CFN Rankings No. 1 to 119 - Week One

There's one very important distinction in the CFN rankings: these are based on how good the teams are and NOT how they're going to finish. Some teams have easier schedules than others, some get tougher road games and some will need a little bit of time to jell meaning they might be better than their final record might indicate.

1. USC (1-0)
W, at Arkansas 50-14
next game: Nebraska (Sept. 16)
Yeah the offense needed a half to get rolling against Arkansas, but it’s easy to forget that the Leinart, Bush, White attacks often needed a little while to get humming. This looked like a number one team against the Hogs..

2.  Texas  (1-0)
W, North Texas 56-7
next game: Ohio State
Colt McCoy looked fine against North Texas. But that was North Texas. Limiting mistakes will be the key to getting by the Buckeyes.

3. Ohio State (1-0)
W, Northern Illinois 35-12
next game: at Texas
Number one in all the other polls, the Buckeyes can end all questions about their defense by coming out of Austin with a win. The run D will have to be better than it was against Northern Illinois.

4.  Florida State (1-0)
W, at Miami 13-10
next game: Troy
Watch out. Here’s the rest of the schedule before the ACC title game: Troy, Clemson, Rice, at NC State, at Duke, Boston College, at Marland, Virginia, Wake Forest, Western Michigan, Florida. The Noles might be a rematch against the Canes away from a spot in the BCS Championship

5. Auburn (1-0)
W, Washington State 40-14
next game: at Miss State
The blowout win over Washington State was better than it might appear in the morning paper. Now we get to see how the offense handles itself against the stingy Mississippi State defense.

6.  LSU (1-0)
W, UL Lafayette 45-3
next game: Arizona
The offense had not problems against poor UL Lafayette. Arizona will be a far better test before SEC play kicks in. This is the step up game before going to Auburn..

7.  Tennessee (1-0)
W, California 35-18
next game: Air Force
So that’s what Tennessee is supposed to look like. The game was far more of a blowout than the final score might indicate. Is Cal that bad or is Tennessee that good? We’ll know in two weeks in the Florida showdown.

8. Florida (1-0)
W, Southern Miss 34-7
next game:: UCF
Norm who? Chris Leak was able to carve up a decent Southern Miss defense without a problem. The defense held the Golden Eagles to seven points, and now it needs to show more of a pass rush..

9. Clemson (1-0)
W, Florida Atlantic 54-6
next game: at Boston College
Flying under the radar on a national scale, the Tigers are good enough to win the ACC title even with star LB Anthony Waters out for the year.

10. Michigan (1-0)
W, Vanderbilt 27-7
next game: Central Michigan
While the win over Vanderbilt was less than scintillating, it was an easy victory. The ground game needs to get Kevin Grady and the rest of the backups more carries against CMU to keep Mike Hart healthy for Notre Dame.

11.  Miami  (0-1)
L, Florida State 13-10
next game: Florida A&M
The defense is going to carry the Canes back into national title contention. Don’t worry about the offense. Florida State can play a little D.

12. Louisville (1-0)
W, Kentucky 59.28
next game: at Temple
The loss of Michael Bush hurts, but it’s not a killer. The Cardinals have other great backs and a top draft pick in QB Brian Brohm to keep the offense humming..

13. West Virginia (1-0)
W, Marshall 42-10
next game: Eastern Washington
Marshall came in fired up to pull off an epic upset in a big rivalry game. Yeah, right. Pat White’s passing adds another dimension to the attack..

14. Virginia Tech (1-0)
W, Northeastern 38-0
next game: at North Carolina
New QB Sean Glennon looked fantastic against Northeastern, but that was Northeastern. If Rutgers could run on North Carolina, then so should Tech.

15. Nebraska (1-0)
W, Louisiana Tech 49-10
next game: Nicholls State
The offense looked scary good once it got rolling against Louisiana Tech with a little bit of a running game for the first time in over a year. Now that great defensive front seven has to start getting some sacks against Nicholls State.

16. Notre Dame( 1-0)
W, at Georgia Tech 14-10
next game: Penn State
Why is Notre Dame getting criticized for a close call at Georgia Tech? That’s a solid Yellow Jacket team that slugged the Irish in the mouth over and over again. Who came away with the win? The next two weeks will determine whether or not ND belongs in the top five.

17. Iowa  (1-0)
W, Montana 41-7
next game: at Syracuse
What does this program have to do to get some respect? It should be able to walk through the Syracuse game, but it might be looking ahead to Iowa State..

18. Georgia (1-0)
W, Western Kentucky 48-12
next game: at South Carolina
It’s hard to tell just how good this team is after the Western Kentucky blowout, but a win over Spurrier and South Carolina would start to get people buzzing. The quarterback situation will bear watching if Joe Tereshinski starts to struggle.

19. Oklahoma (1-0)
W, UAB 24-17
next game: Washington
How many times can Adrian Peterson bail the team out by himself? At some point, Paul Thompson is going to have to throw a deep ball..

20. Arizona State (1-0)
W, Northern Arizona 35-14
next game: Nevada
Uhhhhhh, that wasn’t really the performance Sun Devil fans were hoping for. Rudy Carpenter and the boys had better turn things up a notch or Nevada will pull off a big surprise.

21.  Penn State (1-0)
W, Akron 34-16
next game: at Notre Dame
Can Penn State do what it did last year? Beat Notre Dame in South Bend and everyone will start to believe again.

22. California (0-1)
L, at Tennessee 35-18
next game: Minnesota
There are worse teams to lose to than Tennessee at Tennessee. This is still a great team that needs to quickly regroup and find some sort of offensive consistency against Minnesota.

23. Texas Tech (1-0)
W, SMU 35-3
next game: at UTEP
Graham Harrell and the offense looked fantastic against SMU. Not it’ll have to keep up the pace in an almost certain shootout with Jordan Palmer and UTEP.

24. Oregon (1-0)
W, Stanford 48-10
next game: at Fresno State
This might be way, way too low. This week’s road trip to Fresno State followed up by the showdown with Oklahoma will show whether or not this is a top ten-caliber team.

25. Georgia Tech (0-1)
L, Notre Dame 14-10
next game: Samford
The Yellow Jackets played a little too tentatively against Notre Dame, but certainly provided a major test. Fortunately, all can be quickly forgotten with a nice scrimmage against Samford. 

26. Alabama (1-0)
27. UCLA (1-0)
28. Missouri (1-0)
29. Maryland (1-0)
30. Arkansas  (0-1)
31. Boston College (1-0)
32. Wisconsin (1-0)
33. Pitt (1-0)
34. TCU (1-0)
35. Michigan State (1-0)
36. Arizona  (1-0)
37. Iowa State (1-0)
38. Boise State (1-0)
39. South Florida (1-0)
40. Oregon State (1-0)
41. NC State (1-0)
42. Texas A&M (1-0)
43. Washington State (0-1)
44. Fresno State (1-0)
45. Purdue (1-0)
46. South Carolina (1-0)
47. Connecticut (1-0)
48. Minnesota (1-0)
49. Utah (0-1)
50. Ole Miss  (1-0)
51. Rutgers (1-0)
52. BYU (0-1)
53. Hawaii (0-1)
54. Kansas (1-0)
55. Virginia (0-1)
56. Northwestern  (1-0)
57. Tulsa (1-0)
58. Toledo (0-1)
59. North Carolina (0-1)
60. Wake Forest (1-0)
61. Oklahoma State (1-0)
62. UTEP (1-0)
63. Southern Miss  (0-1)
64. Northern Illinois (0-1)
65. Baylor (0-1)
66. Kansas State (1-0)
67. Syracuse (0-1)
68. Indiana (1-0)
69. Mississippi State (0-1)
70. Navy (1-0)
71. Illinois (1-0)
72. East Carolina (0-1)
73. Houston (1-0)
74. Colorado (0-1)
75. San Diego State (0-1)
76. Kentucky (0-1)
77. Colorado State (1-0)
78. Nevada (0-1)
79. Cincinnati (1-0)
80. Stanford (0-1)
81. Memphis (0-1)
82. UCF (1-0)
83. UAB (0-1)
84. Washington (1-0)
85. Marshall (0-1)
86. Vanderbilt (0-1)
87. Rice (0-1)
88. Wyoming (1-0)
89. Akron (0-1)
90. Idaho (0-1)
91. SMU (0-1)
92. Miami Univ. (0-1)
93. Louisiana Tech (0-1)
94. Central Michigan (0-1)
95. UNLV (1-0)
96. Air Force (0-0)
97. Tulane (0-0)
98. Bowling Green (0-1)
99. Western Michigan (0-1)
100. New Mexico (0-1)
101. Kent State (0-1)
102. UL Lafayette (0-1)
103. Ohio (1-0)
104. Ball State (1-0)
105. Eastern Michigan (0-1)
106. MTSU (1-0)
107. Troy (1-0)
108. San Jose State (0-1)
109. Arkansas State (1-0)
110. Duke (0-1)
111. North Texas (0-1)
112. Army (0-1)
113. FIU (0-1)
114. Utah State (0-1)
115. UL Monroe (0-1)
116. New Mexico State (1-0)
117. Buffalo (1-0)
118. Florida Atlantic (0-1)
119. Temple  (0-1)