The Couch Power 10 Is Back!
What's that? College football is back? Yes, it's true. You might have missed it amidst the return of club soccer, the return of the school year, the return of your standard television programming, and an utterly surreal election cycle. There's a lot going on, but we're in September, which means the three sweetest words can be uttered: it's football season!!!
This is a season full of changes. Another wild round of conference realignment, an expansion to a playoff of 12 teams, coaches and players both jumping from school to school willy-nilly. And yet? Whether your first taste of college football came over a week ago with the "Week 0" kickoff in Dublin, or this past weekend which marked opening weekend for most schools, you saw that even while all the trappings around it look different...this is still college football. And college football delivers. You want big games between two big-name programs? You want upsets? Thrillers? Comedies of errors? Heisman-level performances? Week 1 had each in ample supply.
Just a refresher, since it's been nary a year since you've heard from this ranking: this is not a definitive ranking on how good the teams are, or on who I think will be/deserves to be in the playoff at the end of the year. Rather, it's more of a "What if preseason rankings and bigwig bias didn't predetermine the top teams" kind of thing, an ideal ranking of the country's teams based on what they've actually proved on the field to date. Don't be mad cuz I'm doin' me better than you doin' you:
1. Georgia
Credit where credit is due- Clemson's defense came to play, and for two quarters, kept Heisman hopeful Carson Beck and the Georgia offense under wraps. They had no answer for the Georgia defense, though, and in the 2nd half of the most anticipated matchup of the weekend, the top-ranked Bulldogs blew the game wide open against their old foes, controlling both sides of the ball en route to an ultimately easy 34-3 win. It was reminiscent of the then-defending champion Dawgs' season-opening bash against Oregon in Atlanta in 2022: an early gauntlet thrown down that they are, once again, the team to beat nationally.
2. Notre Dame
Week 1's College Gameday was not in Atlanta for Georgia-Clemson, though, surprisingly. The prime time billing went to a rare true road visit by Notre Dame to SEC country. Even rarer? Notre Dame going into SEC territory in the first week of the season. Rarest of all? Notre Dame actually winning! It has to have been at least a decade since the Fighting Irish came into a primetime showdown they weren't definitively favored to win and actually won, but they did just that against #20 Texas A&M, who fought hard under new coach Mike Elko, but were outclassed in the end. It was a statement win for young coach Marcus Freeman's men, and a deserved one too: the Irish played big boy football and were the stronger team to the end.
3. USC
The 3rd and final ranked matchup of opening weekend came on Sunday, with a battle between two teams known for high-flying offenses looking to replace their Heisman-winning QB and prove their playoff credentials. Unlike a lot of anticipated games, USC and LSU's showdown in Vegas lived up to the hype. It was a high-flying, evenly-matched, occasionally error-prone back-and-forth game that concluded with a walk-off field goal winner. It was an important statement win for Lincoln Riley's USC, though, in their first season in the Big Ten, and Miller Moss looked terrific; might Riley already have his next great quarterback?
4. Georgia Tech
Yes, Florida State immediately turning around and losing their next game (see below) took the shine off Georgia Tech's season opener somewhat. But that doesn't change the fact that the Yellow Jackets flew across the pond to Dublin and beat the #10 team in the country when nobody expected them to, and came back Stateside to dominate cross-city rivals Georgia State. It's an impressive start for Brent Key, who might just be building a solid foundation in Atlanta.
5. Boston College
Boston College doesn't have the luxury that Georgia Tech had in beating Florida State, which is the blank slate assumption that their opponent is legitimately good. Now at 0-2, most everyone concludes the media were too high on the Seminoles preseason. Still, the fact that Boston College in head coach Bill O'Brien's first game marched down to Tallahassee and comprehensively beat the reigning ACC champions is a statement of its own.
6. Miami
Now that we've satisfied all of the teams that knocked off a ranked opponent in Weeks 0-1, it's time to move on to our next tier, which is "teams that beat a fellow Power 5 team in a tricky game." At the top of the descending order of levels of 'impressive,' are the Miami Hurricanes. Is The U, who has wanted to claim this for about 23 straight years now, finally "back"? Or are in-state rivals Florida just in for a really bad season. It's too early to tell, and the answer could feasibly be "Both," but either way, very few expected a program like Miami, which has only choked away every primetime opportunity presented in the last two decades, to roll in to The Swamp and drop a 24-point win on the Gators, but that's exactly what new QB Cam Ward and co. did. If they continue to look as potent on both sides of the ball, they really will be the team to beat in the ACC at long last.
7. Penn State
Penn State was a trendy upset victim pick in Week 1. There aren't too many more intimidating environments a team could open their season in than in Milan Puskar Stadium in front of a roaring West Virginia crowd. But Penn State dealt with the tough conditions impressively, dispatching the home Mountaineers with ease, even amidst a monster weather delay.
8. Vanderbilt
Yeah!! Do not rub your eyes!! It's Vanderbilt!!! Give it up for Vanderbilt!!! The much-maligned Commodores opened the 2024 season with a statement, knocking off trendy ACC darkhorse picks Virginia Tech in an overtime thriller in Nashville.
9. North Carolina
Yeahhh, look. This is a homer pick. Nobody who watched my Tar Heels’ opener at Minnesota thought they were watching a showdown of two top teams. But you know what? ESPN has us as the #8 strength of record, and it makes sense: we’re one of only 8 teams to beat a Power 5 team thus far, and we did it on the road in the driving rain. Plus, chances are this is the only chance I’ll get to put UNC in the Power 10. Let me have this.
10. Alabama
Amongst the teams that did not open with a Power 5 opponent, there’s a tier of ”clearly good teams who absolutely blew the doors off their opponents.” I’m giving Bama the top spot of that tier for two reasons. One, because they at least played a D1 team, and two, because they had all eyes on them as they played Game 1 of the post-Nick Saban era. The early returns? Maybe this Kaelen DeBoer guy isn’t so bad himself. A 63-0 beating of Western Kentucky has many people asking if Alabama were being held back by Saban.
Just missed: Texas, Oklahoma, Ole Miss, Tennessee, Iowa, future Lou Groza winner Noah Burnette
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