College Football Ratings Week 2 2022
Week 2 was the most enjoyable September football Saturday I can remember. I have been hyping up the Sun Belt all offseason and it paid off yesterday as Marshall, App State and Georgia Southern all pulled off huge wins. Even when the favorites won, the games were great, from Alabama/Texas at noon to Baylor/BYU and Oregon State/Fresno State in the nightcap.
Top 25
Georgia
Ohio State (+1)
Alabama (-1)
Michigan
Mississippi State (+1)
Oklahoma (-1)
Tennessee
NC State (+2)
BYU
Utah (+2)
Cincinnati (+2)
Purdue (+7)
Oklahoma State (+2)
Texas A&M (-3)
Arkansas (-1)
Miami (+2)
Oregon State
LSU (+9)
Minnesota (+4)
UCLA
Notre Dame (-13)
Wisconsin (-6)
Ole Miss (-1)
Florida State (+2)
Texas (+23)
Michigan remains in 4th but the gap between them and the top 3 has shrunk a bit after a complete demolition of Hawai’i that sent the Rainbow Warriors to last place in my ratings. I was surprised to see Purdue in 12th, but my model sees a team that outplayed Penn State in week 1 and beat the brakes off Indiana State. The Boilermakers have an interesting matchup against a surprising Syracuse team this week. I think that the Big Ten West could come down to them and Minnesota who has demolished two bad teams so far this year.
Moving Up
It’s not surprising that Marshall (88th → 63rd) is the biggest riser in my ratings after their huge win over Notre Dame. The Thundering Herd are a bit unlike other G5 teams as they have tons of players who were good recruits and transferred to Marshall from Power Five schools. Texas (48th → 25th) is the rare team to show up in this category after a loss, but losses don’t get much “better” than a 1 point loss to Alabama. The Longhorns do need to look out though as they face a trip from a pesky UTSA team this coming weekend.
Moving Down
Notre Dame (8th → 21st) has predictably fallen quite a bit. It could be a bumpy road for the Irish as they face North Carolina and BYU away from home in their coming games. Virginia (68th → 82nd) got waxed by Illinois in a game that was not as close as the final score indicates. I don’t really know what’s going on with Coastal Carolina (81st → 96th) as they struggled to get past FCS Gardner-Webb, a far cry from their recent 10 win seasons.