2025 marked the first time Texas had ever opened the season at No. 1 in the AP Top 25. But that honor turned out to be exceptionally short-lived: Arch Manning's first start as QB1 for the Longhorns didn't go the way anyone expected, as Ohio State's defense stole the show in a 14-7 win at the Horseshoe on Saturday afternoon.
Heading into this marquee matchup, it was Manning and Texas who were getting most of the hype. Afterward, though, the biggest question is whether Steve Sarkisian can fix what's wrong with this offense — and who the new No. 1 team in the country will be when the next edition of the AP poll comes out on Monday afternoon.
We won't be able to answer the former for a little while, but we can at least take a crack at the latter. There's plenty of football left to be played in Week 1, of course; we have Clemson-LSU on Saturday night, plus Notre Dame-Miami later this weekend. Right now, though, here's how things look.
Projected Top 25 after Ohio State topples top-ranked Texas
- Ohio State
- Penn State — Projected win over Nevada
- Clemson — Projected win over (9) LSU
- Georgia — Projected win over Marshall
- Notre Dame — Projected win over (10) Miami
- Oregon — Projected win over Montana State
- Alabama — Projected win over Florida State
- Texas
- LSU
- Arizona State — Projected win over Northern Arizona
- South Carolina — Projected win over Virginia Tech
- Miami — Projected loss to (6) Notre Dame
- Illinois — Projected win over Western Illinois
- Michigan — Projected win over New Mexico
- Florida — Projected win over Long Island University
- SMU — Projected win over East Texas A&M
- Oklahoma — Projected win over Montana State
- Tennessee
- Iowa State — Projected win over South Dakota
- Texas A&M — Projected win over UTSA
- Auburn
- Indiana — Projected win over Old Dominion
- Ole Miss — Projected win over Georgia State
- Kansas State — Projected win over North Dakota
- Texas Tech — Projected win over Arkansas-Pine Bluff
Dropped out: (25) Boise State
It's hard to imagine a team having a more convincing claim to the top spot right now than the Buckeyes. It wasn't the flashiest of performances, but Matt Patricia's defense was more than up to the challenge, and while Julian Sayin wasn't asked to do a ton, he was a steady hand at the wheel when needed. There's still a lot we don't know about Ohio State, which feels weird to say after a win over No. 1. This is still a statement win, though, and you'd have to think that Jeremiah Smith and this offense will see more explosive days in the near future.
From there, it depends on how the rest of the weekend's games play out — right now, I've got Clemson and Notre Dame winning their respective ranked showdowns. While Penn State is enough of a known quantity to sit at No. 2 with a bullet, a win over top-10 LSU would likely vault Clemson up to No. 3. You could put Notre Dame over Georgia too, if you wanted, based on the strength of a big road win, but I think Georgia holds enough equity with the voters not to lose ground. (I have Texas and LSU falling to No. 8 and No. 9, but with apologies to South Carolina, I don't think there's another top team with a marquee win to put ahead of them right now.)
From there, the two big risers are Tennessee (which rolled over Syracuse in Atlanta in Joey Aguilar's first start) and Auburn, which rode Jackson Arnold's legs to a road win over Baylor. The Vols immediately leap toward the front of the big cluster of teams in that 16-30 range, while I think the voters will be all too eager to believe in the Tigers this season. After all, Kansas State lost their first real game of the season, while we still don't know a ton about teams like Indiana and Ole Miss.