AP Top 25 Poll – Week 1 – Directorio De Blogs

Welcome to Week 1 of College Football. This weekly series begins with the AP Top 25 preseason poll.

AP voters released this poll on Aug. 15, and Week 0 games had no bearing on that week’s standings.

Where is the UNC?

The North Carolina Tar Heels received a handful of votes but didn’t have enough to crack the top 25. According to total votes, UNC is No. 39.
Carolina was ranked on two ballots, one at No. 20 and the other at No. 23.

There was a clear dividing line between the No. 25 and the next team. BYU got 234 votes and captured the final spot in the Top 25. Tennessee was the second highest in votes with 180. That 54-point gap is significant but not overwhelming.
Iowa completely imploded in last year’s Big Ten Championship game against Michigan, then lost the Citrus Bowl by a field goal. Despite the return of a good number of players, including the starting quarterback and all three linebackers, the Hawkeyes are unranked.

The odds are high on Texas A&M. The Aggies are the only top-10 team not to have double-digit win totals last season and are the highest-ranked team not to finish last year in the latest Top 25 poll. victory over Alabama in 2021 still wins love for TAMU.
Southern California is the only team in the poll with a losing record last season. With some big transfers, pollsters are high on new head coach Lincoln Riley.

As mentioned above, Tennessee and Iowa received votes and are No. 26 and No. 28, respectively.
Is Texas back? The Longhorns are ranked No. 18 in the USA TODAY Sports AFCA Coaches Poll and unranked in the AP Poll. BYU and Texas are the only teams that appear in only one of the two major polls.
Penn State is the last team within striking distance of the Top 25. Senior Redshirt quarterback Sean Clifford can be the difference maker for the Nittany Lions.

The best poster this week is No. 5 Notre Dame at No. 2 Ohio State. The Irish travel to Columbus for the primetime game on Saturday. Vegas doesn’t think it will be close as the Buckeyes are favorites with 17.5 points.
Saturday afternoon, No. 23 Cincinnati heads to Fayetteville to face No. 19 Arkansas. The Razorbacks are favored by just six points.

No. 24 Houston is just a four-point favorite over UT San Antonio. This has the makings of a high score game in the Alamodome.
Utah’s No. 7 heads to The Swamp this weekend. The Utes are only favored with a field goal on unranked Florida.
If you’re looking for a party, head to East Carolina this weekend. Noon at Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium could be a problem for the visiting Wolfpack. Dave Doeren has never won in Greenville, and NC State hasn’t won there since 2007.