For the first time in the 2024 season, we have a real debate for No. 1 team in the country in the college football rankings. After spending the first three weeks of the season on top, Georgia has been bounced from No. 1.
Texas has taken over at No. 1 in the CBS Sports 134, our comprehensive ranking of every FBS team compiled by experts from CBS Sports and 247Sports, but the Longhorns’ ascension to the top was far from unanimous. The average ranking across all ballots for Texas was 1.7, while the average ranking for Georgia was 2.4. So, there are definitely voters not ready to tab Texas as No. 1 but also some who think No. 2 is too high for the Bulldogs.
The Georgia doubt comes in the wake of a 13-12 win at Kentucky in a game where the Bulldogs were four-score favorites at kickoff. The game was in primetime on a big stage, and the entire country was dialed in to see if No. 1 would lose outright. Because Georgia survived, there is less of a headline, but for voters tasked with sorting out the top teams in the country, notes were certainly taken from the result.
Another factor in the debate — one that seems overlooked at the moment — is Ohio State. The Buckeyes were off in Week 3 and have yet to play a power conference opponent, but the team has done nothing to change the sky-high expectations for 2024 in two wins that featured a combined scoring margin of 108-6.
Further down in the CBS Sports 134 there are teams like Alabama, Tennessee, Ole Miss and Miami that have a chance to enter that conversation for No. 1 if they can continue their winning ways. Even Oregon, which was inside the top three to start the year, looks to be heading back in the right direction after thumping Oregon State in Corvallis over the weekend.
The good news is that with the nonconference schedule winding down, we will begin to get on-field results between these top teams vying for No. 1. But, for now, the debate is on — at least in the composite at the CBS Sports 134 (and the AP Top 25 poll as well).
College football experts from CBS Sports and 247Sports contribute ballots each week, which are averaged together for our rankings. You can see the top 25 below and 26-134 on our rankings page.
Biggest movers
- No. 37 Indiana (+26): Curt Cignetti’s group needed a power conference win to solidify the results that so far had pointed to a strong start to his first year with Indiana. The Hoosiers have actually moved up 36 spots in the last two weeks, but a majority of that came after a 42-13 win on the road at UCLA.
- No. 33 Washington State (+24): The Pac-12 rivalry weekend provided a spotlight opportunity for Washington State to show it’s still competing at a power conference level, and that’s exactly what happened with the Cougars taking down Washington in Seattle. Paired with a win against Texas Tech the week prior, Washington State is now knocking on the door of the top 30 in the rankings.
- No. 39 Arizona State (+17): Faced with a coin-flip matchup on the road against one of the favorites in the Sun Belt, Arizona State was able to overcome a chaotic finish and hold on to beat Texas State on Thursday night to improve to 3-0. Sam Leavitt has settled in as a strong option for the Sun Devils at quarterback, and now an Arizona State team that had a preseason win total of 4.5 already has three victories in the bag heading into conference play.
- No. 31 UNLV (+9): The Rebels are building a legitimate College Football Playoff profile should they win the Mountain West thanks to two wins against Big 12 teams, both of which came on the road. UNLV opened up the season with a win at Houston, and then on Friday night it won at Kansas. That’s led to a 19-spot jump across the last two weeks and now a position just outside the top 30.
- No. 47 Washington (-11): With wins against Weber State and Eastern Michigan, there’s not a lot for voters to hang onto when trying to split ties between teams in that range between No. 30 and No. 50. The Huskies will have a chance to improve their position over the next couple of weeks before facing a November schedule that includes USC, Penn State and Oregon.
- No. 35 Arizona (-13): A road loss at Kansas State might not be a damaging result on its own, but it’s paired with a couple of other troubling trends from Arizona’s start to the season. First, the Wildcats struggled to get stops in the season opener against New Mexico. Then, the offense couldn’t find any kind of consistency against Northern Arizona. The high-end talent on this team is obvious at certain positions, but the on-field performances have not reflected their on-paper rating.
- No. 56 Kansas (-25): Back-to-back losses have the Jayhawks plummeting, now down a total of 36 spots after losses to Illinois and UNLV. The Big 12 is a league filled with toss-up games, and now Kansas is going to rely on winning a lot more of those in order to get the 2024 campaign back on track as conference play begins.
Check out the rest of the CBS Sports 134: Teams ranked 26-134
