The CBS Sports 127 has been one week ahead of most polls and college football rankings — not just this season but in general, though it did happen again seven days ago as Alabama was named the new No. 1 team in the country last week. The first-place votes had been getting shifted around between Alabama, Clemson and even Ohio State for a few weeks, and after the Crimson Tide blew out Mississippi State while Clemson needed a late rally to erase a double-digit halftime deficit against Boston College, enough votes changed hands to make the swap official.
Alabama was moved to No. 1, while Clemson settled in at No. 2. Even that reduced ranking for the Tigers did not last long because after losing 47-40 in double-overtime at Notre Dame, they are down again in the CBS Sports 127, our comprehensive ranking of every FBS team in action this year. Clemson now sits at No. 4, while Notre Dame moved ahead of it after the win. However, unlike some of the top 25 polls released Sunday, the Fighting Irish did not jump ahead of Ohio State, which narrowly finished ahead in the balloting for the No. 2 spot.
Florida checks in at No. 5 after beating Georgia over the weekend, one spot ahead of the Texas A&M team that beat it earlier this season in College Station, Texas. The Aggies are packed tight in a trio with No. 7 BYU and No. 8 Cincinnati, all within a few percentage points of each other. However, the Gators at No. 5 and Oregon at No. 9 are a bit separated from that pack.
Other notable changes included double-digit drops for Michigan and Penn State, as well as a surge of confidence for Liberty after its win against Virginia Tech. For more on the biggest movements up and down, check out our mover’s report below.
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 26-127 on our rankings page.
Biggest movers
- No. 19 Liberty (+18): Our voters were holding out on the Flames, but the win at Virginia Tech has our attention. Liberty is now 2-0 against ACC teams and will get a crack at a third against NC State later this month, then a highly-anticipated regular season finale against Coastal Carolina. Fire up the Hugh Freeze sweepstakes because this team will be in the national spotlight for the rest of the year.
- No. 29 Army (+15): Saturday’s game against Air Force was postponed due to COVID-19, but a lot of the shake ups from just outside the top 25 with Big Ten teams falling and some instant reaction to the Pac-12 action allowed for the Black Knights to make a big move up in the rankings.
- No. 30 Arkansas (+13): Of all the new hires in the SEC, Sam Pittman’s arrival at Arkansas came with the least amount of buzz or fanfare. But Pittman’s first season as a coach is looking to be one of the most successful of any of the first-year coaches across the country. After beating Tennessee, the Razorbacks are up more than a dozen spots into the top 30.
- No. 35 Virginia Tech (-9): Justin Fuente has this team at a fork in the road after the second outright loss as a double-digit favorite this season. Not only did Virginia Tech lose at home to Liberty as double-digit favorites, it did so with a total collapse in execution on the field and on the sideline in the final 10 seconds.
- No. 48 Michigan (-19): If Michigan had looked better in a loss against Indiana, we might not have seen such a striking adjustment in the rankings. After all, the Hoosiers are off to a strong start and have the momentum of a good showing in 2019 to help power its reputation among our voters. But the Wolverines couldn’t get back into the game in the second half, and I think it led to a more dramatic drop in the rankings.
- No. 52 Penn State (-31): There was not another fire sale in the rankings quite like how our voters bailed on Penn State after the Nittany Lions’ loss to Maryland. At 0-2 we still had belief in Penn State, but after this weekend, the free fall does not come as a surprise.
Check out the rest of the CBS Sports 127: Teams ranked 26-127
