The college football rankings rarely see bigger week-to-week changes than in the first month of the season because each result leads to overreactions … which sometimes then leads to a course correction a week or two later. That’s certainly the case in the post-Week 2 edition of the CBS Sports 134, where unexpected results have led to some huge adjustments inside the top 50.
Things are less dramatic at the top of the rankings where Georgia holds firm in its position of No. 1 and Texas’ jump of Ohio State for No. 2 follows in line with the wide-ranging reaction to a statement win at Michigan. The Buckeyes will have their chance to state a case for No. 1 later in the season, but for now, the Bulldogs and Longhorns have power conference victories that give them an edge in that debate.
Movement around the top 10 was sparked in part by Notre Dame’s stunning loss to Northern Illinois, leading to big rankings changes for both teams, and a top-10 arrival for Tennessee, moving up six spots to No. 7 following a primetime beatdown of NC State in Charlotte on Saturday night.
And while Michigan and Notre Dame took a step back in the rankings following Week 2 defeats, neither fell outside of the top 25 –a range that now includes five different 1-1 teams. The voters from CBS Sports and 247Sports have docked those squads by knocking them outside the top 15, but there is still enough belief in their overall quality to keep them from falling outside the top 30.
It is in that range from No. 25 to No. 50 where we see some of the biggest movement in the opening month of the season. From a cold, objective power ratings perspective, we’ve long known that there isn’t a lot of difference between the 25th best team in the country and the 40th best team, so when our sample size is small, the impact of individual results is greater when trying to split hairs among those similar teams.
Teams like Illinois, Syracuse and South Carolina were not buried at the bottom of the rankings heading into the weekend, but they were not in a range that would be considered
College football rankings: Texas jumps to No. 2 as Tennessee, USC join top 10 in CBS Sports 134
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