Below, let’s look at ranked games in a way similar to the College Football Playoff committee’s perspective. For the committee, it’s not about what you did last week. It’s about what your entire schedule did all year long. Beating a team in Week 1 that finishes .500-plus is better than beating a team that doesn’t, no matter where either team is ranked at kickoff. The same goes for a team that finishes in the Playoff’s top 25.
Full top-25 final scores and Playoff impact of college football’s Week 1
Here’s how every Week 1 game involving a ranked team unfolded, and how each could impact the Playoff race.
Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images
Committee rankings won’t be out until Oct. 31, so we’ll stick with AP Poll rankings.
Week 1 college football final scores
No. 1 Alabama 24, No. 3 Florida State 7
Bama earns major title-favorite status and can easily afford one loss the rest of the way, with no worries about Playoff entry, unless FSU completely bombs the rest of the season. FSU’s still totally in the Playoff race, unless it loses again.
No. 2 Ohio State 49, Indiana 21
Notching a road Power 5 blowout over a potential bowl team will be more than most teams can claim in Week 1, no matter how ugly that first half was.
No. 4 USC 49, WMU 31
Closer than it looks, but a win over a potential bowl team.
No. 5 Clemson 56, Kent State 3
Likely unimportant. KSU is projected to go 4-8.
No. 6 Penn State 52, Akron 0
Likely unimportant. Akron is projected to go 4-8.
No. 7 Oklahoma 56, UTEP 7
Likely unimportant. UTEP is projected to go 4-8.
No. 8 Washington 30, Rutgers 14
Likely unimportant, since Rutgers is projected to go 5-7. RU did look better than a 5-7 team. We’ll see whether that’s good or bad for UW.
No. 9 Wisconsin 59, Utah State 10
Could be a blowout win over a minor bowl team.
No. 10 Oklahoma State 59, Tulsa 24
Could be a blowout win over a minor bowl team.
No. 11 Michigan 33, No. 17 Florida 17
Should end up being a strong resume boost for the Wolverines, with both expected to contend in their divisions. (UF’s many suspensions could give UM a tiny asterisk in the committee’s mind, but this was plenty dominant.)
No. 12 Auburn 41, Georgia Southern 7
Likely unimportant. GS is projected to go 5-7.
No. 13 LSU 27, BYU 0
Should stand as a strong win. BYU is projected to go 8-4.
No. 15 Georgia 31, Appalachian State 10
Should stand as a high-quality win over a potential conference champ, and with an injury to starting QB Jacob Eason increasing UGA’s difficulty score, so to speak.
No. 16 Louisville 35, Purdue 28
Not exactly impressive right now, but we’ll see how it ends up. Purdue is projected to go 3-9.
No. 18 Miami 41, Bethune-Cookman 13
Doesn’t matter. FCS opponent.
No. 19 USF 31, Stony Brook 17
Doesn’t matter. FCS opponent.
No. 20 Kansas State 55, Central Arkansas 19
Doesn’t matter. FCS opponent.
No. 21 Virginia Tech 31, No. 22 West Virginia 24
VT will likely have a win over a decent bowl team to show off.
Maryland 51, No. 23 Texas 41
Texas is definitely not BACK, everyone laughs at the Big 12, and the Big Ten East looks much less top-heavy.
No. 24 Washington State 31, Montana State
Doesn’t matter, but congrats to WSU for not losing to an FCS team this time.
No. 25 Tennessee 42, Georgia Tech 41
This, weird as it was, should stand up as a win over a bowl team of some sort.
Technically, these next two happened during the “Week 0” mini-intro weekend on Aug. 26, but let’s include them. It’s unlikely either will end up being important.
No. 14 Stanford 62, Rice 7
No. 19 USF 42, San Jose State 22
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