Each Saturday night, the Eye on College Football takes our best guess at what we'll see from the new Associated Press Top 25 on Sunday.
Here's where the poll stood entering this weekend, and below is our prediction for where it'll stand afterwards. Teams marked with an asterisk are still playing or have yet to play. The projection assumes all Vegas favorites win.
Enjoy:
1. Ohio State (last week: 1). The Buckeyes played on the road Monday night, then Saturday afternoon. They're excused for sleepwalking past Hawaii.
2. Alabama (2). Middle Tennessee State had two chances inside the Alabama 10 in the game's opening stage and came away with a total of three points. If it was a surprise that the Crimson Tide was even in that kind of position early on, that they went on to lead 37-3 in the second half was not.
3. TCU (3). The Horned Frogs may have been a little frustrated with their performance in Minneapolis. Stephen F. Austin had the unfortunate honor of being the team on the receiving end of that frustration on Saturday.
4. Michigan State (5). Sparty yes: between holding off Oregon and the team below them looking like less than their previous world-conquering selves vs. lesser competition, the guess here is that Mark Dantonio's team will move up a spot into the top 4.
5. Baylor (4). One a day full of eyebrow-raising scorelines, Lamar tying Baylor up at 21-21 in the second quarter rates as one of the most eyebrow-raising of all. But the Bears pulled away for the typically lopsided final scoreline at 66-31.
6. USC (8). The Trojans buried hapless Idaho, as expected, and get a two-spot bump thanks to Auburn's struggles and the Oregon-Michigan State top-10 elimination match.
7. Notre Dame (9). The loss of Malik Zaire is a savage blow for the Irish's suddenly blossoming playoff hopes, but the joy of DeShone Kizer's last-gasp touchdown pass will help ease the pain a little. Not much, but a little.
8. Georgia (10). The Bulldogs didn't looks particulaly impressive against Vanderbilt -- of Georgia's 31 points, 14 came on punt and interception returns -- but when you look at what some of the other SEC "contenders" accomplished Saturday, putting away the stubborn Commodores on the road maybe ain't so bad.
9. Florida State (11). Everett Golson and the Seminoles' offense got off to a snail-paced start at home against USF, but in the end there was entirely too much Dalvin Cook for the Bulls.
10. Clemson (12). Appalachian State is considered a threat to win the Sun Belt in just its second season of FBS ball. It was not a threat to defeat Clemson Saturday.
11. UCLA (13). The Bruins got a first-hand look at Tony Sanchez's new-look UNLV in late-night action. They weren't impressed.
12. Georgia Tech (15). It's just Alcorn State and Tulane, but it's not possible to look better against Alcorn State and Tulane than Justin Thomas and the Yellow Jackets have.
13. Texas A&M (16). Speaking of teams that looked good in Week 1 and then came back looking just as sharp in Week 2, the Aggies led Ball State 49-3 at halftime.
14. Ole Miss (17). Speaking of another team that's gotten off to a blockbuster start to the season, the Rebels have answered their offensive critics by scoring a mere 73 points against Fresno State the week after hanging 76 on UT-Martin.
15. Oklahoma (19). Left for dead at 17-0, Baker Mayfield, Sterling Shepard and a feisty Oklahoma defense brought the Sooners all the way back for the biggest comeback win against Tennessee in Neyland Stadium history. Not bad, Bob Stoops, not bad.
16. LSU (14). The Tigers might place higher than this; it's not like winning in Starkville is easy, particularly these days, and of course their winning percentage is equal to all 15 of the teams ahead of them. But where those teams all have two wins -- and in the case of teams not far ahead of them like Tech, A&M and Ole Miss, two lopsided ones -- LSU has just the one, and it came by two points. The guess here is that the Tigers slip just a bit.
17. Oregon (7). Vernon Adams is very good. But he's not yet Marcus Mariota good, and that was enough to keep the Ducks from completing a fourth-quarter comeback at Michigan State. A three-point loss at a top-5 team doesn't always result in such a steep drop, but the first 16 teams here all have wins either over stronger opponents or in more dominant fashion than the Ducks' Week 1 win over Eastern Washington.
18. Auburn (6). And finally we come to the second of our two top-10 freefallers. Not only did the Tigers come within a whisker of suffering arguably the biggest upset in SEC history, but their Week 1 win over Louisville doesn't look quite as nice after the Cards' home loss to Houston. It's next-to-impossible to argue Auburn deserves to be ranked above any of the 17 teams ahead of them at this stage.
19. Missouri (21). The Tigers fell behind early in an unusual road game at Arkansas State, but owned the second half to come out of Jonesboro with the victory.
20. Utah (24). Two games, still only 31 total points allowed for the Utes' defense. And beating Michigan might look a bit better after the Wolverines pounded Oregon State.
21. Arizona (22). Rich Rodriguez's team looked far better in Week 2 than Week 1, comprehensively beating Nevada in Reno. But Kansas State's bludgeoning of UTSA in San Antonio (with its backup quarterback) makes the Wildcats' wheeze past the Roadrunners look that much worse.
22. BYU (NR). If this was a ranking of which teams are having the most exciting seasons, the Cougars would be No. 1 with the proverbial bullet, and even by resume -- where they now have a road scalp of Nebraska and a home win over the Group of Five auto-berth favorite -- they ought to rank higher than this. Will they?
23. Northwestern (NR). The Wildcats aren't known for their defense, but a week after shutting down Stanford, Northwestern shut out Eastern Illinois, 41-0. No, EIU isn't the stiffest of competition, but ask Auburn about
24. Wisconsin (NR). It'll take a while, but against the Badgers' schedule, they're abaout to embark on a slow, steady march up the polls that will probably see them in the top 15 by year's end. They got started with a pummeling of Miami (Ohio).
25. Arizona State (NR). The Sun Devils won't have actually accomplished much even after beating FCS Cal Poly, but they had healthy support in the preseason poll and received more votes last week than anyone else who (a) won this week (b) isn't ranked above them in this projection already. The win over the Mustangs was the definition of uninspiring ... but who else is there?
Voters are traditionally charitable to the SEC, but it's highly unlikely that given the embarrassment of their defeat (in Arkansas' case) or their already precarious poll position (in Tennessee's or Mississippi State's) the Hogs, Vols or Bulldogs get the nod.
Dropped out of projected rankings: Tennessee, Arkansas, Mississippi State, Boise State
Also considered: West Virginia, Oklahoma State, Tennessee
