College football rankings 2023: Projected Week 8 AP Top 25 after Notre Dame blasts USC, Washington prevails

Projected AP Top 25 college football rankings after Week 7: No. 8-7

8. Texas Longhorns

After the Longhorns got their hearts broken in Dallas with a Red River loss to Oklahoma last week, Texas had the week off. They dropped to No. 9 in the AP Top 25 after that loss, but move up a spot thanks to the Oregon loss docking the Ducks a bit in the projected rankings. 

The belief should still be that Texas is one of the best teams in college football this season. They were toe-to-toe with the rival Sooners in a wild game in spite of trying to shoot themselves in the foot on a number of different occasions. 

Steve Sarkisian’s team will still have a chance to make the College Football Playoff. There isn’t a ranked team left on the Longhorns’ schedule, which should set up a rematch with OU in the Big 12 Championship Game. Win that and get some help, Texas can still be in the Top 4 when it’s all said and done.

7. Penn State Nittany Lions

Whenever a Top 10 team schedules a tune-up game the week before a massively important matchup, one of two things is going to happen. The first is never fun, when the ranked team is clearly just walking through the motions and makes things a bit more hairy than they have any business being. The other, however, is that they absolutely dismantle the inferior competition placed before them. Penn State did the latter on Saturday in Happy Valley against UMass. 

Drew Allar threw for three touchdowns and rushed for one more in the contest while Daequan Hardy scored on a pair of punt returns. With the defense holding the Minutemen to an appalling 109 yards of total offense on the day, it was a complete rout with the Nittany Lions moving to 6-0 with the 63-0 victory. 

They get leapfrogged in the rankings, but will have the chance to return the favor next week as they go on the road for a titanic showdown with Ohio State.