The College Football Blog: 2010 Power Rankings (After Week 1)

Power Rankings after Week 1

1. Alabama 1-0 (1st)
2. Ohio State 1-0 (4th)
3. Florida 1-0 (2nd)
4. Boise State 1-0 (5th)
5. TCU 1-0 (6th)
6. Oklahoma 1-0 (3rd)
7. Texas 1-0 (7th)
8. Oregon 1-0 (9th)
9. Iowa 1-0 (8th)
10. North Carolina (10th)
11. Nebraska (11th)
12. Georgia (12th)
13. Virginia Tech (13th)
14. Miami (14th)
15. Wisconsin (15th)

Explanation: My power rankings after the first week are not going to excite anyone, but I don’t do these rankings based on first impressions. In contrast to my NFL rankings, my college football power rankings do not always have a lot of change from week to week. I’m particularly hesitant to make dramatic changes based off of what happened in the opening week. And there are still plenty of unknowns.

Alabama stays at #1 because they didn’t do anything to make me question their position. Ohio State made the biggest jump in my rankings, mostly because of the questionable debuts of teams ahead of them. But the Buckeyes moving from 4th to 2nd was also due to the fact that I believed they were going to be very good going into the season and they looked really good in week 1. Florida clearly did not have a Florida like performance against Miami of Ohio, thus I moved them down a spot. The reason I didn’t drop them farther down is that I’m not sure what to make of all of the center/QB exchange problems.

Some people would freak out that I only moved Boise State up 1 spot to #4. But these rankings are not political and they don’t change due to the hysterics of the media. I was impressed with Boise State’s victory over Virginia Tech, but I’m not going to move them higher at this point. I was also impressed with TCU’s win over Oregon State, thus they moved a spot ahead.

As much as I don’t like to make rash decisions based off the first game of the season, Oklahoma’s performance against Utah State was disturbing. They took the biggest fall in my rankings, dropping from 3rd to 6th. Texas did not look like Texas against Rice. But it’s still a bit early for me to move other teams ahead of them.

Oregon looked better than any other team in the country last weekend, but I moved them up just 1 spot. Again, I don’t want to make too much of one week. I’m not going to overreact to a good team looking unstoppable against a garbage opponent (which New Mexico certainly is). I moved them ahead of Iowa because I didn’t see much difference between those two going in.

UNC staying at #10 is going to puzzle most people. However, because of the 4th Reich—er, wait, I mean the NCAA—we still don’t know what will happen with all of the suspensions and ineligible players. In spite of all of those week 1 suspensions, the Tar Heels nearly pulled out a win over LSU, and that was actually quite impressive in my opinion.

I also kept Virginia Tech at #13. They lost to Boise State on a “neutral” field, but had they gotten the benefit of some questionable calls they could easily have won. There are no exhibition games, and the Hokies got off to a terrible start, yet they came all the way back and very nearly beat a great Boise State team. I didn’t see anything to make me think they should be moved down.

It seems like things should become clearer after this week. Then again, this is college football, so things will probably only be more confusing a week from now.