Week 1 of college football is complete and our writers again voted on the top 25 teams in the country. The first thing you’ll notice about our poll is that our writers are much more fluid than most pollsters. Though we have varying opinions as to the degree, many of our voters do not feel locked in to last week’s rankings, especially early in the season. As some teams impressed more than others, voters moved them accordingly. Baylor slipped three spots for their lackluster first half against SMU while Oregon fell two spots for allowing Eastern Washington to put up over 40 points. Meanwhile, Alabama moved up into the #2 spot for their beatdown of Wisconsin, though the Tide still did not receive any #1 votes. Notre Dame and Texas A&M were the big movers, though, after winning in very impressive fashion over teams that are expected to be decent (Texas) or pretty good (Arizona State). No team who lost this week made it into our rankings, but some are lurking right near the edge.
LWOS College Football Week 1 Top 25
Dropped from rankings: Arizona State (10), Wisconsin (17), Stanford (20), Mississippi State (24)
Just missed the Top 25: BYU, Wisconsin, Arizona State
The SEC once again leads the way with a whopping nine teams this week, as Missouri and Tennessee slipped into the rankings while Mississippi State fell out. As we explained last week, though, don’t expect this trend to continue. As SEC teams play each other those who end up behind in the standings will fall out. Also, as other teams around the country start to pick up victories and get attention, those teams will begin to make an impression in the 20-25 slots. We saw several teams who played good Week 1 games receive votes and attention, including West Virginia, Cincinnati, and Temple, among others.
The Pac 12 put five times into our poll, with each of the other power conferences earning just three. Boise State from the Mountain West and Notre Dame are the only teams not from Power 5 conferences in the poll.
Last week, our top eight teams were made up of two teams each from the Big Ten, SEC, Pac 12, and Big XII. This week, though, those same eight teams stay in the top nine, but Notre Dame jumped Oregon and broke up our nice symmetry in the top eight. The Irish play ten Power 5 teams this season and will be a real threat for the playoff if they win out.
Previous Rankings
Preseason
