Will Nebraska football be ranked in poll with Colorado win?

We learned quite a bit about several teams around the college football landscape, but there’s still a lot more to go.

How’d the AP Top 25 reflect what we learned? Well, there was one very, very notable change.

But before we get into that.. a refresher. There are 62 voters on the AP Top 25 panel. There’s at least one voter from each state that has an FBS team and a handful of national folks. For the state of Nebraska, there’s one voter.

Each week I’ll break down my ballot compared with the actual Top 25 and write on some pressing topics.

Without further ado, here’s my Week 2 ballot: 

1. Georgia
2. Ohio State
3. Texas
4. Mississippi
5. Notre Dame
6. Alabama
7. Oregon
8. Missouri
9. Penn State
10. Utah
11. USC
12. Michigan
13. Tennessee
14. Miami
15. Kansas State
16. Oklahoma
17. Oklahoma State
18. Arizona
19. Louisville
20. LSU
21. Kansas
22. NC State
23. Iowa
24. Georgia Tech
25. Clemson

And here’s the actual AP Top 25:

1. Georgia
2. Ohio State
3. Texas
4. Alabama
5. Notre Dame
6. Mississippi
7. Oregon
8. Penn State
9. Missouri
10. Michigan
11. Utah
12. Miami
13. USC
14. Tennessee
15. Oklahoma
16. Oklahoma State
17. Kansas State
18. LSU
19. Kansas
20. Arizona
21. Iowa
22. Louisville
23. Georgia Tech
24. NC State
25. Clemson

Florida State, after being in the Top 10, fell all the way out and didn’t receive a single vote after starting the season 0-2. Texas A&M also dropped out after losing to Notre Dame. Clemson and LSU didn’t drop out after their losses but tumbled down the rankings.

USC jumped up 10 spots after beating LSU. Miami jumped up seven spots after blowing the doors off of Florida.

None. Every team ranked this week was on my ballot, although not in the exact same order.

None. The most “out of alignment” with the rest was Louisville. I had the Cardinals at No. 19, while the consensus poll had them at No. 22.

The Huskers received a few more votes this week and would be No. 31 if the poll extended that far out. The highest vote NU got was No. 13.

I watched both of Florida State’s games in entirety the last two weeks, and they looked rough in both games. Sometimes the preseason hype surrounding a team is wrong, and yeah, the Seminoles left a lot to be desired in Week 0 and Week 1. 

Maybe Georgia Tech and Boston College are the real deal, but still… Florida State made history for all the wrong reasons. The Seminoles became the third team since the AP poll expanded in 1989 to go from being in the preseason top 10 to going unranked after Week 1. 

For those who read my AP column after the preseason poll came out, I was not high on Texas A&M before the season began, and I placed the Aggies at No. 24 to begin the year.

Yes, Texas A&M lost to one of the best teams in the country, and did not look great in doing so. Only 246 yards of total offense. Only 100 yards passing. Two interceptions thrown. Not exactly a vote of confidence on the offensive side of the ball.

Clemson’s numbers against No. 1 Georgia were even worse. Only 188 yards of total offense with only 46 yards rushing. Not a vote of confidence there whatsoever. But, I left Clemson on because I don’t believe in dropping teams completely out if they lost to the best team in the nation. Ranking them at No. 25 was basically me saying that they’re on my probation list.

Now, if Clemson gets punked again against App State this week? Yeah, they’re off entirely. 

Did ya watch the Trojans on Sunday?

We have a long way until December, but USC looked like a playoff team out of the gate and LSU looked like a team that could make a middling bowl. 

I did. I’ll admit that my preseason assessment of the Hawkeyes appeared to be wrong, at least right now. I was not convinced the offense would be better, but Iowa scored 40 points in Week 1. Can’t say I saw that coming, considering Iowa has only scored 40+ two other times since COVID (41 vs. Western Michigan in 2023; 51 at Maryland in 2021).

Now, how much of that was due to the Hawkeyes facing a FCS team? We’ll find out this week. It’s Cy-Hawk week.

Probably not, but maybe. Depends on how it goes. 

Now, Nebraska has convinced six members of the AP voting panel already, with one having them as high as No. 13 this week. So, never say never.

As it stands, Nebraska-Colorado is one of only a handful of games that interest me this week. 

You have Texas at Michigan. You have Colorado at Nebraska. You have Iowa State at Iowa. You have Tennessee at NC State. You have Kansas at Illinois. You have Boise State at Oregon.

And that’s really all that jumps off the page to me for FBS games this week.