One week after Michigan bumped Georgia from the No. 1 spot in the CBS Sports 133, our comprehensive ranking of every FBS team, the Wolverines have only strengthened their position in the wake of yet another dominant win. Michigan has held every opponent to 10 points or less during its 7-0 start, and as the level of competition has ramped up during Big Ten play, we've seen the Wolverines raise their performance even higher.
The 52-7 home win against Indiana in Week 7 followed a 52-10 victory at Minnesota and a 45-7 win at Nebraska. The Hoosiers turned some heads with a 7-0 lead early, but when Michigan flips the switch, it's hard for opponents to prevent things from getting out hand -- like the Wolverines scoring 52 unanswered points on Saturday. Voters who were skeptical of Michigan's ranking early in the year have been convinced by the dominance in recent weeks. After edging Georgia for No. 1 by just one voting point last week, the hold on the top spot is even firmer heading into Week 8.
This week also saw a top-three return for Washington, The Huskies peaked at No. 2 a few weeks ago but entered the weekend at No. 5 after some closer-than-expected results in early Pac-12 play. However, after the epic 36-33 over Oregon, there's a stronger debate for Washington as one of the top teams in the country. That's a win our voters are going to respect, clearly, as our voters still look at the Ducks as a top-10 team and only dropped them one spot for the loss.
USC was not so lucky, falling eight spots to No. 18 after losing at Notre Dame, which jumped up to No. 15 and is now the highest-ranked two-loss team in the CBS Sports 133. The strength of the USC win clearly offsets the penalty of last week's Louisville loss as the Cardinals tumbled down nine spots (well behind the Irish) to No. 22 after losing at Pitt.
For more on the most notable week-to-week adjustments in the CBS Sports 133, 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 26-133 on our rankings page.
| Rank | Team | Record | Previous |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Michigan | 7-0 | 1 |
| 2 | Georgia | 7-0 | 2 |
| 3 | Washington | 6-0 | 5 |
| 4 | Ohio State | 6-0 | 4 |
| 5 | Florida State | 6-0 | 3 |
| 6 | Oklahoma | 6-0 | 6 |
| 7 | Penn State | 6-0 | 8 |
| 8 | Oregon | 5-1 | 7 |
| 9 | Texas | 5-1 | 9 |
| 10 | North Carolina | 6-0 | 11 |
| 11 | Alabama | 6-1 | 12 |
| 12 | Oregon State | 6-1 | 16 |
| 13 | Ole Miss | 5-1 | 15 |
| 14 | Duke | 5-1 | 14 |
| 15 | Notre Dame | 6-2 | 19 |
| 16 | Utah | 5-1 | 20 |
| 17 | Tennessee | 5-1 | 21 |
| 18 | USC | 6-1 | 10 |
| 19 | LSU | 5-2 | 22 |
| 20 | Missouri | 6-1 | 25 |
| 21 | Air Force | 6-0 | 24 |
| 22 | Louisville | 6-1 | 13 |
| 23 | UCLA | 4-2 | 17 |
| 24 | Tulane | 5-1 | 36 |
| 25 | Iowa | 6-1 | 32 |
Biggest movers
- No. 42 Oklahoma State (+16): With back-to-back wins against Kansas State and Kansas, the Cowboys have jumped 43 spots in two weeks. A rough start to the year that included a carousel of quarterbacks and a loss to South Alabama seems to be in the rearview, and Oklahoma State playing with confidence in Big 12 play is a bad sign for any team who thought this would be an uncharacteristically easy out on the conference schedule.
- No. 39 Arizona (+15): Though on its face a top-40 ranking for a 4-3 team might look out of little out of place, the Wildcats are getting credit not just for thumping a strong Washington State side in Pullman but also the run run they made at USC the week prior before falling short in triple-overtime. Like Oklahoma State, this is a team that has flipped its trajectory in recent weeks and now could be a problem for those teams at the top of the conference.
- No. 24 Tulane (+12): An early season loss to Ole Miss knocked the Green Wave down in the rankings, and while Tulane continued to pile up wins, there wasn't a lot of upward momentum on ballots. The combination of other teams taking their second (or third) loss and Tulane getting a quality win on the road at Memphis has produced a big jump for the reigning AAC and Cotton Bowl champs.
- No. 54 Colorado (-10): In blowing a 29-0 halftime lead at home to Stanford, the Buffaloes not only did real damage to their projected odds of making a bowl — hitting the off week at 4-3 instead of 5-2 — but also took a major hit to their ranking profile and have fallen outside of the top 50.
- No. 48 BYU (-10): A 33-point loss at TCU dropped the Cougars to 4-2 on the season and pulled BYU down to the middling area of the rankings where the Horned Frogs have taken residence after three early season losses. BYU's win at Arkansas is doing a lot of work for the ranking profile of the Cougars, who have now dropped two of their first three in Big 12 play.
- No. 29 Washington State (-11): Back-to-back losses have created some real questions for Washington State's top-30 status; a close road loss at UCLA can be explained, but losing 44-6 at home to Arizona falls well short of expectations. Cam Ward and this Wazzu offense can be really tough to stop when their rolling, but after averaging 45.8 points per game in the first month of the season, they've put up just 23 points combined in the last two games.
- No. 38 Maryland (-11): A 5-0 start to the season had Maryland peaking at No. 24 in our rankings. Two straight losses, however, now have the Terrapins on the edge of the top 40. There's not a ton to be ashamed of in a 20-point loss at Ohio State, but losing at home to Illinois on Homecoming is going to spark an adjustment for voters who were still high on the Terps in spite of last week's defeat.
Check out the rest of the CBS Sports 133: Teams ranked 26-133
