College Football Rankings: B/R’s Top 25 After Week 1 | News, Scores, Highlights,

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Ohio State’s C.J. Stroud led the Buckeyes to victory over Notre Dame (AP Photo/David Dermer)

It’s only Week 1 of the 2022 college football season, but the Pac-12 is unfortunately already in midseason form, quickly playing its way out of the College Football Playoff conversation.

Well, not entirely. AP No. 14 USC did put a 66-14 hurting on Rice with help from not one, not two, but three pick sixes. But No. 11 Oregon got destroyed by No. 3 Georgia, and No. 7 Utah went into the Gainesville swamp and came away with an L against an unranked Florida.

Temporarily unranked, that is.

After knocking off Utah in Billy Napier’s debut as head coach, the Gators are going to skyrocket into the AP poll, possibly all the way into the Top 10. Anthony Richardson was every bit as electric as we remembered from when he was healthy early last season, and they are at least a top 10 team now as far as Bleacher Report’s college football experts—David Kenyon, Adam Kramer, Kerry Miller, Morgan Moriarty and Brad Shepard—are concerned.

While that upset was going down on Saturday night, AP No. 2 Ohio State gradually asserted its will for a 21-10 victory over No. 5 Notre Dame in the opening weekend’s main event.

It was touch and go there for a while with the Fighting Irish gaining 54 yards (69 if you count the 15 yard roughing the passer penalty) on the very first snap of the game, followed by the Buckeyes losing Jaxon Smith-Njigba to a leg injury (fingers crossed that it’s not anything serious) midway through the first quarter. But Ohio State just had too much talent, too much toughness and too much Miyan Williams and TreVeyon Henderson to be denied a marquee victory.

We will update these rankings on Monday night if Clemson struggles or even loses to Georgia Tech in the Chick-fil-A kickoff, but while we wait for that final game of Week 1, here is what our consensus Top 25 looks like heading into Week 2:

1. Alabama (Previous Rank: 1)
2. Georgia (3)
3. Ohio State (2)
4. Clemson (4)
5. Michigan (8)
6. Texas A&M (7)
7. Florida (NR)
8. Oklahoma (15)
9. USC (11)
10. Notre Dame (5)
11. Arkansas (16)
12. Michigan State (12)
13. Miami (17)
14 (tie). Baylor (14)
14 (tie). BYU (23)
14 (tie). Wisconsin (18)
17. Oklahoma State (9)
18. Utah (6)
19. Tennessee (NR)
20. Pittsburgh (25)
21. Penn State (19t)
22. Kentucky (24)
23. Houston (19t)
24. Texas (22)
25. NC State (10)

Also Receiving Votes: Ole Miss, Wake Forest, Mississippi State

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Georgia’s Stetson Bennett (Todd Kirkland/Getty Images)

After breaking through and winning the 2019 national championship, LSU had 14 players taken in the NFL draft… and subsequently crashed and burned.

But if you were worried that reigning national champion Georgia might endure a similar fate after having 15 players (including five first-rounders) taken in the 2022 NFL draft, Saturday’s 49-3 annihilation of No. 11 Oregon should have quelled those irrational fears.

The passing attack was darn near flawless. Stetson Bennett did most of the work, but Carson Beck also contributed to the 439 yards and three touchdowns through the air. The Bulldogs averaged nearly 12 yards per pass attempt against what was supposed to be a very good Oregon defense under new head coach (and former UGA DC) Dan Lanning.

Simultaneously, it was Georgia’s defense that ruled the day, picking off Bo Nix twice within the game’s first 20 minutes and limiting the Ducks to just one field goal. Prior to a meaningless lengthy drive in the final 10 minutes, Oregon had a modest 221 yards of total offense.

The Dawgs didn’t get any sacks in this one, so it wasn’t quite the same “Holy cow, how is anyone going to score against this defense?!” type of statement that they made in last year’s season opener against Clemson. Still, it was a dominant performance, at least on par with what they used to do to Nix when he was the quarterback at Auburn for the past three years.

If even Oregon couldn’t remotely challenge this Georgia team, it legitimately might not face a stiff test until the projected SEC championship showdown with Alabama. The Bulldogs only have one other game on the schedule against a ranked opponent, and that game at AP No. 20 Kentucky is two-and-a-half months away.

Get used to seeing these guys at or near the top of the rankings.

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NC State’s Devin Leary (Grant Halverson/Getty Images)

The good news is NC State didn’t actually lose its season opener at East Carolina.

The bad news is the No. 10 team in our preseason rankings could not have possibly inspired less confidence in its 21-20 victory over the Pirates.

With help from a blocked punt recovered for a touchdown, the Wolfpack carried a 21-7 lead into the intermission. But what we thought would be one of the most potent offensive attacks in the nation this season was held without a point from that point forward.

It wasn’t for lack of opportunity. On one drive, the Wolfpack marched 74 yards down the field before fumbling at the ECU 1. And on their subsequent possession, they had 1st and Goal on the ECU 1 before…