A wild weekend of high-profile results in college football has brought some significant shake up to the rankings with teams on the rise and others tumbling in the latest edition of the CBS Sports 136, our comprehensive ranking of every FBS team.
Of the top 22 teams in the new CBS Sports 136, only three are in the same position from last week’s rankings. Ohio State held its position at No. 1 after going on the road with an impressive performance at Washington, Oklahoma was steady at No. 7 after having the week off and Iowa State remained at No. 14 after beating Arizona at home while chaos ensued all around the Cyclones on our voters’ ballots.
Oregon made a move from No. 6 up to No. 2 after a thrilling double-overtime win at Penn State, and the Ducks are joined at the top of the rankings by a couple of surging undefeated teams with Ole Miss and Indiana each joining the top five for the first time this season.
Of course, those spots were open because of some drops for Georgia (down seven spots to No. 10), Penn State (down six spots to No. 11) and LSU (down 14 spots to No. 18). And trying to place those teams, previously ranked up near the top of the rankings, among other one-loss teams has led to a whole new set of debates throughout our voters’ ballots. Among those debates includes how to rank Alabama, which started the year with a loss to Florida State but now has a huge road win at Georgia on the profile. For now, we’ve got the Crimson Tide up nine spots to No. 9 despite having a loss to the Seminoles, who check in at No. 19 following an upset loss at Virginia.
Since we rank 136 teams, there are going to be bigger movements outside of the top 20, and we highlighted some of the more notable ones in the Mover’s Report below the top 25 table.
College football experts from CBS Sports and 247Sports contribute ballots each week, which are averaged together for our rankings. You can see the top 25 below and 26-136 on our rankings page.
Biggest movers
- No. 36 Cincinnati (+22): The Bearcats improved to 3-1 on the season with some big-time playmaking in a thrilling back-and-forth win at Kansas. Now with a conference win under their belt and the lone defeat being a close loss to Nebraska in Week 1, our voters made the adjustment, moving Cincinnati up ahead of the Jayhawks (No. 39) and behind Nebraska (No. 30).
- No. 33 Virginia (+18): The last two weeks have seen the Wahoos move up a combined 31 spots as Tony Elliott’s team has shown it’s lone loss, a late one-score defeat at NC State, might be more of an anomaly on the rankings profile. Chandler Morris and the offense were opportunistic and clutch in closing out Florida State for the memorable home win, and now expectations are being adjusted for a group that started the year well off the radar in the ACC.
- No. 40 North Texas (+10): If you haven’t gotten a chance to take in North Texas yet this season, make it a part of your college football to-do list in the next couple of weeks. The Mean Green are in the top 10 nationally in scoring offense (44.8 points per game) and are now 5-0 after a win against South Alabama. Now, before you set the DVR, we can let you know North Texas is off this week but will return to action in Week 7 with a must-see game against another conference title in the American, South Florida, on Friday night Oct. 10.
- No. 19 Florida State (-10): Whether it is the CBS Sports 136 or the traditional polls, any voter is going to have trouble wrestling with Florida State’s ranking over the next couple of weeks. Alabama is surging and making an argument to be the best one-loss team in the country, but it’s one loss came to a Florida State team that just got knocked off by Virginia. As more results are placed on the resume the conflicts will get sorted out, but it looks like our voters more or less split the difference and tried to slot the Seminoles among comparable good teams with an early season defeat on the ledger.
- No. 31 TCU (-11): This seems like a big adjustment in terms of the number of spots TCU dropped after losing by a field goal on the road at Arizona State, but without a surefire quality win, the Horned Frogs were pulled down to the Sun Devils’ spot on many ballots. As long as TCU was unbeaten, it could continue to rise, but victories against SMU and North Carolina don’t provide a strong foundation once that first loss hits the record.
- No. 18 LSU (-14): When the Tigers surged to the top of the rankings, it was in the wake of defeating a Clemson team that we had ranked No. 4 in the preseason CBS Sports 136. But the performance that followed didn’t inspire confidence, and now that LSU has been knocked off, it came time for an adjustment. While seemingly impressive at the time, LSU’s two power conference wins came against teams that our voters have ranked No. 59 (Clemson) and No. 67 (Florida) in the updated edition of the rankings.
- No. 43 Auburn (-16): Back-to-back losses have Auburn tumbling in the rankings, now clawing on to a spot just inside the top 50. Later in the season, perhaps our voters will award Auburn some points for “quality losses” since Oklahoma and Texas A&M are both inside the top 10 of the CBS Sports 136. For now, the team is anchored by its head-to-head win against Baylor, which is currently ranked No. 47.
Check out the rest of the CBS Sports 136: Teams ranked 26-136
