With last night's conclusion of the first week of the college football season, the Associated Press just released its Week 2 Top 25 Poll.
The first thing that caught my eye was Wisconsin coming in at No. 10 after being unranked to start the season. Saturday's win vs. LSU at Lambeau Field was very nice, but time will tell if they are the 10th best team in the country. The Big Ten West is certainly wide open and the LSU win could springboard the Badgers into a trip to the Big Ten Championship. Will the Badgers be able to keep teams with legit offenses?
One of the inherent flaws of this week's poll (or any September college football poll) is that objectively it is difficult to rank teams based on the small sample size of one game. Do we really think that No. 10 Wisconsin would be able to keep up with No. 13 Louisville for example? Wisconsin has an absolutely brutal start of the Big Ten schedule. After games versus Georgia State and Akron, they open up the Big Ten with: No. 12 Michigan State, No. 5 Michigan, No. 4. Ohio State, and No. 17 Iowa. The scheduling gods did not do any favors to the Badgers. They could easily be 3-4 near the end of October.
LSU conversely dropped to No. 21, but it is a long season and there is plenty to figure out along the way. They can still win 9+ games, but it seems like the SEC West is Alabama's to lose.
To the casual sports fan, it may be surprising to see Houston at No. 6, but they will continue to get a lot of attention after their big win against Oklahoma. I am also interested in seeing how No. 8 Washington will do throughout the season. The Huskies are this year's media darlings; they started out at No. 14, despite finishing 7-6 last year, and jumped out to No. 8 after beating lowly Rutgers. Their first test will come when they host No. 7 Stanford on September 30th.
Many fan bases are still trying to flush out the memories of Week 1. Speaking of Stanford, the best news is that it is only Week 2 and it is still possible to be this year's Stanford. Last year, the Cardinal lost to Northwestern to open the season, only to rebound and win the Pac 12 and nearly make the College Football Playoff (CFP).
At the end of the season, the only poll that "matters" is the CFP selection committee's Top 25. The CFP Pool typically does not come out until October, so I like to look at the AP poll as a barometer for the season. There is also a Coaches Poll, but I feel like it is kind of a joke since you'd think that the demands of being a college coach would preclude them from getting a good grasp of the national landscape.
