Congrats to Sacramento State for their first win as an FBS program, defeating FCS Mississippi Valley State. Yes, it was a win over an FCS team, but it still counts as a win as an FBS team. :-) Their schedule gets a bit rougher for a while so it may be a bit before they get a win over an FBS team.

The computer ejected quite a few teams from its FBS playoff simulations this week, some of which actually won their games. I am not ready to get rid of those, but if they lost, sure, I'll add them to the list.

Joining the San Jose State Spartans and New Mexico State Aggies on the "better luck next year" list are:

#184 Hawai'i Rainbow Warriors 0-2

#96 Texas State Bobcats 0-1

#104 Clemson Tigers 0-1

#121 Ohio Bobcats 0-1

#133 Akron Zips 0-1

#136 Utah State Aggies 0-1

#139 Fresno State Bulldogs 0-1

#143 California Golden Bears 0-1

#146 Arkansas State Red Wolves 0-1

#150 Western Kentucky Hilltoppers 0-1

#156 Boston College Eagles 0-1

#158 Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets 0-1

#159 Central Michigan Chippewas 0-1

#162 UAB Blazers 0-1

#163 Marshall Thundering Herd 0-1

#164 Bowling Green Falcons 0-1

#165 Sam Houston State Bearkats 0-1

#173 Oregon State Beavers 0-1

#176 Florida Atlantic Owls 0-1

#178 Northern Illinois Huskies 0-1

#182 Missouri State Bears 0-1

#183 Coastal Carolina Chanticleers 0-1

#186 Miami (OH) RedHawks 0-1

#191 Rutgers Scarlet Knights 0-1

#193 Oklahoma State Cowboys 0-1

#194 Kent State Golden Flashes 0-1

#208 Ball State Cardinals 0-1

#210 Charlotte 49ers 0-1

#225 UL Monroe Warhawks 0-1

#227 UTEP Miners 0-1

#233 Wyoming Cowboys 0-1

My top 12 this week:

1. Notre Dame
2. Miami
3. Texas
4. Ohio State
5. Indiana
6. Georgia
7. Oregon
8. LSU
9. USC
10. Virginia
11. Texas Tech
12. Oklahoma

Notre Dame moves up to #1 despite a lackluster performance compared to some of the teams below them. I had actually moved them to #1 in my mind before the weekend started, and they did just enough to remain there.

Oregon drops all the way to #7. I still think they are championship material, but everyone else in the top 7 dominated this week, so they drop.

LSU at #8 is probably too low. But I had said previously that i thought there were 7 teams capable of winning it all this year. I am adding an 8th, but you don't join the top tier and move straight to the top. You start out at the botto of that group. LSU will move up if they keep looking like they did against Clemson.

Honestly, though. Take the top 8 teams and put their names in a bad. Pull them out in any order. You're just as likely to be right as my order. All 8 teams have strengths and weaknesses and very high ceilings.

USC sits just outside the top 8. They have been very impressive in their two games.

Virginia earned their spot by destroying NC State.

Texas Tech feels like its too low at #11, but honestly, who above them should I move down? I can't find a reason to drop any of them below the Red Raiders.

Same for OU at #12. Feels low. Don't know who I would push down to move them up.

Maybe I am higher on Virgina than they deserve. We will see.

The Big Ten did quite a bit of chest thumping over the offseason.

Maybe they should have been quieter and just let their actions on the field speak for them. This was not a good weekend for the Big Ten, particularly compared to the SEC, whose teams went 16-0. It wasn't completely awful, though, particularly at the top.

The Good

Indiana 52-16 over North Texas - Things to work on, but a sound drubbing of a Group of 6 team by the defending National Champs.

Ohio State 56-3 over Ball State - Concerns with the running game, but again, a sound drubbing of a Group of 6 team by the Buckeyes.

USC 39-0 over Fresno State - The Trojans look like a playoff contender.

Penn State 45-0 over Marshall - I have been down on Matt Campbell and down on this hire. I may have been mistaken.

Iowa 40-0 over Northern Illinois - Iowa did what good teams do against inferior competition.

Minnesota 59-7 over Eastern Illinois - Ditto.

UCLA 45-21 over Cal - Impressive road win for th Bruins. This looks like a much improved team.

Maryland 62-0 over Hampton - Yes, it's a win over an FCS team, but it was a solid performance.

The Bad

It is probably a stretch to call some of these "bad", but they were at best "ho-hum" performances.

Oregon 34-27 over Boise State - I am not ready to give up on the Ducks just yet. I still think they're in the top tier in the Big Ten. But I think Boise State might be better than I thought. I expected more from the defense for Oregon. Let's see what they look like in week 2.

Washington 24-10 over Washington State - The final score looks ok, but this was a really bad performance by the Huskies. Far too many stupid penalties. And ony so-so play from their QB. I'm downgrading my outlook for Washington, for now.

Illinois 42-23 over UAB - Again, not too bad of a final score, but this game was close for a long time. And 23 points is a lot to give up to a UAB team that probably isn't going to be very good.

Northwestern 34-18 over South Dakota State - The Wildcats struggled to put away an FCS team at home. Yes, it was in their temporary stadium, and yes, SDSU is a very good FCS team, but still, this should not have been all that close.

Nebraska 49-21 over Ohio - Similar to the Illini and the Wildcats, the 'Huskers took a while to put away the Bobcats. Slightly downgrading my outlook for Nebraska this year.

Purdue 44-19 over Indiana State - Not sure the Boilermakers have another win on their schedule. Indiana State is a bad FCS team. This game should not have been close.

At least all the "bad" games were wins. That says something, I guess.

The Ugly

Michigan 13-12 over Western Michigan - The less said about this game, the better. The Wolverines host Oklahoma this week. Good luck.

Wisconsin 13-41 losers to Notre Dame - On the one hand, this was close for a half. And Wisconsin honestly looked a lot better in the first half than I expected. On the other hand, tne spread was 20.5 and they lost by 31. I think the Badgers are going to be decent this year, but time will tell.

Rutgers 21-37 losers to UMass - Look, there is no way to sugarcoat this. The Scarlet Knights were outplayed and outcoached from beginning to end. By possibly the worst program in the FBS. That's not good. That's really not good. Rutgers goes to Boston College this weekend. Maybe they can get their revenge on the state of Massachusetts there. I hope so. It is going to be a long season in Piscataway.

There was more good than I thought before I started writing this piece, and I am picking nits to call some of the bad games bad. But they weren't good. That's for sure. And at least two of the three uglies were really ugly, even if one was technically a win.

As I have said before, I am including FCS football in my rankings for 2026. This has nearly doubled the number of teams from 136 to 266. But there are other noteworthy changes which will affect the rankings. This is another big year for conference realignment.

Team	From Conference	To Conference	Notes
Boise State	Mountain West (FBS)	Pac-12 (FBS)	—
Chicago State	New program	FCS Independent	First season 2026
Colorado State	Mountain West (FBS)	Pac-12 (FBS)	—
Fresno State	Mountain West (FBS)	Pac-12 (FBS)	—
Hawai‘i	MWC (football-only)	Mountain West (all sports)	Becomes full member
Louisiana Tech	C-USA (FBS)	Sun Belt (FBS)	—
North Dakota State	MVFC (FCS)	Mountain West (FBS)	Football-only move
Northern Illinois	MAC (FBS)	Mountain West (FBS)	—
Sacramento State	Big Sky (FCS)	MAC (football)	Big West for non-football
Sacred Heart	FCS Independent	CAA (FCS)	Football move
San Diego State	Mountain West (FBS)	Pac-12 (FBS)	—
Southern Utah	UAC (FCS)	Big Sky (FCS)	Returning to Big Sky
St. Francis (PA)	NEC (FCS)	Division III (PAC)	All sports
Tennessee Tech	Big South–OVC (FCS)	Southern Conference (FCS)	—
Texas State	Sun Belt (FBS)	Pac-12 (FBS)	—
UTEP	C-USA (FBS)	Mountain West (FBS)	—
Utah State	Mountain West (FBS)	Pac-12 (FBS)	—
Villanova	CAA (FCS)	Patriot League (FCS)	Football-only
West Florida	Division II	United Athletic Conference (FCS)	—
William & Mary	CAA (FCS)	Patriot League (FCS)	Football-only

CJB Ratings, AKA Sports Ratings III, is a data-driven analytics platform designed to evaluate teams, project future performance, and provide transparent, reproducible rating systems across multiple sports. We currently do three sports:

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