In a week that was largely dominated by ranked teams, it's easy to assume that the movements might be subtle when it comes to changes in the college football rankings. But given the breakdown of votes in the preseason balloting from the AP Top 25 poll, there's plenty of opportunity for a shakeup as those opinions are tested with Week 1 in the books. One of the areas where the most movement, by rankings, could be possible is inside the top 10.
The AP Top 25 poll has largely mirrored the college football majority opinion that there are seven teams who exist in the top tier of the sport: Ohio State, Oregon, Georgia, Notre Dame, Texas, Indiana and Miami. Those seven teams have been mixed up in multiple ways across different rankings, but for the most part, that's the group that will start any conversation about being a national title contender. So in a week where all of those seven teams win, the only real reason for change would be the ability or inability to meet those preseason expectations of being a title contender.
Six of those teams inside the top seven won by 28 points or more, while Oregon trailed at halftime against Boise State and needed all it could get from star quarterback Dante Moore to emerge with a one-touchdown victory. Five of those top-seven teams got first-place votes, and Oregon got the second-most, but after seeing the Ducks stand out as the dominant leader of the bunch, it's likely to see that those small-margin shifts could lead to multiple-spot movement in the rankings. And while we are projecting some shifting inside the top seven, one of the big questions for Tuesday's AP Top 25 poll update is the landing spot for LSU after a 51-10 win against Clemson in one of the most-hyped games of Week 1.
Every voter took note of Lane Kiffin's LSU debut, and the eye-popping nature of the score will lead to small adjustments across the board when it comes to the updated ballots. Some voters will be ready to consider LSU a threat to Ohio State for the top, while others will take the Tigers' success in stride with an eye on more top-10 tests ahead in the coming weeks. With AP Top 25 ranked teams having a large amount of success in Week 1, the adjustments are more tied to the shifting nature of performance against expectations, noting the voting points and ballot disbursement for all of the moves.
Here's how we expect the new AP Top 25 poll to look on Tuesday after Week 1 scores and results in college football: 1. Ohio State (Last week — 1): We're projecting the Buckeyes will only strengthen their position as the No. 1 team in the country, possibly picking up a couple extra first-round votes in the wake of a 53-point win against Ball State. Julian Sayin and Jeremiah Smith appear to have picked up right where they left off as one of the best QB-WR duos in the country, and while the competition was certainly different, the performance seemed more complete than some other teams that got first-place votes ahead of the Buckeyes. 2.
Notre Dame (4): The voting disparity on Notre Dame in the preseason poll was about as wide as any of the top four teams, so we project that the 28-point win against Wisconsin on Sunday night provided enough motivation to lose some of those low-end ballot spots hurting the team's ranking. This team had six first-place votes and 26 total voters slotting the Fighting Irish as a top-three team coming into the year, but their voting points total was hurt by showing up at 7th, 8th, and even 10th on the preseason ballots. Even a one-spot or two-spot bump from some of those low-end voters after an impressive second-half performance on Sunday night positions Notre Dame to emerge at the top of a tight race with Georgia and Texas for No. 2. 3.
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