College Football Rankings Predictions for 2025 Week 2 AP and Coaches Polls

The first week of the 2025 college football season is in the books and a few College Football Playoff National Championship contenders find themselves at 0-1 and in need of bounce-back wins to keep their title aspirations alive.

How does that affect their spots in the AP and coaches polls and which teams saw their stock rise after Week 1 victories?

Poll Predictions

1. Ohio State
2. Penn State
3. Georgia
4. LSU
5. Oregon
6. Miami
7. Clemson
8. Texas
9. Arizona State
10. Notre Dame
11. South Carolina
12. Illinois
13. Michigan
14. Florida
15. SMU
16. Iowa State
17. Oklahoma
18. Texas A&M
19. Florida State
20. Ole Miss
21. Alabama
22. Indiana
23. Tennessee
24. Utah
25. Texas Tech

Ohio State Remains The Games Best...For Now

The defending national champions kicked off their pursuit of a second title Saturday at home against the Texas Longhorns, a team with enough preseason hype surrounding them that they eclipsed even the Buckeyes in the preseason AP poll, the No. 1 team to Ohio State's No. 3.

If that game was any indicator, they are not a champion easily dethroned.

Head coach Ryan Day and defensive coordinator Jim Knowles prepared a gameplan that shut down the Texas offense and had highly touted starting quarterback Arch Manning looking less like uncle Peyton during his heyday and more like his final season in Denver.

Manning was confused, completing just 56.7 percent of his passes for 170 yards, one touchdown and one ugly interception against Ohio State's vaunted defense.

Freshman quarterback Julian Sayin, on the other hand, completed 13 of 20 passes for 126 yards and a touchdown, finishing the day with a passer rating of 134.4.

There were significant questions about the Buckeyes' QB position and while Sayin's numbers were far from flashy, he did what he needed to, and avoided the mistakes that plagued Manning, leading his team to a gritty 14-7 win.

The remainder of the season will be the ultimate test of Day and his staff's ability to navigate a competitive college football landscape, dominate the games they should (like Week 2 against Grambling State), and play to the strengths of their roster to beat the teams that pose the toughest test to them.

If Ohio State can keep things in that one-to-two loss range and make the playoffs, there is no reason to believe that Day and Co. cannot get this team right back into the national title game, especially if Sayin develops into the top-tier signal caller that many believed he was when he emerged as a five-star recruit.