If the first Saturday in November was a preview of the month to come in college football, nothing will be stable as it relates to the rankings throughout the final weeks of the regular season. The CBS Sports 134, our comprehensive ranking of every FBS team, had just started to make adjustments to reward teams that made it to this point in the year with a 0 or a 1 in the loss column, but after Week 10, many of those teams who had seen notable boosts have been sent tumbling down the rankings after losses.
The only reliable part of the rankings as we turn our attention to the week ahead, which includes the first release of the College Football Playoff Rankings, is that Oregon is the No. 1 team in the country. The Ducks improved to 9-0 with a win at Michigan over the weekend, and with a victory over Ohio State on the profile, it’s hard to argue any other team is better or more deserving of the top spot.
That win against the Buckeyes looks even better coming out of the weekend after Ohio State was able to stand tall on the road and defend its lead against Penn State en route to an eighth straight win against the Nittany Lions. That victory has Ohio State moving up to No. 2, trailing only Oregon, while Penn State drops to No. 7 and stands currently as the fourth one-loss team in the rankings.
The shakeup in the top five opened up a spot that was taken by Indiana, which jumped Texas to grab No. 5 after improving to 9-0 with a win at Michigan State. And while we don’t have a firm catalogue of every CBS Sports 134 ranking (which would hypothetically include all the years of the CBS Sports 128, 129, 131 and 133), it does seem as though No. 5 is the highest ranking for the Hoosiers in almost a decade of ranking every FBS team.
Elsewhere in the top 30 we saw SMU jump nine spots from No. 20 to No. 11 after handing Pitt its first loss of the season, and Iowa State dropped six spots from No. 8 to No. 14 after picking up its first defeat of 2024 at the hands of Texas Tech. Louisville also joined the top 25 thanks to its win at Clemson, which also resulted in the Tigers having one of the most notable drops in the rankings this week. For more on the biggest and most notable week-to-week adjustments, check out the Mover’s Report below the top 25 table.
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 26-134 on our rankings page.
| 1 | Oregon | 9-0 | 1 |
| 2 | Ohio State | 7-1 | 4 |
| 3 | Georgia | 7-1 | 2 |
| 4 | Miami | 9-0 | 5 |
| 5 | Indiana | 9-0 | 7 |
| 6 | Texas | 7-1 | 6 |
| 7 | Penn State | 7-1 | 3 |
| 8 | BYU | 8-0 | 9 |
| 9 | Notre Dame | 7-1 | 11 |
| 10 | Tennessee | 7-1 | 13 |
| 11 | SMU | 8-1 | 20 |
| 12 | Boise State | 7-1 | 15 |
| 13 | Alabama | 6-2 | 17 |
| 14 | Iowa State | 7-1 | 8 |
| 15 | Texas A&M | 7-2 | 12 |
| 16 | LSU | 6-2 | 18 |
| 17 | Ole Miss | 7-2 | 21 |
| 18 | Army | 8-0 | 18 |
| 19 | Pittsburgh | 7-1 | 14 |
| 20 | Kansas State | 7-2 | 16 |
| 21 | Clemson | 6-2 | 10 |
| 22 | Colorado | 6-2 | 22 |
| 23 | Washington State | 7-1 | 23 |
| 24 | Louisville | 6-3 | 32 |
| 25 | South Carolina | 5-3 | 40 |
Biggest movers
- No. 57 UCF (+16): Sometimes an eye-popping result can get voters’ attention, and UCF’s 56-12 thrashing of Arizona certainly qualifies as one of those “sticker shock” scores. The victory snaps a five-game losing streak for the Knights and shows somewhat of a reversal of momentum after a quarterback change has given the offense as a spark.
- No. 25 South Carolina (+15): The Gamecocks are the quality loss team of the year so far with two of three defeats coming by three points or fewer to LSU and Alabama. Because of the performances, there was a hesitation from voters to ever drop South Carolina outside the top 50, but a thunderous win against Texas A&M has the Gamecocks soaring up in the rankings now sitting well inside the top 30.
- No. 38 Texas Tech (+13): A blown lead against TCU resulted in a nine-spot drop last week, and now voters are making quick corrections after the Red Raiders went on the road to take down previously undefeated Iowa State. It’s by far the best win of the season from a rankings perspective, and now at 6-3, Texas Tech is positioned to make a run at its winningest season under Joey McGuire.
- No. 35 Louisiana (+11): The climb continues for a Louisiana team that is now 7-1 overall and undefeated in conference play after a win at Texas State in Week 10. The Ragin’ Cajuns have a win at Wake Forest on the profile, and the only defeat was by eight points to Tulane, so a move into the top 40 was warranted as the program looks to add another Sun Belt title to the trophy case.
- No. 33 Minnesota (+10): The Golden Gophers have been slowly climbing back up during this recent winning streak, which was extended to four games after winning at Illinois on Saturday. From a rankings perspective, this team bottomed out when they were 2-3 with the only wins coming against Nevada and FCS Rhode Island, but in taking down the likes of USC and Illinois on the way to 6-3, our voters are rowing the boat far more than they were in October.
- No. 44 Memphis (-10): The Tigers had a path to crashing the AAC title game before letting go of the rope in a 44-36 loss at UTSA. When Memphis was a one-loss team, you could argue for top-40 inclusion even with a lack of high-end wins, but now the team is 7-2 and the best win is arguably against a North Texas team our voters have No. 65.
- No. 47 Nebraska (-10): In losing at home to UCLA, the Cornhuskers extended their losing streak to three games and fell to 2-4 in Big Ten play. Now the eight-year pursuit of returning to the postseason continues with the final stretch of games including road games at USC and Iowa with a home finale against Wisconsin in between.
- No. 49 Michigan (-10): The Wolverines had just moved up inside the top 40 with last week’s win against Michigan State but now are tumbling to the edge of the top 50 after falling to 5-4 overall with Saturday’s loss to Oregon. This was admittedly a surprising adjustment given pregame expectations and the final result (a 21-point defeat), but a step back reveals a profile that shows three losses in the last four since being 4-1 at the start of October.
- No. 21 Clemson (-11): When Clemson’s only loss was to Georgia in Week 1, it was hard for voters to punish the Tigers too much as the team remained inside the top 20 while they piled up wins on the profile. But after a stunning double-digit home loss to Louisville as a double-digit favorite, Clemson’s profile is getting a second look. What’s revealed is just one win against a team that currently has a winning record (NC State at 5-4) and that lack of notable victories makes it tough win tiebreakers against other two-loss teams.
- No. 41 Navy (-16): Our voters only docked Navy three spots last week after the loss to Notre Dame, but not it’s a free-fall after losing to a Rice team that had just fired its head coach after a 2-6 start to the season.
Check out the rest of the CBS Sports 134: Teams ranked 26-134