Projected college football rankings after Texas stomps Michigan, Georgia Tech upset
College football Saturday in Week 2 got underway with the biggest game of the young season to date, the Texas Longhorns, No. 3 in the latest AP Top 25 rankings, visiting the Big House to take on No. 10 Michigan. A tough environment was the setting for what was billed as a titanic clash between a pair of College Football Playoff teams from a year ago.
It was anything but that, however.
Texas made it clear quickly that they were prepared with Quinn Ewers to attack the vaunted Michigan defense but also that new Wolverines quarterback Davis Warren was not going to be able to move the ball against them in this game. This allowed the Longhorns to push out to a 24-3 lead at halftime and there were no answers to be found for Sherrone Moore's team in the locker room. The final result was a 31-12 beatdown with Texas just rolling to a big victory.
That wasn't all of the chaos within the AP Top 25 rankings in the early window, though! Kansas State and Oklahoma State found themselves in surprising dogfights on Saturday, as did No. 23 Georgia Tech. The Yellow Jackets weren't so lucky to survive, though, getting upset on the road at Syracuse.
So where does that leave the college football rankings? There's still plenty of action forthcoming on Saturday that could shake things up more, but here's what our projections say after this game.
Projected AP Top 25 rankings for college football after Texas beats down Michigan
- Georgia Bulldogs
- Texas Longhorns
- Ohio State Buckeyes
- Alabama Crimson Tide
- Notre Dame Fighting Irish
- Ole Miss Rebels
- Oregon Ducks
- Penn State Nittany Lions
- Missouri Tigers
- Utah Utes
- Miami Hurricanes
- USC Trojans
- Tennessee Volunteers
- Oklahoma Sooners
- Oklahoma State Cowboys
- LSU Tigers
- Kansas Jayhawks
- Kansas State Wildcats
- Arizona Wildcats
- Michigan Wolverines
- Iowa Hawkeyes
- Louisville Cardinals
- NC State Wolfpack
- Clemson Tigers
- Texas A&M Aggies
Based on Clemson getting blown out, even against the No. 1 team in the country in Georgia, last week and nearly falling out of the polls, you have to believe that Michigan is going to plummet in the rankings after losing as handily as they did at home on Saturday. So we have them clinging to a Top 20 spot but even that might be a bit generous.
As for Texas, with Ohio State being slow-going early against Akron in Week 1, this is a huge road win for the Longhorns that I think should be enough to push them up to No. 2. Winning that big against a Top 10-ranked team is impressive -- doing it in that fashion in the Big House is even more so, which is going to be rewarded by AP Top 25 voters.
We aren't going to penalize Penn State too much for struggling with Bowling Green in the early window, nor are we going to drop Kansas State too harshly after struggling with Tulane, but we have an eye on them. And lastly, Texas A&M should sneak back into the Top 25 with Georgia Tech going on the road and falling to Syracuse.
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