Ohio State retains its No. 1 spot as the first in-season polls have arrived. The Buckeyes defeated Virginia Tech 42-24 in Blacksburg on Monday night, vanquishing the only team to beat them in their 2014 national title run. Ohio State picked up one additional first-place vote in the Coaches Poll, bringing its total up to 63, while the Buckeyes retain all 61 first-place votes in the AP Poll.
College football rankings: Record 10 SEC schools in AP Top 25
Texas A&M is the biggest riser after Week 1, while Alabama supplants TCU at No. 2.
Also at the top: No. 2 TCU drops to No. 3 in both polls after a tight road win over unranked Minnesota, while Alabama is your new No. 2 following a win over then-No. 20/18 Wisconsin. The Badgers now drop to No. 24 in the Coaches Poll and out of the AP entirely.
The Tide are joined by nine other SEC programs in the AP Top 25, setting a new poll record with 10 from the 14-team conference.
Out of the polls are Stanford, previously No. 21, and Arizona State, previously No. 15/16. Each lost to unranked opponents in Week 1 (Northwestern and Texas A&M, respectively). The Aggies are the biggest risers in the polls, moving up to No. 16 in the AP and No. 19 in the Coaches, while Utah also joins both Top 25s after a season-opening win over Michigan. Mississippi State also makes the AP Poll, after Wisconsin’s exit.
| AP | Coaches | |
| 1 | Ohio State (61) | Ohio State (63) |
| 2 | Alabama | Alabama (1) |
| 3 | TCU | TCU |
| 4 | Baylor | Baylor |
| 5 | Michigan State | Oregon |
| 6 | Auburn | Michigan State |
| 7 | Oregon | Auburn |
| 8 | USC | Florida State |
| 9 | Notre Dame | Georgia |
| 10 | Georgia | USC |
| 11 | Florida State | Notre Dame |
| 12 | Clemson | Clemson |
| 13 | UCLA | UCLA |
| 14 | LSU | Ole Miss |
| 15 | Georgia Tech | LSU |
| 16 | Texas A&M | Georgia Tech |
| 17 | Ole Miss | Oklahoma |
| 18 | Arkansas | Arkansas |
| 19 | Oklahoma | Texas A&M |
| 20 | Boise State | Arizona |
| 21 | Missouri | Missouri |
| 22 | Arizona | Boise State |
| 23 | Tennessee | Tennessee |
| 24 | Utah | Wisconsin |
| 25 | Mississippi State | Utah |
Here are the other teams receiving votes in the Coaches Poll:
Mississippi State 97; Arizona State 66; Oklahoma State 52; Northwestern 35; Brigham Young 23; Kansas State 23; South Carolina 22; Duke 15; West Virginia 13; Miami (Fla.) 12; Florida 7; Louisville 6; Marshall 6; Minnesota 5; North Carolina State 4; Nebraska 3; Maryland 3; Temple 3; Pittsburgh 2; Illinois 2; Louisiana Tech 1; California 1; Memphis 1; Stanford 1.
The four rankings we use:
The Associated Press Top 25: The longest-running and best-respected human poll. Didn't have any official bearing on the latter years of the BCS, and won't have any official bearing on the Playoff. Expect it to set the course for the committee, however, as most outlets (including SB Nation) will use the AP's rankings as the standard until the committee takes over in November. Usually comes out on Sundays around 2 p.m. ET.
The USA Today Coaches Poll: Formerly part of the BCS, and now just a poll. It tends to be more conservative than the AP's. Though polling athletic departments in order to rank other athletic departments is dubious, we still want multiple human polls in here, and it's the other big one. Releases early Sunday afternoons.
The Massey computer composite: A collection of ... every rating out there, that will be included as soon as it is updated. By including it here, we're giving extra weight to the two human polls, since they're already two of the dozens of ratings included in the Massey. It changes over the course of the week as more rankings arrive.
Football Outsiders' F/+ rating: A synthesis of ratings by smart persons Bill Connelly and Brian Fremeau and our personal go-to overall team stat. It tends to come out later than the others, and will also be added as soon as it is updated.
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