The SEC continued its run of filling up the top of the college football rankings, with Alabama making a push up into the top four of the updated CBS Sports 138, a ranking of every FBS team.
Our panel of CBS Sports and 247Sports experts has found itself dealing with some real headaches inside the top 30, like slotting a Florida team that beat Ole Miss but lost to Missouri or an Oregon team that beat USC but lost to Oklahoma State. But one thing that our experts can agree on is that the Alabama Crimson Tide are one of the hottest teams in the country and are now pushing the discussion as a contender for No. 1 as it heads into this weekend's showdown with Georgia.
Alabama's rise keeps the SEC well-represented even as Florida drops outside the top 10 following a shockingly uncompetitive performance at Missouri, and the conference is poised with three of the top four, five of the top 10 and nine of the top 20 teams in our rankings.
Another interesting wrinkle this week has been the logjam of teams between No. 20 and No. 40. While fans kick and scream over which teams do and don't make the cut for a traditional top 25, our CBS Sports 138 exposes just how tight those teams are in that range of the rankings. From Iowa at No. 20 to Nebraska at No. 28, every team has an average ballot ranking better than 25.0. With imbalanced schedules and only a few conference games completed, we are looking at a week where there are about 30 teams who are deemed "top 25 quality" by the experts.
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 26-138 on our rankings page.
RankTeamRecordPrevious1Texas4-012Georgia5-023Miami5-034Alabama5-075Notre Dame5-046Ohio State4-157Indiana5-068BYU4-099LSU4-11110Ole Miss3-11011Utah4-01412Texas Tech5-01213Oregon3-11514Florida4-1815Missouri4-12416UCLA4-01817Tennessee4-11718Mississippi State 4-11619Iowa4-11320USC5-11921Oklahoma State3-12022Pittsburgh5-02523Duke4-02224Wake Forest4-12325Boise State4-128Biggest movers
- No. 35 Arizona (+11): The Wildcats put together a strong performance late Saturday night, and our voters took notice, sliding Arizona up inside the top 40 after the team handed Cincinnati its first loss of the season. This is a 4-1 team that is light on power conference wins (1) at the moment, but is capable of continuing to rise with wins in Big 12 play in the coming weeks.
- No. 34 Minnesota (+10): Back-to-back wins against Washington and Michigan have reset where Minnesota sits in the Big Ten hierarchy in 2026. The Gophers entered both games as betting underdogs but won on the margins. Now, they eye the opportunity to be a dark horse candidate in the Big Ten race.
- No. 64 NC State (+10): The stock had gotten pretty low for the Wolfpack, so there was definitely some room for a move up after upsetting Louisville at home in a rain-slogged Saturday-afternoon affair. The win marked the fourth straight game of the offense putting up 30+ points after a slow start in Week Zero, and now NC State is back inside the top 70 of our full 138-team rankings.
- No. 37 Virginia Tech (-11): This is a somewhat surprising spot for the Hokies given the fact that James Franklin's team is 4-1 with two power conference wins (and that the one loss came by a field goal attempt that missed by inches), but Virginia Tech is one of those teams dealing with a rankings logjam right now. The average ballot ranking for Virginia Tech is 33.75, but unfortunately, there are 15 teams occupying ballot averages between No. 23 and No. 34. With 15 teams for 12 spots, voters are splitting hairs, and Virginia Tech's best win is either Maryland or Boston College.
- No. 44 Penn State (-12): A predictable drop here for Penn State after getting manhandled by Northwestern on Friday night in the opening of the new Ryan Field. There is an opportunity to roar back for the Nittany Lions after two straight losses to conference opponents, but it's going to require more production on offense with USC coming to town for a White Out in Week 6.
- No. 49 Virginia (-13): The Wahoos have struggled to recapture that Week Zero rout of NC State, because since Aug. 30, we have seen just one FBS win for Virginia, and that came against Delaware (42-3) last week. A 38-7 loss at Florida State has voters seriously rethinking where this group stands among its power conference peers and the top Group of Six contenders.
- No. 48 Michigan (-17): We are five games into the season, and the only time Michigan has scored 20 points or more came against UTEP in Week 3. Kyle Whittingham is taking this group into the off week with plenty to work on, and our voters have firmly declared this to be a team on watch for potentially getting booted from the top 50 if it can't turn things around when the Wolverines return to play in Week 7 against Penn State.
Check out the rest of the CBS Sports 138: Teams ranked 26-138
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