LSU tops The Athletic 138 rankings after dominant win over Clemson, Rutgers falls to record low
LSU moved to No. 1 in The Athletic’s 138-team college football ranking after a 51-10 victory over Clemson, while Rutgers dropped to No. 136, the lowest position ever for a Power-4 program in the poll.
LSU claimed the top spot in The Athletic’s weekly 138-team college football ranking after defeating Clemson 51-10, a performance that included more than 600 yards of offense. The Tigers’ surge follows a similar move a year earlier, though that ranking did not translate into a strong season for LSU, which finished 7-6 and fell to No. 42 in the final poll.
Miami advanced after a 45-6 win over Stanford, while Ole Miss entered the top ten after a last-second victory over Louisville. Virginia rose after a Week 0 win over NC State, and UCLA entered the top 25 following a 45-24 win at California. Other notable moves included Colorado moving ahead of Georgia Tech after a blocked field-goal win, and Tulsa climbing after a 24-10 victory over Oklahoma State.
The most significant drop occurred for Rutgers, which fell to No. 136 after a 37-21 loss to UMass, marking the lowest ranking ever for a Power-4 team in the poll’s ten-year history. UMass rose to No. 100, its highest position since 2018, after ending a 16-game losing streak with the win.
Additional shifts saw Oklahoma State return to the lower part of the list after a poor start, Nevada jump from outside the top 100 after a 49-14 win over Western Kentucky, and several other teams move modestly based on early-season results.