2018 College Football Season: Week 3 Top 25

Well here we are the start of week two.

You can find my 1-130 rankings here and my prediction accounting here.

Rank	Team	Rating	Last Week Rank	Last Week Rating	Rank Diff.	Rating Diff.
1	Clemson	30.088	1	27.195	0	2.893
2	Stanford	28.897	5	25.875	3	3.022
3	Georgia	28.596	9	22.827	6	5.769
4	Alabama	28.485	3	26.228	-1	2.256
5	Wisconsin	27.023	2	26.424	-3	0.598
6	Oklahoma	26.469	8	24.005	2	2.464
7	Notre Dame	25.603	6	25.522	-1	0.081
8	Auburn	24.916	4	26.066	-4	-1.150
9	Ohio State	24.305	11	22.330	2	1.975
10	Penn State	23.597	16	18.819	6	4.778
11	Michigan State	22.451	7	24.811	-4	-2.360
12	Mississippi State	22.116	18	17.883	6	4.232
13	USC	21.185	10	22.406	-3	-1.220
14	Michigan	21.132	14	19.577	0	1.555
15	Boise State	20.801	12	20.372	-3	0.429
16	Washington	19.102	13	20.193	-3	-1.091
17	UCF	17.541	17	18.458	0	-0.917
18	TCU	16.371	27	11.048	9	5.322
19	Northwestern	15.457	15	19.249	-4	-3.792
20	Boston College	15.253	19	16.001	-1	-0.748
21	Miami (FL)	14.847	20	15.817	-1	-0.970
22	Washington State	14.328	21	14.772	-1	-0.444
23	Iowa	13.672	26	11.585	3	2.087
24	Kentucky	12.801	37	8.050	13	4.751
25	Virginia Tech	12.708	22	13.109	-3	-0.401
Dropped from the Top 25 This Week
26	Texas A&M	12.232	24	12.912	-2	-0.680
30	South Carolina	11.570	23	12.932	-7	-1.362
32	LSU	11.377	25	11.725	-7	-0.348

Let’s start with the trio that dropped out. A&M lost close at home to the now #1 (in my ranks) Clemson Tigers, South Carolina dropped 7 spots after getting walloped at home by a Georgia team that looks to be elite once again, and LSU gained nothing by beating an FCS team but losing some of it’s pre-season rank by playing a game. Kentucky makes the biggest rankings jump of teams in the top 15, moving up 13 spots. TCU made the second biggest ranking jump and biggest ratings jump off a demolition of rival SMU.  and Georgia and Mississippi State both jumped off six spots for their respective dominations of South Carolina and Kansas State respectively. Of the teams in the top 25 Auburn, Michigan State, and Northwestern dropped four spots mostly in the shuffle of FCS games and early season smoothing. Wisconsin takes a hit here as well dropping 3 spots despite beating New Mexico handily. They were jumped by Stanford (up 3, beat #10 USC 17-3), Georgia (up 6, beat #23 South Carolina 41-17 on the road), and Alabama (down 1, beat #57 Arkansas State 57-7). It’s a tough break but they’ll have chances to make statements as they get into their conference schedule.

Of the top 10 in my rankings I’m most interested to see how Clemson comes along. The defense is very good, but the offense has sputtered and is still sorting between senior Kelly Bryant and freshmen Trevor Lawrence. Short fields will kill even the best defense and stunted drives and a disparity in quality will test team cohesion. It’s only week 2 but we’re already seeing the season and the tiers of teams take shape.