Top 25+ going into Week 1

The start of the season always means teams are equally undefeated and unscored upon. But after the first week only half the teams are undefeated and many fewer are unscored upon.

Some of those which lose will be found in the lofty perches of the Top 25.
According to the AP Writers’ Poll the teams currently in that position are:
(Numbers in parentheses are for the Coaches Poll and CBSSports.com Poll respectively. I'm not making any predictions after the Michigan vs Appalachian State debacle in last year's week one.)

1 Georgia (1/2) hosts Georgia Southern (Div II)

2 Ohio State (3/1) hosts Youngstown State (Div II)

3 Southern California (2/4) at Virginia

4 Oklahoma (4/3) hosts Chattanooga (Div II)

5 Florida (5/6) hosts Hawaii

6 Missouri (7/5) hosts #20 Illinois

7 LSU (6/8) hosts Appalachian State (Div II)

8 West Virginia (8/7) hosts Villanova (Div II)

9 Clemson (9/9) hosts #24 Alabama

10 Auburn (11/11) hosts Louisiana-Monroe

11 Texas (10/10) hosts Florida Atlantic

12 Texas Tech (14/13) hosts Eastern Washington (Div II)

13 Wisconsin (12/14) hosts Akron

14 Kansas (13/12) hosts Florida International

15 Arizona State (16/16) hosts Northern Arizona (Div II)

16 Brigham Young (17/15) hosts Northern Iowa (Div II)

17 Virginia Tech (15/17) at East Carolina

18 Tennessee (18/18) at UCLA

19 South Florida (21/23) hosts Tennessee-Martin (Div II)

20 Illinois (19/20) at # 6 Missouri

21 Oregon (20/ 22) hosts Washington

22 Penn State (22/21) hosts Coastal Carolina (Div III)

23 Wake Forest (23/19) at Baylor

24 Alabama (NR/25) at #9 Clemson

25 Pittsburgh (NR/NR) hosts Bowling Green

NR Michigan (24/NR) hosts Utah
NR Fresno State (25/24) at Rutgers



Note how many of these top 25 teams are playing at home...against Div II (or Div III...Coastal Carolina? Joe Pa what are you doing?) competition. There are only two games pitting top 25s against one another: 20 Illinois (19/20) at # 6 Missouri and 24 Alabama (NR/25) at #9 Clemson.

I'm looking forward to the Fresno State at Rutgers game. (RU is favored by 5.5.) It will go a long way to making or breaking each team's season. A win in this game will tell a lot about where the teams are physically and mentally. A loss could well doom the team to also rans. Sounds harsh, but that's the name of the game. Neither team should be worried about offense, despite losing their #1 rusher to the NFL. Defense will tell in this game.