Ohio State keeps No. 1 spot in college football Power Rankings after Week 1

Ohio State tops SI.com's college football power rankings after Week 1.

Week 1 always poses a unique challenge to assessments of any team. Whether it looked good or bad, how much was a team's debut performance due to its own abilities and how much was due to its opponent's. This is why the College Football Playoff committee doesn't begin ranking teams until the middle of the season, when seven or eight games offer a larger sample size on which to evaluate teams' strengths and weaknesses.

But what's a Week 1 Power Ranker to do? Some results appeared to suggest more than others. Alabama's methodic steamroll of Wisconsin seems like pretty solid evidence that the Crimson Tide are among the top teams in the country. Other results are more muddled. Is TCU's narrow-but-never-seriously-in-doubt victory over Minnesota proof that the Horned Frogs are vulnerable this year? Or that Minnesota is a contender in the Big Ten? For now, we mostly have to hedge, assuming the answer is somewhere between the two ends of the spectrum. Only more games will tell if that assumption is correct.

1. Ohio State Buckeyes

PREVIOUS: 1

RECORD: 1-0

Next game: Saturday vs. Hawaii

2. Alabama Crimson Tide

PREVIOUS: 5

RECORD: 1-0

Next game: Saturday vs. Middle Tennessee

3. Baylor Bears

PREVIOUS: 6

RECORD: 1-0

Next game: Saturday vs. Lamar

4. Notre Dame Fighting Irish

PREVIOUS: 4

RECORD: 1-0

Next game: Saturday at Virginia

5. UCLA Bruins

PREVIOUS: 14

RECORD: 1-0

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6. Michigan State spartans

PREVIOUS: 7

RECORD: 1-0

Next game: Saturday vs. Oregon

7. TCU Horned Frogs

PREVIOUS: 3

RECORD: 1-0

Next game: Saturday vs. Stephen F. Austin

8. Auburn Tigers

PREVIOUS: 2

RECORD: 1-0

Next game: Saturday vs. Jacksonville State

9. Georgia Bulldogs

PREVIOUS: 11

RECORD: 1-0

Next game: Saturday at Vanderbilt

10. Oregon Ducks

PREVIOUS: 10

RECORD: 1-0

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11. USC Trojans

PREVIOUS: 8

RECORD: 1-0

Next game: Saturday vs. Idaho

12. Ole Miss Rebels

PREVIOUS: 13

RECORD: 1-0

Next game: Saturday vs. Fresno State

13. Clemson Tigers

PREVIOUS: 12

RECORD: 1-0

Next game: Saturday vs. Appalachian State

14. Florida State Seminoles

PREVIOUS: 9

RECORD: 1-0

Next game: Saturday vs. South Florida

15. Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets

PREVIOUS: 19

RECORD: 1-0

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16. Oklahoma Sooners

PREVIOUS: 21

RECORD: 1-0

Next game: Saturday at Tennessee

17. Texas A&M Aggies

RECORD: 1-0

Next game: Saturday vs. Ball State

18. Arkansas Razorbacks

PREVIOUS: 22

RECORD: 1-0

Next game: Saturday vs. Toledo

19. LSU Tigers

PREVIOUS: 23

RECORD: 0-0

Next game: Saturday at Mississippi State

20. Missouri Tigers

PREVIOUS: 20

RECORD: 1-0

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21. Arizona Wildcats

PREVIOUS: 15

RECORD: 1-0

Next game: Saturday at Nevada

22. Boise State Broncos

PREVIOUS: 16

RECORD: 1-0

Next game: Saturday at BYU

23. Utah Utes

RECORD: 1-0

Next game: Friday vs. Utah State

24. Tennessee Volunteers

RECORD: 1-0

Next game: Saturday vs. Oklahoma

25. Oklahoma State cowboys

RECORD: 1-0

Next game: Saturday vs. Central Arkansas

Next five: BYU, Wisconsin, West Virginia, Arizona State, Cincinnati