AP Top 25 college football rankings: Who is No. 1 in first regular-season poll?

One week into the season and several games led to a shakeup of the Associated Press Top 25, notably in the top 10.

The first poll of the regular season comes, released Tuesday, showed major changes after five ranked teams, including preseason No. 1 Texas and three other top-10 teams, lost.

Ohio State (1-0) jumped two spots to the No. 1 spot after defeating the Longhorns, 14-7, at home. The Buckeyes shut out Texas through three quarters for the first time in a decade before the Longhorns finally punched in a touchdown. Texas quarterback Arch Manning struggled all day to get into a rhythm, seeming to quiet any Heisman campaign hype, and the rest of the offense struggled to keep up with the Buckeyes defense.

As a result, Texas fell seven spots to No. 8.

No. 2 Penn State (1-0), had a stake in the top spot after easily defeating Nevada, 46-11, but remained in that spot.

LSU (1-0) made a strong case after beating previous No. 4 Clemson (0-1), 17-10, with a strong second-half performance. The (orange) Tigers are now 4-4 in their last eight games, and the (purple) Tigers snapped their five-game losing streak in season openers and moved up six spots to No. 3. Clemson tumbled four spots to No. 8.

Notre Dame (0-1) slid three spots in the rankings to No. 9 after falling to Miami (1-0), 27-24, on the road. The No. 5 Hurricanes, who jumped five spots after the win, took a 21-7 lead in the third quarter. The Fighting Irish scored 17 points in the fourth quarter to tie the game at 24. Miami, however, scored a 47-yard field goal with one minute remaining.

Are the Seminoles back? Florida State made a case, going from preseason unranked all the way to No. 14 after beating Alabama, 31-17.

Led by quarterback Tommy Castellanos, Florida State certainly made a strong case in its opener against the Crimson Tide. FSU (1-0) handed previous No. 8 Alabama (0-1) its first season-opening loss since 2001. Alabama took a one-touchdown lead after a 17-play drive to start the game but FSU quickly took a two-possession lead. The Tide tried to come back late but strong defense and a huge rushing touchdown put the game out of reach.

The Crimson Tide tumbled 13 spots to No. 21 in the new poll.

Kansas State (1-1) tumbled the poll, after losing, 24-21, to preseason No. 22 Iowa State in a week 0 game in Dublin, Ireland, on Aug. 23. The Wildcats further damaged their brand by barely squeaking past FCS-level North Dakota with a 38-35 win on Saturday. The game featured eight lead changes, with the Fighting Hawks scoring two consecutive touchdowns in the fourth quarter to take a 35-31 lead. UND, however, couldn’t stop K-State’s 1-minute drive nor could it force overtime, giving the Wildcats their first victory of the season, albeit a hollow one.

Boise State (0-1) also dropped out of the poll after falling to unranked South Florida, 34-7.

Utah (1-0) entered the poll at No. 25 after opening the season with a 43-10 win over UCLA.

The ACC, the only league with two wins over top-10 teams already this season, has four teams ranked in the new poll: No. 5 Miami, No. 8 Clemson, No. 14 Florida State and No. 17 SMU.

ACC teams Georgia Tech, Louisville, Duke, Virginia and Pittsburgh all received votes after winning their season-opening games but didn’t crack the top 25.

This week’s AP Top 25 rankings

This story was originally published September 2, 2025 at 11:55 AM.

Jadyn Watson-Fisher

The News & Observer