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Mike's top 25 college football teams heading into Week 8 of the 2025 season. His complete top 25 rankings, including Ohio State Oregon, LSU, and more.
Week 8 College Football Power Rankings
Week 7 brought more chaos to the college football world. No team really looks dominant, and ones we thought were good are fallible. More coaches got the axe this week, and the SEC is making the best case to go to robot officials. Penn State became the first team ever to lose outright as a 20+-point favorite two weeks in a row. Not to pile it on Penn State, but so far in 2025, teams favored by 20 or more are 69-2. Penn State is 2-2. That means the rest of FBS is 67-0 in point spreads of 20 or more.
25. Arizona State (4-2)
Last week: 19 (⇓6)
Result: L 10-42 at (22) Utah
I was torn on how much to dock the Sun Devils for losing without starting QB Sam Leavitt. It would have been less if the rest of the team had put up some sort of a fight. Utah controlled every part of this game.
24. Memphis
Last week: 24 ⇔
Result: BYE
There’s no big win for Memphis, but they did beat Arkansas and beat up on solid Troy and Florida Atlantic teams.
23. Cincinnati (5-1)
Last week: 21 (⇓2)
Result: W 20-11 vs. Central Florida
It was a rather uninspired showing against the Knights after big wins over Kansas and Iowa State.
22. Illinois (4-2)
Last week: 15 (⇓7)
Result: L 16-34 vs. (6) Ohio State
Both losses are to teams in the top five. The wins over USC and Duke are good. Illinois may not be what many thought at the start of the season, but this is still a good team. Luke Altmyer didn’t throw his first interception of the season until this week.
21. Texas (4-2)
Last week: 47 (⇑26)
Result: W 23-6 vs. (7) Oklahoma
Showing up and dominating a rival, who is ranked much higher than you, is a good way to vault up the list. Texas didn’t do much of anything wrong in this game. Just the multiple blocks in the back that weren’t called during the punt return for a touchdown in the fourth quarter. Ultimately, that play did not affect the outcome. Texas didn’t just punch Oklahoma in the mouth; they knocked them out.
20. USC (5-1)
Last week: 31 (⇑11)
Result: W 31-13 vs. (20) Michigan
This was nearly total domination of a solid Michigan team. A loss at Illinois isn’t a bad loss, especially considering USC had several chances to win that game.
19. Utah (5-1)
Last week: 22 (⇑3)
Result: W 42-10 vs. (19) Arizona State
It’s hard to take the blowout of Arizona State at face value. Sam Leavitt didn’t play in the game. However, Utah’s only loss is to a very good Texas Tech team.
18. Missouri (5-1)
Last week: 16 (⇓2)
Result: L 24-27 vs. (5) Alabama
Losing to Alabama isn’t a bad loss, but wins over South Carolina and Kansas no longer look so great. Missouri played well enough to win this game, but a couple of costly errors let this get away.
17. Virginia (5-1)
Last week: 17 (⇑1)
Result: BYE
The Florida State win isn’t so big anymore, but a road win at Louisville is a good win. Look at the rest of Virginia’s schedule. There’s no Miami. No Clemson. No Georgia Tech. Duke is the only thing standing between Virginia and a 10-win season and a berth in the ACC title game.
16. Notre Dame (4-2)
Last week: 25 (⇑9)
Result: W 36-7 vs. North Carolina State
Notre Dame’s losses are to the top two teams in my rankings. They have outscored the four opponents since those two games by 176-57. Style points still matter. Notre Dame crushing Boise and embarrassing Arkansas in Fayetteville — the same Arkansas team that just pushed the Vols in Knoxville — matters.
15. Georgia Tech (6-0)
Last week: 17 (⇑2)
Result: W 35-20 vs. Virginia Tech
Georgia Tech didn’t win dangerously this time around. This was a methodical Techmo Bowl win. The run game of the Wreck dominated this game.
14. Oklahoma (5-1)
Last week: 7 (⇓7)
Result: L 6-23 vs. (47) Texas
This is a tough one to take. It’s hard to reconcile the Oklahoma team that played tough in the first half with the abomination that showed up in the second half. I knew it would be slow going against the Texas defense. They shut down the run game and confused John Mateer for the entire game. The Texas defense played an amazing game. Oklahoma’s defense was back to a bunch of the things that plagued them a couple of years ago when Brent Venables showed up. There were many missed tackles in the backfield, missed assignments, and the Texas line dominated at the point of attack.
Arch Manning didn’t set the world afire, but he didn’t make any mistakes. He made some throws that were close to perfect. It’s tough to take since Oklahoma got outplayed and outcoached. The Texas players played with far more fire and purpose. That’s always tough to take when your team doesn’t show up. The offense was out of sorts, but a lot of that was because of the Texas defense.
13. Oregon (5-1)
Last week: 10 (⇓3)
Result: L 20-30 vs. (8) Indiana
I know that the Big Ten fans want their teams ranked with the SEC. I gave credit to Ohio State and Indiana for big wins. Oregon doesn’t have that big win. At this point, we are crediting them for a “good” loss, which was by double-digits at home. It is a very real possibility that Northwestern is Oregon’s best win.
12. LSU (5-1)
Last week: 13 (⇑1)
Result: W 20-10 vs. (42) South Carolina
The LSU offense still didn’t look good in this one. LSU hasn’t scored more than 23 points against an FBS opponent this year. This was supposed to be a good offense! The Tigers are surviving on defense.
11. Tennessee (5-1)
Last week: 11 ⇔
Result: W 34-31 vs. Arkansas
The Vols let Arkansas back in this game after leading by 17 early in the fourth quarter. The same thing happened against Georgia. Tennessee blew a two-touchdown lead. It may be time to discuss why this team struggles to close teams out. It could bite them in the near future.
10. Vanderbilt (5-1)
Last week: 12 (⇑2)
Result: BYE
How did Vandy move up? Because the loss to a top-5 Alabama team on the road is more impressive than Tennessee losing to Georgia at home.
9. South Florida (5-1)
Last week: 14 (⇑5)
Result: W 63-36 at (35) North Texas
Take the team name out of this and just look at the credentials. The Bulls destroyed Boise State, which was the only ranked Group of 5 team in the preseason. They beat Florida at The Swamp. The only loss is to top-ranked Miami. Now, the Bulls picked up a road win against undefeated North Texas in the first sellout in stadium history. This team still belongs in the top 10. With games remaining against Memphis and Navy, the Bulls could stay here for a while!
8. Mississippi (6-0)
Last week: 4 (⇓4)
Result: W 24-21 vs. Washington State
You know how my rankings work. I won’t hesitate to move a team down that performs poorly. That was Mississippi in this one. Washington State is not a good team. The Rebels look eerily similar to other paper tigers who have been shredded so far this season. We don’t know much of anything about LSU still. Tulane may be the best win for the Rebels. This team struggled with Kentucky, Arkansas, and now, Washington State. Yuck!
7. Georgia (5-1)
Last week: 9 (⇑2)
Result: W 20-10 at (45) Auburn
I’m an Oklahoma fan, so I have no dog in this fight. As a lover of college football, this was tough to watch. In a sport in which revenue is measured in several billions, there is no reason for officiating to be this bad. That said, the two most egregious things that Auburn had trouble with were again called right. I’m sorry, but it’s true. The still shot claiming a Jackson Arnold touchdown that is circulating on X only proves that it wasn’t a touchdown. The ball was already loose in that photo. What you see in the photo that may look like the ball is actually the fist of the Georgia linebacker who punched the ball out. Not only that, but a Georgia touchdown was taken off the board when the play was wrongfully blown dead.
The other one, in which Kirby Smart was signalling for a timeout, yes, it looked like he was calling a timeout. The timeout was given back to Georgia because the Auburn safety was clapping before the snap, which is illegal. The officials didn’t catch it; therefore, they returned the timeout. You can question how they handled that if you want, but that was probably the fairest way to do it. Smart never claimed that he didn’t call a timeout. He argued that the Auburn player was clapping, which was true. If you were going to charge the timeout, the penalty should have then been assessed. Do you want to know the worst thing about this? The two people in the booth instigated this whole thing without knowing the full story in either case. The outrage in the booth has given rise to the outrage on social media. It was the same way in the Oklahoma game. The Sategna touchdown was perfectly legal. The Oklahoma defender tackling the receiver was not. Unfortunately, Auburn has been on the wrong side of all of this, but the only legit complaint is the Oklahoma defender committing what was clearly pass interference. The narrative on the Sategna play is again allowed to carry on because the booth mentioned during the Georgia game that it was illegal — despite it being well known that Oklahoma had asked the crew about the play in pregame, and that Sategna was standing not two feet from an official. The only thing he was “hiding” from was the Auburn defense, who were too occupied in jawing with Deion Burks over the previous play to realize that Sategna was all the way over on the sideline.
6. Texas Tech (6-0)
Last week: 2 ⇔
Result: W 42-17 vs. (49) Kansas
The Red Raiders are in the same boat as Notre Dame. The Big 12 is unfairly considered a lesser conference by the driving media forces of the sport. Unfortunately, many voters listen to that rhetoric. It’s hard for me to call Kansas that good of a team, but the win over Utah is still a solid one.
Tech’s remaining schedule will do them no favors. The only currently ranked team in the AP left on the docket is BYU. K-State and Arizona State are solid, but Tech still gets the three worst teams in the conference (West Virginia, Oklahoma State, and Central Florida). If the playoff were still only four teams, a 12-0 Texas Tech may have been left out for a one-loss SEC AND a one-loss Big Ten team.
5. Ohio State (6-0)
Last week: 6 (⇑1)
Result: W 34-16 vs. (15) Illinois
Wins over a ranked Illinois and a ranked Texas move the Buckeyes back into the top 5. Texas Tech will have a chance to get the SOS up again soon, but the Kansas win doesn’t look like much. The Ohio State defense outshone the offense this week, further proving that this will be a very tough team to beat.
4. Alabama (5-1)
Last week: 5 (⇑1)
Result: W 27-24 at (16) Missouri
The three-game gauntlet of Georgia, Vanderbilt, and Missouri — two of which were on the road — is better than any other team’s three wins. So yes, I’m still docking Alabama for losing to a Florida State team that has lost eight straight ACC games. Otherwise, the Tide would be ranked at the top.
3. Indiana (6-0)
Last week: 8 (⇑5)
Result: W 30-20 at (10) Oregon
While it is true that we still don’t know much about Oregon, Indiana beating a solid Illinois team by 50 should still carry a lot of weight. You don’t think so? Illinois beat USC, which beat Michigan…both of which are ranked. Indiana’s wins rank up there with Texas A&M, assuming Oregon is still a top 10 team.
2. Texas A&M (6-0)
Last week: 2 ⇔
Result: W 34-17 vs. Florida
The Aggies’ big win in South Bend is carrying them. You could argue that Indiana should be here, and I can’t really disagree. The Aggies get a little bump right now because we know who Florida and Auburn are. We still don’t know much about Oregon. The Penn State win means little right now.
1. Miami (FL) (5-0)
Last week: 1 ⇔
Result: BYE
The Hurricanes got to rest again before a Week 8 Friday night tilt against Louisville. Hopefully, they take it more seriously than Florida State did.
