AP Top 25 rankings: Biggest winners and losers from latest college football rankings

The Associated Press has spoken! Now that we have seen everybody play in Week 1, we now have to make some major wholesale changes to the Preseason AP Top 25 Poll.

Even though 60-something voters from all across the country try their best to get it right in the end, it is next to impossible to not let biases from years gone by impact the initial rankings. Surely, everyone's ballot has some changes.

It was a great weekend for the Big Ten and SEC for the most part. While the Big 12 certainly started off the year strong, it is safe to say that the ACC is only going to get one team into the expanded College Football Playoff. If only the Notre Dame Fighting Irish were full-fledged members of the league for gridiron football... We still have no idea who is any good, but we do have a new poll, folks!

AP Top 25 going into Week 2

Here is the AP Top 25 Poll heading into Week 2. Surely, there will be plenty to discuss from all this...

1. Georgia Bulldogs (1,545 points, 57 first-place votes)
2. Ohio State Buckeyes (1,478 points, 5 first-place votes)
3. Texas Longhorns (1,408 points)
4. Alabama Crimson Tide (1,309 points)
5. Notre Dame Fighting Irish (1,240 points)
6. Ole Miss Rebels (1,212 points)
7. Oregon Ducks (1,197 points)
8. Penn State Nittany Lions (1,146 points)
9. Missouri Tigers (968 points)
10. Michigan Wolverines (935 points)
11. Utah Utes (897 points)
12. Miami Hurricanes (893 points)
13. USC Trojans (811 points)
14. Tennessee Volunteers (784 points)
15. Oklahoma Sooners (703 points)
16. Oklahoma State Cowboys (610 points)
17. Kansas State Wildcats (607 points)
18. LSU Tigers (410 points)
19. Kansas Jayhawks (349 points)
20. Arizona Wildcats (339 points)
21. Iowa Hawkeyes (294 points)
22. Louisville Cardinals (188 points)
23. Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets (161 points)
24. North Carolina State Wolfpack (142 points)
25. Clemson Tigers (134 points)

And here is a list of every other team that received at least one vote from the Associated Press.

• Texas A&M Aggies (97 points)
• Boston College Eagles (49 points)
• Boise State Broncos (47 points)
• Iowa State Cyclones (32 points)
• Memphis Tigers (27 points)
• Nebraska Cornhuskers (27 points)
• SMU Mustangs (23 points)
• Washington Huskies (20 points)
• Liberty Flames (12 points)
• Vanderbilt Commodores (8 points)
• Wisconsin Badgers (8 points)
• Auburn Tigers (8 points)
• Tulane Green Wave (4 points)
• North Carolina Tar Heels (4 points)
• UTSA Roadrunners (3 points)
• Appalachian State Mountaineers (3 points)
• Kentucky Wildcats (2 points)
• West Virginia Mountaineers (2 points)
• Arkansas Razorbacks (2 points)
• UNLV Rebels (1 vote)
• Colorado Buffaloes (1 vote)

Let's unpack my five biggest winners and losers from the weekend that was in major college football.

Winner: No. 13 USC Trojans

No team saw its stock rise more after one game than the USC Trojans. They went from the No. 23 team in the land to within playoff positioning at No. 13. Their win over LSU in Las Vegas certainly caught our attention, possibly indicating that the Trojans might actually have a defense for once. Miller Moss can really spin it, and Kyron Hudson had the catch of the season in Week 1 vs. LSU.

I don't know if this type of defensive excellence is sustainable. LSU did have to break in a ton of new starters in essentially a home game for the Trojans. However, if D'Anton Lynn proves to be the secret sauce, he could be well on his way towards getting to lead his own team in a year or so. I still don't trust Riley in the end, but I think the Big Ten is setting itself up to get four of its teams into the playoff.

This was a win I did not think USC would get, so this takes them to being at worst a 9-3 team to me.

Loser: Florida State Seminoles

What a sad bag of crap that caught on fire in Tallahassee on Monday night! The Florida State Seminoles went from the No. 10 team in the country, to not even getting a single vote from the AP over the course of two weeks. Florida State is 0-2 on the season, and could be 0-3 if Mike Norvell does not have his boys ready to play vs his former employer in the AAC behemoth Memphis Tigers.

Not only can D.J. Uiagalelei not play quarterback, but I have not seen the Seminoles down this bad since they lost to Jacksonville State in 2021.

What this all boils down to is their administration and coaching staff let this fanbase down. Not having Alex Atkins available for the first three games has been a death sentence to their chances of making the playoff. They must win out now to have a shot.

To already be down 0-2 in ACC play with losses to Georgia Tech and Boston College is beyond brutal.

Winner: No. 12 Miami Hurricanes

If we had to hand out the Heisman Trophy after Week 1, it would go to Miami transfer quarterback Cam Ward. He did unspeakable things in the Hurricanes' rout of the Florida Gators down in The Swamp. I don't know if Mario Cristobal can coach his way out of a wet paper bag sometimes, but the man can recruit. He also seems to have an elite offensive coordinator in one Shannon Dawson, too.

With how down the ACC is for the most part, Miami has a chance to run away with the conference and make its first trip to the College Football Playoff this holiday season. It is still way too early to tell, as Florida might be the worst team in the SEC by a country mile, but this also might be the best Miami team we have seen since the early Larry Coker years. The 2024 season might be all about The U!

Miami may have a finite ceiling if it reaches the playoff, but the pathway there looks very realistic.

Loser: No. 25 Clemson Tigers

Not only did Clemson get its clock cleaned by regional rival Georgia in the Aflac Kickoff in Atlanta on Saturday afternoon, but all the world saw what Dabo Swinney refuses to see. His reluctance to use the transfer portal is going to force him into an early retirement long before he ever had to. Outside of the three service academies that have obvious challenges, only Clemson does not use the portal.

It was not that long ago that the roles were reversed between Clemson and Georgia. The Tigers were on top of the college football world, and nobody thought Kirby Smart could win the big game. Flash forward half a decade or so, and look at them now! Clemson lacks size in the trenches and speed out on the perimeter. More importantly, they have not had good quarterback play since Trevor Lawrence.

I still think Clemson can win the ACC, but the Tigers are never winning another national title under Swinney.

Winner: No. 1 Georgia Bulldogs

I might be shoe-horning my alma mater in here, but I really don't care. Georgia got 57 of 62 first-place votes from the Associated Press this week. What the Dawgs did to Clemson in Atlanta, especially in the second half, leads us to believe that right this instant, this is by far and away the best team in the country. Carson Beck still put up numbers in a game vs. one of the better defenses in the entire ACC.

What really stood out to me about Georgia was how strong the played as a defense, especially in the back-end. Once they figured out how to run the ball effectively vs. Clemson in the second half, the Tigers had no chance at keeping pace with this buzzsaw. Again, Clemson is a team that will probably remain ranked throughout the season, and the Dawgs made them look like they did not belong at all.

Georgia does have a tough schedule, but the Dawgs just passed their first real test with flying colors.

Loser: No. 7 Oregon Ducks

We may need to pump the brakes on the Oregon Ducks hype train just a bit. It was only the first game of the season, but they looked rather pedestrian at times vs. Idaho. Dillon Gabriel's numbers seemed to be of the empty-calorie nonsense variety. That had been his bread and butter throughout most of his college career up to this point. My problem is Oregon looked like Colorado vs. North Dakota State.

Oregon was my pick to play for the national championship. Again, the Ducks still could, but they did not play with the fast and physical aggression everyone associates with a Dan Lanning team. While there is a chance that Oregon overlooked the Vandals a bit, they need to be especially careful this week, as Ashton Jeanty and the Boise State Broncos come to town. He is a powerful running back.

Oregon still got the win, but the Ducks played like a Chip Kelly or a Mark Helfrich-coached team.

Winner: No. 4 Alabama Crimson Tide

I don't know what to make of the Alabama Crimson Tide just yet. They put up a ton of points on CUSA contender Western Kentucky at Bryant-Denny, but I still have my reservations about this being a top-four team in the country. Kalen DeBoer can coach and he really knows offense, just like Jalen Milroe is a tremendous leader and seems to get better with every snap he takes under center for this team.

While I need to give Kane Wommack and Maurice Linguist a ton of credit for having their defense ready to play, this was Western Kentucky, and not an SEC rival team. I feel strongly that Alabama will push for double-digit wins this season. However, I remain skeptical that with the amount of changes they underwent this past offseason that they will be able to sustain the same level of excellence.

For now, being ranked inside the top five with a new head coach at the helm has to feel fantastic.

Loser: No. 18 LSU Tigers

We have arrived at the Brian Kelly pop year, and the USC Trojans done popped his balloon. Kelly was furious after losing a heartbreaker to USC in Las Vegas on Sunday night, but these type of defeats are just par for the course of a Kelly-coached team. He may have had a new coordinator and had to break in a ton of new starters on both sides of the ball, but the self-inflicted errors never stopped.

Kelly left Notre Dame to go to a traditional power in the SEC to win a national championship. While I would be a fool to rule that out entirely, Kelly has quickly turned LSU in the SEC equivalent of Penn State. This team may only ever have a ceiling of being the third-best team in its own league. Admittedly, that does feel like a slight to Penn State, who looked dominant vs. rival West Virginia.

I fully expect for LSU to get better as the season progresses, but losing the tiebreaker to USC hurts.

Winner: No. 5 Notre Dame Fighting Irish

It wasn't easy, but it never is, no? Woo hoo! The Notre Dame Fighting Irish are feeling heavy metal. And Woo hoo! Amid all the pins and all the needles, they can lie easy, knowing they passed their first real test of the season with flying colors. Winning on the road against what should be a feisty Texas A&M team in the signature game of the primetime window on Saturday was huge for the Fighting Irish.

While Riley Leonard was consistently inconsistent in his Notre Dame debut, keep in mind he had to debut on the road vs. his former head coach in the defensive-minded Mike Elko. This was the type of road win I needed to see out of Marcus Freeman to lead me to believe that Notre Dame may have an outside chance of playing for a national title. I don't know if they will, but his team sure is a good one.

Notre Dame feels like the fifth-best team in the country, and I do expect for that to remain that way.

Loser: No. 10 Michigan Wolverines

They may have won the game, but I think we can safely cross Michigan off as a serious national title contender. Were you as shocked as I was that Davis Warren was the Wolverines' starting quarterback over Alex Orji? While Orji may be a dynamic runner, watching him throw the football is like watching D.J. Uiagalelei throw the football. I have no idea where it is going. This team has such a finite ceiling.

The shame in it all is they have stars galore across the gridiron. Whether it be Donovan Edwards, Mason Graham, Will Johnson or Colston Loveland, the Wolverines have the necessary blue-chippers to go far in the playoff ... under one condition. They should be kicking themselves that Cade McNamara plays for Iowa. If he was still around, I would give the Wolverines a real shot at repeating.

In the meantime, prepare for the Wolverines to potentially get dog walked by Texas on Saturday.