Week 1 of the 2026 college football season has officially come to a close on Monday night after Florida State and SMU battled it out in an ACC showdown in Tallahassee.
Before the conclusion of Week 1 on Monday night, there were some big-time games that will shape the looming Week 2 AP Top 25 rankings. The preseason rankings are pretty much just a guess based on rosters on paper, but voters usually have a much better grasp of who deserves to be in the rankings and who was ranked just a bit too high.
We also got to see some former Michigan State players starring for their new teams like Nick Marsh who caught an insane one-handed touchdown pass to start his Indiana career and Sam Leavitt who led LSU to an absolute beatdown of Clemson in Death Valley.
Leavitt was one of the top performers of the week as LSU really put on a show. Dabo Swinney might be in trouble if this mediocrity continues. Clemson has been a shell of itself for years.
As for Marsh and Indiana, the reigning national champs dominated North Texas even though the former Spartan caught just two passes.
There was another game featuring a ranked team that really dominated the headlines in Week 1 and it happened to be the team down the road. Western Michigan had pulled off an upset at Michigan but the Wolverines were gifted an extra second for a free play and Bryce Underwood's prayer was answered with a Hail Mary as time expired (for the second time).
Michigan's going to drop in Tuesday's Week 2 AP Top 25 rankings, but will the Wolverines drop completely out?
Let's predict what the Week 2 poll will look like.
College football Top 25 projections for Week 2
The AP Top 25 is going to get at least a little shakeup even though there weren't a ton of upsets and that's because some teams really stood out while others stumbled after appearing in the initial rankings.
One thing's for certain, though: Clemson won't be sniffing the AP Top 25 for a while.
Note: The prior week's rankings are in parentheses.
- Ohio State (1)
- Notre Dame (4)
- Georgia (3)
- Oregon (2)
- Texas (5)
- Indiana (6)
- Miami (7)
- LSU (11)
- Ole Miss (9)
- Texas A&M (8)
- Oklahoma (10)
- USC (14)
- Alabama (13)
- Texas Tech (12)
- Penn State (18)
- BYU (15)
- Washington (17)
- SMU (19)
- Tennessee (20)
- Utah (21)
- Iowa (22)
- Missouri (25)
- Florida (NR)
- Houston (23)
- Michigan (16)
LSU was one of the biggest movers, jumping up to No. 8 from No. 11 after beating the first team outside of the AP Top 25 receiving votes, 51-10. USC was also impressive and should move up, but two Big Ten teams were my biggest fallers, too.
Michigan drops all the way to No. 25 and the Wolverines honestly might drop out completely after sneaking by Western Michigan and needing an extra second to do so. Oregon, too, is going to see a slight dip this week after struggling to pull away from Boise State. The Ducks looked about as beatable as I've seen them under Dan Lanning.
It is Week 1 and teams are still shaking off the rust, but this is how I see the AP Top 25 for Week 2.
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