1 out of 4 Well, not quite. AP No. 14 USC put a 66-14 hurt on Rice with the help of not one, not two, but three pick sixes. But No. 11 Oregon was destroyed by No. 3 Georgia, and No. 7 Utah went into the Gainesville Swamp and walked away with an L against unranked Florida. Temporarily unranked, that is. After knocking off Utah in Billy Napier’s coaching debut, the Gators will soar in the AP poll, possibly as high as the Top 10. Anthony Richardson was as electric as we remembered when he was healthy early last season, and it’s at least one of the top 10 teams now as far as Bleacher Report college football experts—David Kenyon, Adam Kramer, Kerry Miller, Morgan Moriarty and Brad Shepard—are concerned. While that upset was going down on Saturday night, AP No. 2 Ohio State gradually asserted its will with a 21-10 victory over No. 5 Notre Dame in the opening weekend’s main event. It was touch and go for a while, with the Fighting Irish gaining 54 yards (69 if you count the 15-yarder with the passer penalty) on the first snap of the game, followed by the Buckeyes missing Jaxon Smith-Njigba on a fumble. injury (fingers crossed it’s nothing serious) midway through the first quarter. But Ohio State had too much talent, too much toughness and too much Miyan Williams and TreVeyon Henderson to deny them a win. We’ll update these rankings Monday night if Clemson struggles or even loses to Georgia Tech in the Chick-fil-A kickoff, but while we wait for the final game of Week 1, here’s how our consensus Top looks 25 for week 2:

  1. Alabama (Previous Ranking: 1)2. Agriculture (3)3. Ohio State (2)4. Clemson (4)5. Michigan (8)6. Texas A&M (7)7. Florida (NR) 8. Oklahoma (15)9. USC (11)10. Our Lady of Paris (5)11. Arkansas (16)12. Michigan State (12)13. Miami (17)14 (tie). Baylor (14)14 (tie). BYU (23)14 (tie). Wisconsin (18)17. Oklahoma State (9)18. Utah (6)19. Tennessee (NR) 20. Pittsburgh (25)21. Penn State (19t)22. Kentucky (24)23. Houston (19t)24. Texas (22)25. NC State (10) Also receiving votes: Ole Miss, Wake Forest, Mississippi State 2 out of 4 But if you were worried that reigning national champion Georgia might suffer a similar fate after taking 15 players (including five champions) in the 2022 NFL Draft, Saturday’s 49-3 annihilation of No. 11 Oregon should have quelled those worries. irrational fears. The passing attack was nearly flawless. Stetson Bennett did most of the work, but Carson Beck also contributed 439 yards and three touchdowns through the air. The Bulldogs averaged nearly 12 yards per pass attempt against what was supposed to be a very good Oregon defense under new coach (and former UGA DC) Dan Lanning. Meanwhile, Georgia’s defense ruled the day, picking off Bo Nix twice in the first 20 minutes of the game and limiting the Ducks to just one field goal. Before a meaningless long drive in the final 10 minutes, Oregon had 221 yards of total offense. The Dawgs didn’t get a sack in this one, so it wasn’t the same “Holy cow, how is anyone going to score against this defense?!” type of statement they made in last season’s opener against Clemson. Still, it was a dominant performance, at least on par with what Nix was used to when he was the quarterback at Auburn the past three years. If even Oregon couldn’t remotely challenge this Georgia team, it might legitimately not face a tough test until the projected SEC championship matchup with Alabama. The Bulldogs have just one other game on the schedule against a ranked opponent, and that game at AP No. 20 Kentucky is two and a half months away. Get used to seeing these guys at or near the top of the rankings. 3 out of 4 The bad news is that the No. 10 team in our preseason rankings couldn’t have inspired less confidence in their 21-20 win over the Pirates. Aided by a blocked punt recovered for a touchdown, the Wolfpack had a 21-7 halftime lead. But what we thought would be one of the strongest offensive attacks in the country this season was held scoreless from that point on. It wasn’t for lack of opportunity. On one drive, the Wolfpack marched 74 yards down the field before fumbling at the ECU 1. And on their next possession, they had 1st-and-goal at the ECU 1 before Demie Sumo-Karngbaye fumbled for the goal line on four straight carries. That was the start of a 12-plus minute drive in which the Wolfpack offense ran 10 plays for minus-4 yards with an interception and a fumble on downs. Meanwhile, ECU had what looked like the tying touchdown until Owen Daffer missed the extra point. He had a chance to redeem himself when an NC State three-and-out left the Pirates with plenty of time to get into the end zone. Unfortunately, Daffer pushed the would-be game-winning 42-yarder wide right, allowing the Wolfpack to escape by a hair on his chin. All due respect to ECU — which won seven games last season and has one of the most experienced quarterbacks in the country in Holten Ahlers — but this game shouldn’t have ended. Because he did, we are left to seriously question whether NC State is actually a top contender to dethrone Clemson in the ACC. The Wolfpack plummeted in our rankings from No. 10 to No. 25. 4 out of 4 If the Bearcats had won the season opener at No. 19 Arkansas, the “Undefeated Season Watch” would have officially begun. Road games against SMU and UCF in late October won’t be easy, but they’ll really need to win each of their remaining 11 games if they’re even 85 percent as good as they’ve been in recent years. Alas, Cincinnati got off to a painfully slow start in the first half in Fayetteville and couldn’t fully recover, falling to the Hogs by a final score of 31-24. On Cincinnati’s opening drive of the season, Ben Bryant led the Bearcats just outside the red zone before Arkansas DB Dwight McGlothern jumped a route for an interception and returned it 51 yards to turn the field around. Cincinnati had two more long drives in the first half that resulted in missed field goals. But despite digging out of an early 14-0 hole on the road, they nearly clawed their way back. On three consecutive possessions in the second half, they took the ball into Arkansas territory, needing a touchdown to tie the game. Instead, they had a field goal on a drive that started at the Arkansas 3, a punt on a drive that went as deep as the Arkansas 21 and a fumble strip-sack after a spectacular Tre Tucker punt return. Cincinnati didn’t look bad, racking up 438 total yards against an SEC defense. He may well be the Group of Five representative in the New Year’s Six for the third consecutive year. He just shot himself in the foot a few too many times this afternoon and suffered his first loss of the non-bowl season since the 2019 AAC Championship against Memphis. It should be a healthy diet with rat poison for the next seven days. The only matchup between the teams from the AP preseason poll is a nightcap (10:15 p.m. ET) of No. 25 BYU hosting No. 10 Baylor. The Cougars have beaten at least one ranked opponent in each of the past four seasons, but lost to the Bears in Waco in last year’s meeting. A little revenge in Provo would put BYU in the College Football Playoff conversation way too early. Tennessee at No. 17 Pittsburgh (3:30 p.m. ET) should also be a battle between the ranked teams when the new AP poll comes out in a few days. The Panthers look to build on a lopsided Week 1 win over West Virginia in the revitalized Backyard Brawl, while the must-rate Volunteers prepare for a big test after making quick work of Ball State on Thursday. And then there’s a trio of big conference matchups, with No. 19 Arkansas hosting South Carolina (Noon ET), No. 20 Kentucky at Florida (7 p.m. ET) and No. 14 USC at Stanford (7:30 p.m. ET). While nothing on the level of Oregon-Georgia or Notre Dame-Ohio State, Week 2 should be just as entertaining as Week 1—albeit contained almost entirely in one day rather than a 100-hour window.