. That just leaves the final conference champion slot, which USF grabbed by the horns (sorry) with a second straight win over a ranked opponent at the time.
Iowa State and USF snatching two bids leaves a couple of at-large contenders on the outside looking in: South Carolina and Clemson, who are ranked Nos. 11 and 12 in this week's AP poll but are just on the wrong side of the bubble for Playoff purposes. Again, there's a lot that can change over nearly three full months of football, and both teams have yet to even begin conference play, but they have work to do to make the postseason.
What first-round matchups would that give us? As a reminder, the top four seeds automatically advance to the second round, but we'd have some blockbuster opening games nonetheless:
No. 12 South Florida at No. 5 Miami
No. 9 Illinois at No. 8 Notre Dame
No. 11 Iowa State at No. 6 Georgia
No. 10 Florida State at No. 7 Texas
One of these games we're about to see play out this weekend, when USF travels to face off against Miami. Florida State at Texas would be particularly juicy, and we wouldn't count up Illinois or Iowa State from scoring upsets based on how tepid Notre Dame and Georgia have looked so far.