Football is back, and now pollsters have data points to begin really ranking teams. Here are the first Top 25 projections for the 2018 season.
College football’s long offseason is over, and we now have our first set of data points for every FBS team across the country. With Week 1 action in the books after the long Labor Day weekend, what will the AP Top 25 look like compared to the preseason release?
Several teams are going to experience some plummets, none harder than Texas. The Longhorns entered the season ranked No. 23 in the country, but a disjointed weather-delayed showdown against Maryland on the road resulted in a 34-29 defeat. After losing to the Terrapins to open the year for a second straight season, Tom Herman’s team is going to fall out of the Top 25 and into the ranks of the others receiving votes.
Florida State will probably plummet out of the Top 25 as well after laying an egg at home against Virginia Tech. Able to score only three points in defeat against the Hokies, the Seminoles is likely to fall below the cut line.
And how far will Miami and Washington fall after losing their openers on neutral ground against Top 25 opponents? Neither is likely going to tumble far enough down the list to drop completely out of the Top 25, but it could be close for at least one of them. Who else might rise and fall after all the action of the first weekend? Keep reading for our projections of how the AP Top 25 will look after Week 1.