College football rankings: Florida, Tennessee, Arkansas to move up as Utah, Oregon drop in top 25 polls
Three SEC teams will be on the move when new college football rankings are released
•
5 min read
The first regular-season 2022 college football rankings won't be released on Sunday like usual even though Week 1 has already provided enough thrills to know there will be some shake-ups coming in the AP Top 25 poll. The rankings are delayed until Tuesday because still have two games left -- LSU and Florida State on Sunday, Clemson and Georgia Tech on Monday -- before Week 1 concludes. And while that may be the case, it's no reason to wait with our weekly check-in on how Saturday's results will impact the reshuffled college football rankings.
During a regular week, our "Tomorrow's Top 25 Today" would exist in this spot, but for now, let's address the action that's happened across the last three days by targeting certain teams that will assuredly be on the move come Tuesday. The schedule didn't have a ton of games between top 25 opponents, but there was enough dramatic action to know that voters will be reassessing their opinions on the best teams in the country.
No. 2 Ohio State won't be poised to overtake No. 1 Alabama after a tough 21-10 win against No. 5 Notre Dame, and the Fighting Irish are unlikely to see a major adjustment after exceeding expectations and hanging with the Buckeyes for 60 minutes. But there will likely be some shake ups in the top 10 as we saw the first big upset of the season with unranked Florida taking down No. 7 Utah in The Swamp as Billy Napier debuted with a win as the Gators' new coach.
There will also be some voter response to No. 19 Arkansas beating No. 23 Cincinnati as well as No. 3 Georgia absolutely rolling over No. 11 Oregon. The most intrigue will arguably come across the final half-dozen spots in the poll as voters decide to make adjustments with who makes the cut on their ballots.
Let's take a look at which teams we expect to move when the new college football rankings are released in a few days.
 | |
| After receiving the 38th-most votes in the Preseason AP Top 25, Florida will likely be one of the biggest movers following its 29-26 Week 1 win over No. 7 Utah. To the point that the Gators should make an immediate appearance in the top 25 after taking down the reigning Pac-12 champion Utes in thrilling fashion on Saturday night in The Swamp. A top-10 win alone might have been enough to warrant an appearance in the rankings, but it was the nature of the victory that will inspire confidence in the Gators as one of the 25 best teams in the country. There were a lot of unknowns around Billy Napier's debut, but the instant reaction is a well-coached team with a star quarterback in Anthony Richardson that can not only hang with but eventually defeat a Power Five conference championship contender. | |
 | |
| Losing to an unranked team is going to result in a drop for the No. 7 Utes, even if that defeat came on the road with Utah as a narrow favorite that was knocking on the door with a chance to win in the final minute. It was a fantastic game, and Utah proved itself a good team that should still be considered the favorite in the Pac-12, but the voters will not avoid punishing the Utes in the rankings just because it was a good game. Cameron Rising had his moments, but he was also shaky in spots, including when he nearly threw a game-ending interception on Utah's final drive before actually doing so in the end zone over the final seconds. | |
 | |
| If you look at the teams outside of the top 10 but still in the top 25, no one had a better win than the No. 19 Razorbacks' hard-fought 31-24 victory over No. 23 Cincinnati. KJ Jefferson's accounted for all four of the Hogs' touchdowns (three passing, one rushing), and the Arkansas defense made life difficult for a retooled Bearcats offense in the first half to establish an advantage in the game. Winning at home against a lower-ranked team won't lead to a huge jump from No. 19 into, say, the top 10, but if voters are shuffling their ballots based on Week 1 results, few teams have better arguments for a move up than Arkansas. | |
 | |
| AP voters won't always penalize a team for losing to one of the best in the country, but in order to maintain your ranking status, you need to at least to meet expectations. No. 11 Oregon was a 17-point underdog and lost by 46, failing to score more than one first-half field goal and allowing Georgia to score touchdowns on each of its first seven possessions of the game. It's almost certain that Bo Nix and the Ducks as a whole will look better against different opponents, but it's tough to make an argument for this group as a top-15 team after Saturday's performance. | |
 | |
| The Bearcats were able to move the ball against Arkansas but failed to convert too frequently with two missed field goals, an interception and a fumble serving as the conclusions of four different scoring opportunities in a seven-point loss. Cincinnati found a rhythm in the second half to make things tight for the home team, but those miscues are likely enough to bounce the No. 23 team to outside the top 25 when the rankings are updated on Tuesday. | |
 | |
| The same fans that get mad with "win move up, lose move down" voter approach will also be furious when their favorite team wins but moves down in the rankings. The reality is that 63 ballots are going to produce a wide array of opinions, and in the case of No. 13 NC State, voters who weren't all-in on the preseason hype are going to be even more down on the Wolfpack after Saturday's 21-20 win at ECU. The Pirates missed a game-tying extra point and then a game-winning field goal all in the final minutes, while NC State failed to put the game away with two failed red zone conversions (fumble and turnover on downs) inside the 3-yard line. | |
 | |
| Checking at No. 26 in the preseason voting, the Vols looked the part of a team worth ranking as they jumped out to a 38-0 halftime lead and cruised to a 59-10 win against Ball State on Thursday night. While Tennessee's offense has long been expected to put up good numbers, it was the total team domination that stood out in the rout and suggests Josh Heupel's team is poised for a step forward in 2022. | |
 | |
| Will Penn State crack the top 25? That's the big question following a dramatic 35-31 win at Purdue to open the season. The Nittany Lions were 29th in voting points during preseason balloting and certainly answered some questions with transfers and freshmen having a role in the offensive success, but the win was far from clean and certainly not dominant. Penn State will move up in the pecking order, but whether they are No. 25 or the first team in "Others receiving votes" will depend on how voters feel about Tennessee, Texas and others. | |
CBS Sports will release a complete projected AP Top 25 on Monday night following the conclusion of Week 1 play.
