1 Clemson Depends on what you want to emphasize. Trevor Lawrence has already thrown five interceptions, one more than all of last season. Or, a thrashing of Syracuse made it a school-record 18 consecutive wins. -- 2-0

2 Alabama There will be a gnashing of teeth in The Cotton State. The 76 rushing yards vs. South Carolina were the fewest since 2014. But this is who Bama is at the moment -- a high-flying passing offense with Tua Tagovailoa and his four backup singers, er, four of the best receivers in the country. -- 0-0

3 LSU And I thought Ed Orgeron would have mercy on his old school. The Tigers followed up the Texas win with a 52-point beatdown of Northwestern State. Joe Burrow has 15 incompletions and 11 touchdown passes on the season. -- 0-0

4 Oklahoma It was a sad scene at the Rose Bowl. The great venue looked half empty for hapless, home-standing UCLA. The Sooners won easily, 48-14. Jalen Hurts has nine touchdown passes and 12 incompletions. -- 1-0

5 Ohio State Might be time to change my Big Ten pick. The Buckeyes are purring along like Urban Meyer never left (well, in some ways). A blowout of Indiana calms fears about previous road upsets to lesser Big Ten programs. 1 0-0

6 Georgia Sorry, but it's hard to put the Dawgs in the top five heading into the Notre Dame game. We know they're good, but it's just hard to evaluate how good. The competition has been lacking. 1 0-0

7 Florida It looks like the Kyle Trask era has begun after a gruesome injury to Feleipe Franks (please, don't go find the video). Trask came in to lead the Gators to a 19-0 fourth-quarter rally at Kentucky. UF still alive in SEC East after another pesky challenge from the Wildcats. -- 0-0

8 Notre Dame Maybe it's best that New Mexico's Bob Davie ultimately missed this game. His Lobos were lapped by the Irish, 66-14. Ian Book threw five touchdown passes. Now, onto the important stuff. "'To get this game under our belts going into Georgia was really big for us,'' Brian Kelly said. 1 2-0

9 Michigan Bye. Preview of the Big Ten Championship Game? Michigan travels to Wisconsin with just about everything on the line. The Big Ten and a College Football Playoff berth for starters. Are we overreacting? 1 0-0

10 Texas Sam Ehlinger threw for three touchdowns. Keontay Ingram ran for two. The Longhorns got better physically and psychologically following the LSU loss with a blowout of Rice. -- 1-0

11 Utah The Utes just might be the Pac-12's best hope for relevance. Utah has romped through three nonconference games by a combined 96-29. Now comes the real with the conference opener at USC. -- 0-0

12 Wisconsin Bye. The Badgers look like they're ready to rise back to the top of the Big Ten West. We'll know more when the Wolverines come to town this week. -- 0-0

13 Auburn It has to be troubling that Bo Nix is the least-accurate SEC passer. Soothing the concern for now: Three Tigers ran for 100 yards in a blasting of Kent State. -- 0-0

14 Boise State It's a horse race with UCF for that New Year's Six berth. The Broncos are unbeaten headed into their Mountain West schedule after bombing Portland State -- 0-0

15 Oregon Justin Herbert had his fifth career five-touchdown game against Montana. He has at least one touchdown pass in 31 straight games. We'll know more when the Ducks open Pac-12 play this week at Stanford. -- 0-0

16 UCF Among their accomplishments, the Knights have scored at least 30 points in a wire-service era record 29 straight games. Stanford was the latest victim. The Knights now must hope the Cardinal win out. There are no ranked teams currently on the schedule. 1 1-0

17 Washington State The Cougars rallied for 24 second-half points to beat Houston. Not surprisingly, Anthony Gordon finds himself leading the nation in passing, tied with Tagovailoa for touchdown passes (12). 1 0-0

18 Penn State In the last (for now) Pitt-Penn State game, the Nittany Lions thrilled a crowd of 108,000 at Beaver Stadium with a defensive battle. Alex Kessman's 19-yard field goal attempt clanked off an upright after Pitt's Pat Narduzzi eschewed going for the game-tying from the Penn State 1-yard line with less than 4 minutes to go. 2 0-0

19 Texas A&M Finally, some good news for the Aggies. They lost at Clemson. They lost their starting tailback Jashaun Corbin to a season-ending hamstring. Backup Isaiah Spiller went for 116 yards and two touchdowns in a laugher over Lamar. -- 0-0

20 California The Bears are one of the better under-the-radar stories of the early season. Justin Wilcox has Cal 3-0 for the third straight year. The Washington win grows more impressive by the week. The Bears struggled with North Texas, getting out to a 20-0 lead before surviving 23-17. 1 0-0

21 BYU Fans flooded the field after a win over an unranked team. It's what USC represents -- national dominance, Western dominance. Arguably the biggest win of BYU's independent era has the Cougars playing for something after a 2-1 start. NR 1-0

22 Iowa It took five hours due to weather delays, but the Hawkeyes survived Iowa State by a point on the road. Keith Duncan kicked four field goals. Next meaningful challenge: at Michigan on Oct. 5. NR 0-0

23 Kansas State A new K-State is emerging under Klieman. The Wildcats manned up physically and tactically in a win at Mississippi State. Three K-State fumbles led to 17 Bulldogs points, but an SEC win on the road should be treasured. NR 0-1

24 Memphis Kenny Gainwell and Kaylan Watkins each rushed for 100 yards in a 36-point win over South Alabama. It gets serious this week with the AAC opener against Navy. -- 1-0