College football rankings: Georgia now unanimous No. 1 as Florida State plummets in new CBS Sports 134

Some of the biggest changes to the college football rankings are going to come in the first weeks of the season as all preseason expectations are put to the test and we start to judge teams based on how they perform on the field rather than how they look on paper. But when it came to resorting the CBS Sports 134, our comprehensive ranking of every FBS team, one of the most notable adjustments was a return to the familiar when it comes to the best team in the sport. 

After multiple teams received first-place votes in our preseason balloting in August, a full slate of Week 1 results has brought all of the experts at CBS Sports and 247Sports to a unanimous opinion: Georgia is the top dog in college football. 

This comes after a 34-3 statement win against Clemson that marked the 40th consecutive regular season victory for Kirby Smart’s program. While Ohio State’s all-star roster was a slow out of the gate against Akron, and Oregon, our No. 3 team in the preseason CBS Sports 134, never really pulled away from FCS Idaho as expected, Georgia absolutely looked the part of a No. 1 team against a power-conference opponent. 

But if you want those dramatic changes in the rankings — those overreactions (or course corrections) based on the Week 1 action — there is plenty to dive into below the Bulldogs. Miami crashed the top 10, moving up seven spots to No. 9 after thumping Florida in Gainesville. USC is up nine spots to No. 12 after outlasting LSU in Las Vegas on Sunday night. Oregon and Michigan were among the top teams who dropped a few spots despite winning. Those adjustments were a result of a combination of factors, including voters wanting more out of those victories but also ascensions by Notre Dame and Miami. LSU did not lose too much ground after its loss to USC, dropping just six spots to No. 18, and Texas A&M barely budged off the Aggies’ preseason position, down just three spots to No. 23. 

The biggest changes, as you might expect, came from the ACC, where Florida State went from being the preseason pick to win the league to sitting in 17th place with an 0-2 record in conference play. The other side of the Seminoles’ losses in a ranking of every FBS team is a notable bump for both Georgia Tech and Boston College, with the Yellow Jackets crashing the top 25 at No. 24. For more on the most notable week-to-week changes in the CBS Sports 134, check out the Mover’s Report 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 26-134 on our rankings page.

Biggest movers 

• No. 45 Vanderbilt (+46): The CBS Sports 134 voters were way too low on Vanderbilt and have been quick to act in the wake of the Commodores’ overtime win against Virginia Tech. The Diego Pavia era is off a running for a team that simply had more juice out of the gate before holding off the Hokies when they made their eventual charge. Now inside the top 50, Vanderbilt eyes the possibilities of a new ceiling in what could be a big step forward for Clark Lea and his staff.  
• No. 24 Georgia Tech (+29): One of just two 2-0 teams at the FBS level, Georgia Tech showed great promise with how the team handled the turnaround from Week 0 to Week 1. A letdown might have been expected after a dramatic walk-off win against a top-10 opponent, but adding international travel and a feisty cross-city opponent in Georgia State laid all the seeds for a hangover game. Instead, the Yellow Jackets handled business and are now set up for a strong start to what is one of the toughest schedules in the ACC. 
• No. 35 Boston College (+24): It’s hard to imagine a better way for coach Bill O’Brien to start his Boston College tenure, not just beating Florida State but doing it in Tallahassee with a game plan that involved the offense imposing its will on the Seminoles’ defense. With a preseason ranking just inside the top 60, our voters were not overly down on Boston College, but clearly the win has leveled the Eagles up a tier to the discussion for top-30 to top-40 status.  
• No. 27 Clemson (-13): If our voters are gathering unanimously around Georgia at No. 1, there’s probably a high floor for how far Clemson was going to fall after losing to the Bulldogs. It’s possible Clemson could remain right around the top-30 cut off by simply meeting expectations, but any significant move up will require more offensive production and consistency than what was on display against the Bulldogs. 
• No. 57 Virginia Tech (-28): As we so often see in the Mover’s Report, one team’s sky-high rise is paired with another team dropping like a rock. So with Vanderbilt getting the flowers for taking down Virginia Tech, there is also the Hokies tumbling out of their preseason status as a top-30 team. The Hokies showed a form closer to their expectation in the second half as they stormed back into the game and got to overtime, but without finishing the job, the voters are left with a damaging loss to compare with the results of other top-60 teams. 
• No. 48 Florida State (-35): There have been only three instances of a team losing outright as a double-digit favorite, and Florida State is responsible for two of them. From a rankings perspective, our voters appear to be crediting Georgia Tech and Boston College with the wins, which in a sense limits some of the damage to how far the Seminoles would fall. Still, the range that Florida State sits now is the same spot where power-conference teams in low-tier bowl games finish the season. And that’s far from where anyone inside or outside the program are expecting Florida State to be at the end of 2024. 

Check out the rest of the CBS Sports 134: Teams ranked 26-134