Week 3 is where these rankings finally start becoming more than preseason opinions with a couple box scores attached. We have teams with real wins now, teams with losses that actually need explained, and Oregon dropping 84 points one week after losing to Oklahoma State because college football has absolutely no interest in making this easy.
My college football top 25 after Week 3 still starts with Georgia at No. 1, followed by Notre Dame, Miami, Texas and Indiana. Ohio State is my highest one-loss team at No. 6, Ole Miss has played its way all the way up to No. 7, and Texas A&M gets absolutely LAUNCHED after losing at home to Kentucky.
Same deal as last week: this is about everything a team has done so far. Saturday matters, but I’m not pretending the first two games disappeared because somebody looked awesome or terrible this weekend. You can see last week’s Top 25 here to see exactly what changed: https://hailmary.media/college-football-top-25-after-week-2/
Virginia is out after losing 38-27 to West Virginia. Florida finally has a real win and takes the last spot.
College Football Top 25 After Week 3: The Full Rankings
25. Florida
Florida finally gave me something besides two giant scores against teams it was supposed to beat. The Gators opened 66-21 over Florida Atlantic and then beat Campbell 52-3, which is exactly what Florida should do in those games. Nice start, but I wasn’t putting them in the Top 25 because they murdered Campbell.
Going to Auburn and winning 44-39 changes it. Florida is 3-0, finally has an SEC road win on the résumé and has shown enough offensively through three weeks that I can’t leave them out anymore. Giving up 39 is also why they’re entering at No. 25 instead of getting some giant launch up the rankings.
Ole Miss comes to Gainesville next, so we’re going to find out VERY quickly whether this is a nice September start or if Florida is actually becoming a problem.
24. Michigan
Michigan is 3-0, and somehow every week has told us something completely different about them. Week 1 was the ridiculous 13-12 escape against Western Michigan that required the extra second and second Hail Mary attempt. Then Michigan turned around and beat Oklahoma 17-10, which immediately gave the Wolverines a win good enough to make the opener easier to forgive.
UTEP brought some of the weirdness back. Michigan only led 17-14 at halftime after a pair of turnovers before finally taking control and winning 52-17. That second half looked a lot more like what a ranked Michigan team should do to UTEP, but we’re three games in and Oklahoma remains the only performance where Michigan looked good against a team capable of actually punishing them.
The Wolverines are undefeated and have a real win. They also have two games where they spent way too much time screwing around with teams they should handle. No. 24 feels right.
23. Pitt
Pitt has probably shown more range than anybody around this part of the rankings. Mason Heintschel threw seven touchdowns in a 59-14 Week 1 demolition of Miami (Ohio), then the Panthers had to win a completely different game against UCF when the rain turned everything into a mess. Pitt scored 12 points and still walked out 2-0 because the defense handled its business.
The 27-13 win over Syracuse was somewhere between those two. Pitt didn’t need another Heintschel explosion and didn’t need to survive a monsoon either. The Panthers ran the ball for 245 yards, got three rushing touchdowns and made Syracuse uncomfortable basically all night.
There isn’t a win on the résumé yet that makes Pitt some obvious top-15 team, but they’re 3-0 after winning three different kinds of football games. That is worth something.
22. Missouri
Missouri still has one win doing most of the work here, and that’s the 38-21 victory at Kansas. The opener against Arkansas-Pine Bluff was exactly what it was supposed to be, but going on the road for the Border War and taking control of the game gave the Tigers something real.
Troy made them look a lot more ordinary. Missouri fell behind 10-0 and had to lean on its defense, special teams and a big second quarter before eventually winning 27-17. It never became a full disaster, but it was definitely not the kind of performance that makes me want to start shoving Missouri toward the top 15.
The Tigers are 3-0 with a good rivalry win. They’re also still waiting for a performance that makes this team feel like something more than solid.
21. Oklahoma
Oklahoma’s defense might be ranked about 15 spots too low. The offense is the reason the entire team is sitting here.
The Sooners opened by beating UTEP 51-0, then scored 10 points in the loss at Michigan. Fine. Losing 17-10 in Ann Arbor isn’t some unforgivable result, especially when the defense gave Oklahoma every chance to win the game.
Then New Mexico came to Norman and Oklahoma scored FOURTEEN points. The Sooners won 14-6, but they had 299 total yards and spent another Saturday asking the defense to make sure basically nothing went wrong.
One ugly offensive game can happen. Two in a row starts looking like a problem. Georgia is next, which seems like a fantastic time to figure out where all the points went.
20. Oregon
I do not care that Oregon just won 84-0 enough to forget what happened seven days earlier.
The Ducks opened with a 34-27 win over Boise State, then went to Oklahoma State as a huge favorite and lost 39-31 to a program that entered that game on a 21-game losing streak against FBS opponents. That is still one of the worst losses anybody in these rankings has taken.
So naturally Oregon responded by beating Portland State 84-0. The Ducks scored touchdowns on their first seven possessions and led 49-0 at halftime. Good. That is what Oregon SHOULD do to Portland State.
The talent is obvious. Scoring 84 is hilarious. It also does not magically turn Oklahoma State into Georgia.
USC is next. Beat them and we can have a very different conversation.
19. Texas A&M
Texas A&M usually saves this shit for later in the year.
The Aggies looked great through two weeks. They destroyed Missouri State 50-0, then Arizona State hung around for a while before A&M dropped 24 points in the fourth quarter and turned that game into a 48-20 win. That was enough for me to have the Aggies sitting at No. 8 last week.
Then Kentucky walked into Kyle Field and beat them 31-21.
There really isn’t a way to dress that up. Texas A&M was home, Kentucky was unranked and the Aggies threw two interceptions while taking their first regular-season home loss since 2024. The Arizona State win still happened, so I’m not dropping them out of the rankings completely.
But No. 8 to No. 19 feels like the proper punishment for doing the most Texas A&M thing imaginable.
18. SMU
SMU’s first two weeks gave us both sides of this team. The Mustangs survived Florida State despite turning the ball over four times, then Kevin Jennings threw five touchdowns in one half against UC Davis and made the offense look completely ridiculous when it wasn’t handing the opponent free possessions.
Louisville was the first team to make SMU pay for an entire game. The Mustangs lost 41-31, turned the ball over three times and couldn’t get the stops they needed late. Kendrick Raphael ran for 197 yards and three touchdowns, so it’s not like the offense completely disappeared. Louisville simply made more plays when the game got tight.
SMU is still 2-1 and losing on the road to my No. 17 team isn’t some season-ending disaster. It just means the Mustangs are no longer getting undefeated-team treatment.
17. Louisville
That Week 1 loss to Ole Miss keeps looking better every Saturday.
Louisville lost 41-38 on a walk-off field goal in the opener, then responded by hanging 59 on Villanova. At that point the Cardinals were still basically a fun offense attached to a quality loss. Beating SMU 41-31 finally gives them something on the win side too.
Keyjuan Brown ran for 163 yards and two touchdowns, Louisville forced three turnovers and the Cardinals have now scored at least 38 points in every game. More importantly, the one team that beat them is now sitting at No. 7 on this list with wins over Louisville and LSU.
Louisville is 2-1, but I like this résumé more than plenty of undefeated teams that have spent three weeks beating nobody.
16. Iowa
Iowa scoring 55 points should automatically trigger some kind of emergency alert.
The Hawkeyes are 3-0 after beating Northern Iowa 55-0, and three different Iowa running backs went over 100 yards. That comes one week after a completely different kind of game, when Iowa fell behind Iowa State 10-0 and dragged the Cy-Hawk Trophy back to Iowa City with a 16-13 win.
That rivalry win is the important part of the résumé right now. Northern Iowa obviously isn’t why Iowa is No. 16, but beating an inferior team 55-0 instead of spending three quarters playing rock fight football with them is at least encouraging.
Michigan is next, which feels like the perfect game for two teams that have spent September making offense look optional at random times.
15. Tennessee
Tennessee has handled its business every week and has done it without putting its freshman quarterback in a position where he has to save the entire team.
The Vols destroyed Furman in the opener, then went on the road and beat Georgia Tech 45-24. That is still the most useful win here because it showed Tennessee could leave Knoxville, play a Power Four opponent and control the game without Faizon Brandon needing to throw for 400 yards.
Kennesaw State was another comfortable one, 42-9. Tennessee ran for 268 yards, Brandon threw a touchdown and ran for another, and the Vols moved to 3-0 without creating much drama.
Texas comes to Knoxville next. We have enough evidence to know Tennessee is good. Now we find out how good.
14. LSU
LSU went from No. 2 to No. 14 because the Clemson beatdown can only protect you so much once you lose.
That 51-10 win over Clemson is still one of the strongest performances anybody has put on the board this season. LSU followed it by playing a miserable first half against Louisiana Tech before recovering and winning 45-14. So even before Oxford, we already had two wildly different versions of the Tigers.
Ole Miss gave us a third. LSU fell behind by 17 at halftime, fought all the way back and then watched Ole Miss retake control in the fourth quarter to win 32-24. The Tigers had a chance to tie it late and got intercepted on fourth-and-goal from the 6.
I’m not throwing the Clemson game in the trash because LSU lost to a team I have No. 7. That would be stupid. But 2-1 with one dominant win, one shaky first half against Louisiana Tech and a loss at Ole Miss lands the Tigers here.
13. Texas Tech
Texas Tech keeps getting a harder game every week and keeps finding a way through it.
The Red Raiders opened with a comfortable 33-10 win over Abilene Christian, then had to come from behind in the fourth quarter at Oregon State before winning 35-24. Houston gave them an even tighter one.
Texas Tech won 28-26 after Houston scored with 49 seconds left and came up short trying to tie the game on a two-point conversion. The Red Raiders are 3-0, and the last two wins tell me more than another 30-point blowout against a bad team would have.
They’ve been behind. They’ve been uncomfortable. They’ve had to finish games late.
So far, they have.
12. Utah
Utah has basically spent three weeks beating the hell out of everybody.
The Utes opened 66-14 against Idaho, then Arkansas came to Salt Lake City and got smacked 43-10. That Arkansas game is still the one carrying the most weight because it gave Utah a Power Four opponent and the result looked almost exactly like the opener.
Utah State didn’t change anything. The Utes won 33-0, held the Aggies to 58 rushing yards and moved to 3-0 without allowing anybody to seriously threaten them.
There isn’t a top-10 win sitting on this résumé, so I’m not going crazy and throwing Utah into the top five. But there also isn’t a bad quarter I’m trying to explain away.
Three games. Three beatdowns. No. 12.
11. BYU
BYU has quietly put together one of the cleanest starts in the country.
The Cougars won their opener 63-7, then Arizona actually made them uncomfortable by taking a 17-14 halftime lead in Week 2. BYU responded by shutting Arizona out the rest of the way and winning 28-17, which was much more useful than another giant cupcake score.
Colorado State made it three straight wins. BYU went on the road, put up 559 yards and won 41-23 behind 176 rushing yards and three touchdowns from LJ Martin.
There still isn’t a giant statement win here. There also isn’t a reason to punish BYU for doing exactly what a ranked team should be doing.
10. Penn State
Penn State finally gets into my top 10, although this might be the least exciting top-10 argument on the entire page.
The Nittany Lions handled Marshall in the opener, then Temple kept them stuck in a 3-3 game for a while before Penn State eventually pulled away 27-9. Buffalo was much less annoying. Penn State won 55-13 and outgained the Bulls 573-173.
So Penn State is 3-0, the defense is doing what it’s supposed to do and Rocco Becht has looked comfortable. The problem is that Marshall, Temple and Buffalo do not give us much to work with when we start comparing résumés near the top of the country.
They’re undefeated and taking care of business. That is enough for No. 10.
It isn’t enough for much higher than that yet.
9. USC
USC is 4-0 and has scored at least 39 points every single week. Nobody needed September to learn that Lincoln Riley can build an offense.
The defense is still making this way more interesting than it needs to be. Louisiana scored 30 last week, then winless Rutgers put up 35 and actually outgained USC 289-209 in the second half of Saturday’s game. USC still won 42-35 because Jayden Maiava and the offense keep giving the defense room to be weird.
That is basically the USC argument right now. Four games, four wins, a ton of points and absolutely no reason to believe the offense is going away.
But when Rutgers is hanging around in the fourth quarter, I’m not putting you in my top five because the quarterback is fun.
8. Alabama
Alabama has apparently decided that every game needs a first-half crisis before everybody is allowed to remember how talented this roster is.
Kentucky led the Tide 17-13 at halftime in Week 2. Alabama came back out, scored 32 unanswered points and won 45-17. Florida State tried basically the same thing this week and got up 21-6.
Then Alabama went insane.
Keelon Russell threw for 320 yards and three touchdowns, ran for another score and Alabama scored on nine straight possessions on the way to a 50-36 win. That is two straight weeks where the Tide have taken a bad situation and completely flipped the game.
At some point I would like to see the version where Alabama does not first create the emergency it eventually solves. But 3-0 with an offense capable of doing THAT gets them to No. 8.
7. Ole Miss
Ole Miss has earned this spot more than just about anybody.
The Rebels opened the season by beating Louisville 41-38. That result looked good at the time and looks even better now that Louisville just beat SMU and climbed into my top 20. Ole Miss followed it by beating Charlotte 41-9, so there was no immediate hangover.
Then came LSU.
Ole Miss led by 17 at halftime, watched LSU fight all the way back and still found another answer. Trinidad Chambliss ran for the go-ahead touchdown in the fourth quarter, and Jaylon Braxton ended LSU’s final chance with an interception in the end zone.
Louisville and LSU in the first three weeks is a real résumé. Ole Miss isn’t up here because I like the roster on paper or because they beat a cupcake by 40.
They have beaten good football teams.
6. Ohio State
Ohio State is still the best one-loss team in the country for me, which somehow makes the Texas loss even more annoying.
The Buckeyes opened by destroying Ball State 56-3, then went to Austin and spent three quarters looking like the better team against Texas. They had a 23-3 lead entering the fourth quarter and still lost 24-23. I already wrote plenty about what happened in that game here: https://hailmary.media/ohio-state-texas-loss-ryan-day-fired/
Kent State got the angry version of Ohio State this week. The Buckeyes won 59-3, outgained Kent State 527-134 and Jeremiah Smith became Ohio State’s all-time leader in receiving yards.
Beating Kent State does not erase Texas. It does reinforce why Ohio State is still this high despite having a loss. The Buckeyes have looked dominant against the teams they should destroy and were good enough to build a 20-point fourth-quarter lead on the road against my No. 4 team.
They just have to stop doing the part where they lose that game.
5. Indiana
The weirdest part of Indiana’s season is still the opener.
The defending national champions beat North Texas 52-16 while somehow getting outgained, which was enough to make the defense an immediate question. Indiana has responded by allowing ZERO points in two games since.
Howard got destroyed 55-0, then Western Kentucky got shut out 38-0. Indiana held Western Kentucky to 186 total yards while Josh Hoover threw for 273 yards and Turbo Richard ran for 149.
So the only real concern we had after Week 1 has spent two straight weeks disappearing. Indiana is 3-0, has won 19 straight games overall and is starting to look a lot more like the team that finished last season holding the trophy.
No. 5.
4. Texas
Texas still has the best single win in my top five. I just don’t think they’ve played the best football of the five teams.
The Longhorns destroyed Texas State 59-7 in the opener, then pulled off that ridiculous fourth-quarter comeback against Ohio State. They were down 23-3 entering the fourth and somehow won 24-23. That win matters A LOT, especially because I still have Ohio State No. 6.
Then Texas came out against UTSA and looked half asleep. The Longhorns won 30-6 because the defense completely controlled the game, but Arch Manning went 16-of-32 for 161 yards and Texas spent long stretches doing basically nothing offensively.
I’m not punishing them heavily for winning by 24. That would be ridiculous. The Ohio State win carries way too much weight for that.
Georgia, Notre Dame and Miami have simply been more consistent through the entire season.
3. Miami
Miami finally had to play something resembling a normal football game.
The Hurricanes opened by beating Stanford 45-6, then committed an actual war crime against the Florida A&M box score in a 77-7 win where they piled up 856 yards. Those first two weeks told us Miami could absolutely vaporize teams that could not hang with them.
Wake Forest at least made them keep playing.
Miami won 33-20, and Darian Mensah completed 30 of 34 passes after completing his first 24 attempts. His streak reached 35 consecutive completions across two games, which set an ACC record.
There still isn’t a win here as good as Texas beating Ohio State. What Miami has instead is three weeks where the Hurricanes have looked extremely good without needing anybody to explain away a loss, a near disaster or a quarter where the entire operation stopped working.
That gets them to No. 3.
2. Notre Dame
Notre Dame has probably been the easiest team in the country to trust outside of Georgia.
The Irish opened against Wisconsin at Lambeau and won 41-13. That immediately gave them a respectable Power Four win away from home. Then Rice came to South Bend and got demolished 52-0.
Michigan State made Notre Dame work longer, but the result was still 27-10. The Spartans didn’t score in the second half, finished with only 167 total yards and Notre Dame moved to 3-0 without ever letting the game become a real problem.
The Irish have allowed 23 points in three games. They have beaten two Big Ten teams and completely destroyed the one opponent they were supposed to completely destroy.
Nothing complicated here. Notre Dame looks really damn good.
1. Georgia
Georgia finally got the opponent I was waiting for.
The Bulldogs scored 63 on Tennessee State and 70 on Western Kentucky, which was hilarious but also left the obvious question sitting there: what happens when Georgia plays an actual SEC game?
Arkansas got the answer.
Georgia went on the road and won 45-17. The Bulldogs ran for 254 yards, held Arkansas to SEVENTEEN rushing yards and turned their first conference game into another afternoon where the result never really felt in danger.
That is why Georgia stays ahead of Texas for me. Texas absolutely has the better individual win because Ohio State is better than anybody Georgia has played. But these rankings are not a résumé spreadsheet where we sort teams by best opponent and go home.
Georgia has played three games and looked like Georgia for basically all three of them. The offense is scoring a ridiculous amount, the defense finally got a real SEC test and responded by suffocating Arkansas on the ground, and nobody has made the Bulldogs look vulnerable yet.
Until somebody does.. Georgia is still No. 1.
