SALT LAKE CITY — The first official week of the college football season delivered in a large way.
Many of the preseason thoughts that were formed about teams went out the window, while others were only enhanced as we got to see actual football on the field. It all made for a little chaos, though, and a big change in my Associated Press Top 25 ballot.
My preseason ballot was mostly based on expectations (and other factors), but some of that didn’t live up to what I was expecting. As such, I’ve made some significant changes in my ballot for this week now that we’ve seen games played.
We still don’t know a ton about these teams, but there’s enough to make a little more of an educated guess. I’d be kidding myself, though, if I didn’t believe that this is still largely based on expectations, but with a little more value.
What I’m saying is: Your complaints about my ballot are probably both wrong and right.
The following is the ballot I submitted to the Associated Press that will be counted in the consensus rankings that will be released Tuesday morning.
1. Ohio State
I said I wanted to see what Ohio State could do with so much turnover after winning it all last season, and the new-look Buckeyes delivered against Texas. Though Ohio State is not a finished product, the reigning champs still look like the team to beat — until someone shows us otherwise.
At this point, it’s Ohio State’s crown to lose.
2. Penn State
My preseason Week 1 top team didn’t do anything wrong to lose the top spot, but I’m giving the nod to the Buckeyes for the above mentioned reason. Penn State looks like a team to beat, but we didn’t really learn a ton from a blowout win over Nevada.
3. Georgia
A 38-point win over Marshall didn’t teach us much, but the Bulldogs look ready to compete this season.
4. LSU
LSU finally won a Week 1 game; that should be celebrated on its merits alone. Quarterback Garrett Nussmeier lived up to the preseason hype, and outplayed a favorite for the Heisman in Clemson quarterback Cade Klubnik. It took the purple Tigers a little bit to get going, but a second-half push got LSU an early top-25 win.
5. Miami
There were some clock management troubles late in the game — should we expect anything different with Mario Cristobal? — but Miami did just enough to stave off a late push by Notre Dame to get an early top-25 win. Carson Beck looked good in his new home, and the Hurricanes may even be better a year after losing the No. 1 pick in the NFL draft.
6. Oregon
Dante Moore showed out well in his debut with the Ducks against a perennially good FCS Montana State team, but there’s not much we can really know about Oregon yet. To their credit, they started out much better than they did last season.
7. Notre Dame
Notre Dame was close. A 17-point fourth quarter and a last-ditch effort to get the win wasn’t enough, but there’s promise with the Fighting Irish. With that said, there were certainly some mistakes made that need to get cleaned up. New QB CJ Carr, though, looked good enough to make Notre Dame a threat this season.
8. Clemson
After being considered a favorite for the Heisman before the season started, Cade Klubnik just didn’t quite have it in Week 1. One week doesn’t make a QB, but it wasn’t the start Clemson hoped it would be and Klubnik will need to be better. The bigger issue: The Tigers were shutout in the second half.
9. Texas
Speaking of a Heisman favorite, the hype of Arch Manning as the Texas starting QB has been years in the making, and it didn’t go well. Going against Ohio State in Week 1 is never an easy task, but Manning didn’t look anywhere near where he needs to be for Texas to have success this season. Everything else, though, indicates Texas should be fine.
10. South Carolina
The team nobody is seemingly talking about, and yet they’re just quietly building off a strong 2024 season. LaNorris Sellers didn’t have to do too much under center and the Gamecocks did what it needed to in a 24-11 win over Virginia Tech — oh, and a 14-point fourth quarter effort.
In consideration (alphabetical): Auburn, BYU, Georgia Tech, Indiana, Kansas, Louisville, Memphis, Missouri, Nebraska, South Florida
If you can’t see my full ballot below, click here.
The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.
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