Top 25:

01. Washington (4-0) P12 (N/A) - This'll be short. Based only upon what we've seen in CFB this season I can't find a single reason in the world to rate anyone else 1st right now. Can you?

02. Ohio State (4-0) B10 (+2) - From here all the way down to 14th I couldn't tell you who is better than who with the exception of Ohio State being better than Notre Dame. Could WSU make a case for 2nd? Yes. But Ohio State went into Notre Dame and won by an inch against ND's best 10 defenders. That makes two power-5 road wins for Ohio State and what I consider to be the best win in CFB right now.

03. Georgia (4-0) SEC (N/A) - I dunno. They're Georgia. They've won all their games by double digits. The schedule has nobody that should give them a challenge until the last weekend of October.

04. Florida State (4-0) ACC (+3) - This is the toughest team in the top 25 to place. They should really be 2-2 right now and we would be talking about how they're the best 2 loss team in college football and wondering when they're going to put it all together. It feels like they've played one half of good football all year (2nd half @LSU) and just shut it down after that.

05. Duke (4-0) ACC (+5) - If we give FSU credit for the Clemson squeaker then we have to give Duke credit for the Clemson blowout. No one has kept it close with Duke yet and they carried a lot of momentum and talent over from last season. They play Notre Dame at home this week. Time to see if they're for real.

06. USC (4-0) P12 (-4) - Okay having them at 2nd was premature. The defense we know and love showed up in Tempe. Caleb Williams will need to operate at 9/10 or better for the remainder of the season if USC is going to play for a championship and even that might not be enough.

07. O****n (4-0) P12 (+4) - I'll just say that Colorado is going to be a stat stuffer for a lot of top 25 teams in the Pac-12 this year so there isn't much to draw from their win over the Buffs. Looks like they lost a key WR for the year and Nix threw something like 4 passes that traveled further than 5 yards past the LOS. I'm not sure if they don't trust him or they just feel like they don't need to do it but at some point they'll be forced to throw downfield more than they like. (Texas Tech kinda showed us that blueprint if we're being honest)

08. Texas (4-0) B12 (+4) - I moved them back up a little bit due to the strong performance this week against Baylor and the fact that Alabama is showing some life. There's still a lot of inconsistent play (which is a hallmark of Sark teams, as we all know) that I think keeps them from being a serious title contender.

09. Oklahoma (4-0) B12 (-3) - Riddle me this, Oklahoma's scoring output: 73, 28, 66, 20. Which one is the real team? Tough to get a read on them because the non-conference schedule was Charmin soft but a road win at Cincinnati by 14 points was a dead push on the line. They did exactly what was expected of them.

10. Utah (4-0) P12 (+3) - If they had Rising back I'd probably have them 7th. As it stands now I'm worried for them that Rising won't even be back before USC and they will drop 1-2 games in the next 4 weeks. The Utes don't have the offense to win the Pac-12 this year but they have the defense to affect the outcome for the other four contenders (3 of whom they play).

11. Notre Dame (4-1) IND (-6) - It's inexcusable to have only 10 players on the field for the play that will decide the football game. That's not what a top-10 team does. Keeping it close with Ohio State gives them the nod over some of the undefeated teams but I'll be ready to drop them down into the 20s if they lose to Duke too.

12. Penn State (4-0) B10 (-3) - Pitched a shutout against Iowa in a game that was 10-0 at half. I get why voters have them ahead of UW but I also think nothing over the past 2 years has shown why Penn State warrants that consideration yet. Iowa had as many first downs as fumbles (4) and isn't a good team. We won't know anything more about Penn State until they play in the Horseshoe in 4 weeks.

13. Michigan (4-0) B10 (-5) - I flipped Michigan and Penn State this week. They only moved down because a handful of other teams moved up. This isn't a reflection of me thinking less of them than I did a week before. Harbaugh coming back didn't invigorate any extra life into this team. They may have one of the best 3 defenses in the country but they also have a middle of the road offense that has no explosiveness and isn't going to scare anyone in the top 25. It looks like Harbaugh's M/O this year is just to chew as much clock as possible and it's working. They shouldn't be tested by anyone until mid November. Easiest schedule in college football right here.

14. Washington State (4-0) P12 (+1) - I didn't get to see how this game ended so I'm not sure if the final score was a late attempt at a Cuog-it or just OSU getting some points in garbage time but a home, high scoring win over Oregon State is what I would consider a high quality win this year. Couple that with their home win over Wisconsin and you could make a case that WSU has the best pair of wins in CFB (short of FSU of course). Keep an eye on this team as a potential spoiler for the Pac-12 race. Dare I say we might get a UW vs. WSU Pac-12 Championship Game?!

15. Oregon State (3-1) P12 (-1) - If you've been on UWDP for a long time you probably might remember that I am not a believer in Smith as a QB guru. Under his tutelage we saw Browning regress his final 2 years instead of improve and it's still one of the most puzzling QB stories I've ever seen. So it's no surprise to me that at OSU he's utterly failed to develop a quarterback. And it doesn't look like bringing in DJ Uiagalelei from the transfer portal has improved this situation much. DJ is 59/102 for 57.8% completion and 828 yards, 7 TDs, 3 INTs, and 3 sacks. I picked WSU to win this game for that reason. OSU snuck up on everybody last year but this year they're getting everyone's full focus. It's not going to be a repeat of 2022 for the Beavs. They have a great shot to take down Utah at home next week, though, if Cam Rising still isn't back. That's a 6:00PM game on FS1.

16. North Carolina (4-0) ACC (+3) - They have 3 power-5 wins (one against South Carolina) but a very close win against Appalachian State. This week they're up against 4-0 Syracuse at home. That should be a good barometer of whether they're a contender for the ACC.

17. Florida (3-1) SEC (N/A) - They played Charlotte and failed to cover in a 22-7 win. Not sure they belong here but they beat Tennessee easily and their one loss is at Utah which has value still.

18. LSU (3-1) SEC (-2) - Still waiting to see that team that led FSU at halftime. Injuries and discipline are a problem, as is their offense. It might be time to pull the emergency escape cord if they lose to Ole Miss this week.

19. Miami (4-0) ACC (+5) - Is Miami back? I don't know. They ran over now 3-1 Texas A&M back in week 2 and have done the same to the easier of their non-conference opponents. The schedule gets way harder beginning in mid-October. Check back then.

20. Alabama (3-1) SEC (New) - They seem to have gotten their QB situation figured out which is good. A 14 point home win against Ole Miss isn't a huge needle mover but it's enough to get them back into the rankings.

21. Kentucky (4-0) SEC (+2) - I'm sure someone will take note and tell me how very wrong I am if they lose 5 conference games. I have Kentucky here because, much like UW, they're just quietly winning games by large margins.

22. Fresno State (4-0) MWC (-1) - Fresno State finally snuck into the AP poll this week which is an honor they've more than earned. They have two power-5 road wins, albeit against Purdue and Arizona State. But they shut out ASU in Tempe while USC took 52 minutes of football to pull away from them.

23. Missouri (4-0) SEC (+2) - Man Missouri fans are out here losing their minds demanding to be ranked in the AP/Coaches polls. Do they realize their only claim to fame is a 3 point win over Kansas State at home? They beat MTSU 23-19 and Memphis 34-27. They have yet to go on the road but will be tested at least a little bit this week at Vanderbilt. The KSU win was just enough to get them into my rankings but they'll need to put some bigger wins on the board to stay here throughout the season.

24 & 25. Louisville & Syracuse (4-0) ACC (New) - It's either these two or some 1-loss SEC, Big-10, or Pac-12 teams. I don't know. Just imagine I picked whoever you think I missed.

By Conference:

ACC - 6

B10 - 3

B12 - 2

IND - 1

MWC - 1

P12 - 6

SEC - 6

Dropped:

18. UCLA (3-1) P12

20. Auburn (3-1) SEC

22. Rutgers (3-1) B10