My Top 25

1. Southern Cal
2. Texas
3. Louisiana State
4. Florida
5. Virginia Tech
6. Notre Dame
7. Georgia
8. Tennessee
9. Ohio State
10. Miami (Florida)
11. Louisville
12. Arizona State
13. Clemson
14. Florida State
15. Georgia Tech
16. Texas A&M
17. Michigan
18. Boston College
19. Minnesota
20. Purdue
21. Cal
22. Texas Tech
23. Oklahoma
24. Alabama
25. Iowa State

I thought long and hard about bumping Texas ahead of LSU and finally decided to do so because a win at Ohio State is a little more impressive than a win at Arizona State, although the Sun Devils certainly did a lot to impress on Saturday night. If LSU can shore up the defense a little, then they'll be a better team than Texas. They'll certainly get more chances to prove themselves over the next two months with games against Florida, Tennessee, and Alabama all on deck. I dropped Georgia a couple spots because of D.J. Shockley's Quincy Carter imitation on Saturday night. Quarterback play is often overrated in college football, but Georgia's season will rise or fall on whether Shockley can distribute the ball in an accurate fashion. Every other piece of Georgia's team seems to be in place. I didn't penalize Ohio State or Arizona State much; if I truly believe that LSU and Texas are the second and third best teams in the country, then losing very narrow games to them shouldn't affect their ranking much.

Regardless of the final score, I did punish Florida State for trailing The Citadel in the second quarter. Ditto for Oklahoma and their game with Tulsa. I gave Clemson another bump; they arguably have the best collection of scalps right now with narrow wins over Texas A&M and Maryland. Ultimately, they might prove to be overrated based on the fact that they've won a couple nail-biters and aren't necessarily better than the teams that they've played. We'll learn a lot about the Tigers when they entertain Miami this weekend.

I punished Iowa worse than Michigan and Ohio State because they got beaten so soundly by an inferior opponent, along with my underlying sense that Iowa was overrated heading into the season. Michigan and Ohio State, their flaws aside, did put up fights against Top Ten teams. Iowa got rolled from the start by their in-state rival, even before Drew Tate was concussed. I suspect that the Hawks will reappear in the rankings down the road once they make their customary second half run.