College Football Rankings: Predicting AP Top 25 Poll After Week 1
By Dan Lyons,
2024-09-03
Week 1 of the college football season is in the books. In the two weekends since the Associated Press dropped its preseason Top 25, ranked teams went 21-5.
Three of those losses were suffered against other ranked teams. No. 10 Florida State’s back-to-back losses Georgia Tech in Ireland and Boston College on Monday night were the only losses for any ranked program to unranked opponents. The ugly performances will almost certainly cost Florida State a spot in the Top 25, after they started the year at No. 10 and as the favorite in the ACC.
No. 23 USC’s win over No. 13 LSU in Las Vegas was the only win for a lower-ranked team in a game between top-25 programs. Those matchups were few and far between. No. 7 Notre Dame picked up a big win in an slugfest at Kyle Field, beating No. 20 Texas A&M, 23-13. No. 1 Georgia made perhaps the weekend’s biggest statement, rendering No. 14 Clemson’s offense inert in a 34-3 beatdown in Atlanta.
Nate Frazier (3) served as Georgia’s top running back in its win over Clemson, picking up 83 yards and a touchdown on 11 carries.
Kalen DeBoer’s No. 5 Alabama made easy work of Western Kentucky, picking up an impressive 63-0 win . No. 8 Penn State handled West Virginia on the road, 34-12. No. 19 Miami won a big intrastate rivalry game at Florida, 41-17.
Not every power program had such an easy time of it, however. No. 3 Oregon struggled to find the end zone in a 24-14 win over FCS program Idaho. No. 9 Michigan took care of Fresno State, 30-10, but was in a tight game until scoring 17 fourth-quarter points to pull away. The Wolverines managed just 121 passing yards, with former walk-on Davis Warren serving as the primary quarterback over Alex Orji.
The AP Top 25 will be updated on Tuesday, with a full week of results in hand. Here is how we see the poll shaking out this week.
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