Rankings a combination of how good I believe teams are right now and resume so far. Teams that have no wins are ineligible until they win a game. Next week will require a win over an FBS opponent (which everyone under any consideration will have).
1 LSU (1-0) – The best win of week one belongs to LSU, but the offense was atrocious, even with 40 points on the board. With Jarrett Lee in at quarterback instead of Jordan Jefferson, there is less ability for gamebreaking plays (and there wasn't much in the first place).
2 Boise St. (1-0) – Easily the second best win, if you want to put Boise St. number one because of style points, I wouldn't argue. They dominated. If you want to have them lower because you believe there is no chance they would beat Alabama or Oklahoma, I might argue before giving you the point. Either way, this is a top 5 team again.
3 Alabama (1-0) – Beating Kent St. proved exactly nothing we didn't already know. One possible snag: no deep threat at all offensively. If that gets figured out in practice this week, I expect a Penn st. skid mark on Saturday. There may be one anyway.
4 Oklahoma (1-0) – Week 2 and the Sooners already have a bye week. The lack of a conference title game and games in December means the Big 12 gets two of them. In this case, Oklahoma gets its practice week for the big showdown against Florida St.
5 Wisconsin (1-0) – If Russell Wilson is as good against Big Ten defenses as he looked against UNLV, this team is playing for the National Title unless Oklahoma and the SEC Champ go undefeated.
6 Florida St. (1-0) – The defense did its job shutting out Louisiana-Monroe (this is like a badge of honor for presumed national contenders who play them including 2010 LSU, 2008 Auburn and Ole Miss). The offense has a week to get everything working before Oklahoma.
7 Texas A&M (1-0) – Easy win over SMU. Now its on to the bye week and the official defection to the SEC, followed by Armageddon.
8 Nebraska (1-0) – Looked good against FCS Chattanooga, even throwing some Tom Osbourne triple option into the system. Who knows how that will work against more competent defenses with more athletes. I wold say we will see soon, but upcoming opponents Fresno St. and Washington look awful on that side of the ball.
9 Stanford (1-0) – Andrew Luck looked really good and so did Stanford. I'm still not sold on them and San Jose St. is in the running for worst FBS team, but that was as impressive a first week beatdown as anyone had.
10 Mississippi St. (1-0) – The impressive beatdown against a team among the worst in FBS also applies here. The victim was Memphis though. Things get tougher, at least in theory, this week against Auburn in what could be a track meet.
11 South Carolina (1-0) – Sometimes, somebody needs to save Steve Spurrier from himself when he is making quarterback decisions. This is one of those times. If Connor Shaw sees the field outside of garbage time this season, it should only be because Stephen Garcia was hurt. While Shaw was in the game: East Carolina 17-0. While Garcia was in the game: South Carolina 56-17. Shouldn't be tto hard to figure out.
12 Missouri (1-0) – Well that was an ugly start for James Franklin at quarterback. This reminds me of Auburn with Cam Newton early last season. The offensive staff doesn't quite know how to use him yet and is playing him as though he is the previous quarterback while they figure it out (note, this does not mean I think Franklin will be the next Newton. Only the coaching analogy applies).
13 Virginia Tech (1-0) – Sick of starting 0-1 (four of the last five years and the last three), Virginia Tech finally bought a cupcake for game one. Poor Appalachian St. was the snack of the day. There will be more with no difficult tests until conference play and maybe not even then.
14 West Virginia (1-0) – Not explosive as expected, but still effective. 34 points and counting when the game was called early in the 4th because of lightning. Remember that last year against Marshall was 27 points in overtime.
15 Ohio St. (1-0) – Played Akron (usual sacrifice from MAC). Shut Akron out 42-0 (usual result against MAC sacrifice). Some things don't change with the coach.
16 Arkansas (1-0) – We learned nothing about this team in week one. Everything went as expected against the FCS cupcake they bought.
17 Michigan St. (1-0) – This team struggled to digest their cupcake, not scoring in the first quarter and still having the game in doubt after halftime. That is never a good sign.
18 South Florida (1-0) – One of the better wins of the weekend, but this team won't hold up with that kind of offense, even in the Big East. 250 yards and scoring off turnovers won't cut it against most top 25 teams, especially if your name is not LSU.
19 Oklahoma St. (1-0) – Blew out UL-Lafayette, but trouble signs emerged. Trailed at halftime because of two interceptions returned for touchdowns. Other than that, the offensive experiment went really well with 61 points.
20 Florida (1-0) – I think the Gators spread running backs like the pro style system. They ran all over the place against FAU. This game was everything Gator fans could have wanted and everything they wanted to see last season, but didn't. Also, John Brantley wasn't awful.
21 Houston (1-0) – The defense is still bad. The offense is still good enough to win most shootouts. Have fun on the way to 10-2.
22 Baylor (1-0) – The defense is still awful. Robert Griffin III can win shootouts on his own. Considering the coach at Baylor is the one who established what Houston is now, this shouldn't be all that surprising.
23 Maryland (1-0) – Struggled with Miami, but still a good win, as long as the NCAA doesn't make a smoking crater of the Miami depth chart midseason. All indications are that won't be the case.
24 Northwestern (1-0) – Dan Persa didn't play and Northwestern won a road game against a BCS conference opponent anyway. Either Northwestern is really good (hence the ranking), or Boston College is headed to the toilet (likely).
25 BYU (1-0) – Ugly win over Ole Miss to start the season. I suspect the Cougars will be better on offense this week. They had better be. Texas awaits. Texas is still bad, but they are better than Ole Miss.
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