Texas Claims No. 1 Spot in CBS Sports 138 Rankings; Michigan Re-enters Top 25

No college football season is truly off and running until we get our first couple of top-10 clashes and top-10 upsets. In Week 2, we checked both boxes, with Texas storming back dramatically to beat Ohio State at home and Oregon getting stunned by an Oklahoma State team that had just lost its season opener at Tulsa . Throw in the confusion of how to rate Michigan following two very different results (the controversial finish against Western Michigan , a win against Oklahoma ), and you can see why college football voters have their hands full trying to fill out a ballot in mid-September.

Thankfully, you, the college football fan, do not carry the same burden as us here at CBS Sports. We rank every FBS team every single week for the CBS Sports 138, using ballots from experts at CBS Sports and 247Sports to compile a composite ranking set of the entire landscape. It allows us to identify not just the cut off at 25, like the major polls, but also what it looks like around the top 40, top 50 and beyond. So when teams like Oklahoma or Illinois take those harmful losses, we don't just bounce them from our ballots but instead find an exact spot to place them in the full 138-team set.

The easy decision, it seems, was to put Texas at the No. 1 spot. The Longhorns were not a unanimous pick for No. 1 but carry a heavy ballot average advantage over Georgia at No. 2. The Bulldogs and Miami are also about a half-step ahead of Notre Dame at No. 4, which leads a crowded set of contenders that includes Ohio State (down to No. 5 after the loss), Indiana (trending up with another lopsided win) and LSU, which is still riding high off the very loud opening win against Clemson .

Those seven teams are the top tier for our voters, who then have different opinions within the next couple of tiers. Our voters seem to agree that it's touch to discern differences between Alabama , Ole Miss , Texas A&M and USC (all with ballot averages between 9.3 and 10.6), but that group does have a consistent for being ahead of the likes of Texas Tech , Tennessee and Penn State , which all have a ballot average between 15.0 and 15.6.

Shuffling of the tiers doesn't make for too many major adjustments within the top 25 outside of the change at No. 1, but there are plenty of big adjustments throughout the top 60. We have identified some of those in the Mover's Report, which you can find below the top 25 table.

College football experts from CBS Sports and 247Sports contribute ballots each week, which are averaged together for our rankings. You can see the top 25 below and 26-138 on our rankings page.

Rank Team Record Previous 1 Texas 2-0 2 2 Georgia 2-0 4 3 Miami 2-0 3 4 Notre Dame 2-0 5 5 Ohio State 1-1 1 6 Indiana 2-0 7 7 LSU 2-0 6 8 Alabama 2-0 11 9 Ole Miss 2-0 12 10 Texas A&M 2-0 13 11 USC 3-0 10 12 BYU 2-0 15 13 Texas Tech 2-0 14 14 Tennessee 2-0 17 15 Penn State 2-0 16 16 Oregon 1-1 8 17 SMU 2-0 18 18 Missouri 2-0 23 19 Utah 2-0 22 20 Michigan 2-0 37 21 Iowa 2-0 19 22 Florida 2-0 20 23 Louisville 2-0 24 24 Houston 2-0 26 25 Virginia 2-0 25

Biggest movers

- No. 38 Oklahoma State (+45) : The Cowboys return just six spots higher than where they were before the season-opening loss to Tulsa, having proven not only that the performance could be better but that it was good enough to beat one of the most talented teams in the country. Eric Morris and his crew are now riding high into a wide-open Big 12 race ready to make some noise with more big-time wins like Saturday's upset of the Ducks in Stillwater. - No. 58 North Texas (+20) : This is now 54 spots of upward movement for the Mean Green in two weeks thanks to an on-field product that exceeded the preseason expectations. Neal Brown was thought to be taking over a total reload after Eric Morris' departure to Oklahoma State, but this group has played competitive football in tough spots. On Saturday, they absolutely thumped UNLV . The first move came in defeat with an effort against Indiana that suggests the team could be ready to compete in the American, and now it's a group with a win under its belt against a UNLV team that could go on to contend for the Mountain West title. - No. 20 Michigan (+17) : The bounce back into the top 30 for Michigan mirrors what we have seen from the major polls, with a punishment for its performance in the opener against Western Michigan but also a reconciliation in the wake of the Oklahoma win. The Wolverines looked improved enough for just long enough stretches to secure the victory, which does stand out as one of the better non-conference wins in the country so far this season. - No. 50 UTSA (+17): One of the under-the-radar great wins from Week 2 was UTSA going on the road to outlast in-state foe Texas State , improving to 2-0 behind another solid performance from veteran quarterback Owen McCown . Clearly, our voters did not overlook the importance of this result with an adjustment for the RoadRunners, and Steve Sarkisian will probably note this success as well as his Longhorns prepare for a date with UTSA in Week 3. - No. 43 Illinois (-11) : An offseason change at defensive coordinator brought a new system and new philosophy to Champaign, but the Illini did not have the answers in place yet to stop a Duke team that exposed some early season tackling issues. Our voters didn't surge Duke up in the rankings as much as they adjusted the Illini down, now checking in outside the top 40 for the first time in a while. - No. 26 Oklahoma (-17) : There is the immediate, rankings-related adjustments that need to be made but also some larger conversations as to where this Oklahoma team stacks up against its peers. The Sooners have one of the better defenses around, but the inability to generate consistent offense will make every game just as low-scoring and stressful as Saturday's loss to Michigan was unless they find some improvement in the coming weeks. - No. 56 Minnesota (-18) : While Kamario Taylor might be a truly special player, Minnesota's showing at home against Mississippi State on the big stage falls as a massive disappointment. Shortly after a stadium full of boat-rowers finished their routine, the boat started to sink. Mississippi State scored touchdowns on each of its first four offensive possessions and Minnesota was down by more than 20 points by halftime.

Check out the rest of the CBS Sports 138: Teams ranked 26-138

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_Originally reported by [CBS Sports](https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/college-football-rankings-texas-michigan-cbs-sports-138/)._