The college football rankings for the first week of the NCAA Football season have been released. The top of the USA Today Coaches Poll has the usual suspects: Oklahoma (1), Alabama (2) and with their big win over Oregon, LSU is the third spot. In the Pac-12, Stanford stays at six while Oregon drops to 14 with their loss. At home, the Arizona State Sun Devils move into the 23rd spot on the list while the University of Arizona Wildcats remain unranked.
In the AP Poll, Arizona State falls out of the top 25, but is the top of heap for "others receiving votes" which puts them right at the door step. Here's the full AP college football rankings with analysis. The Arizona Wildcats are nowhere to be found in either poll.
Arizona State easily handled their first opponent, UC Davis and while that was fully expected, the way they went about their business was impressive. The Sun Devil offense moved the ball with ease and the defense recorded sacks and held the Aggies to only a few scoring chances.
Things take a sharp turn in a new direction this week with the 19th-ranked Missouri Tigers coming to town. The Tigers won their Week 1 game against Miami Ohio by a score of 17-6. Most felt the Tigers were unimpressive in the victory over a small school and Mizzou also suffered a few key injuries.
An Arizona State win over Mizzou on Friday in a nationally televised game has to be worth several spots in next week's college football rankings while a loss would probably move them out of the top 15. Elsewhere in the Pac-12, Stanford and Oregon both have easy weeks with Duke and Nevada respectively. The big match to watch with huge implications in the Pac-12 South race will be USC vs. Utah at 4:30 p.m. PT on Saturday.