College football Power Rankings: What we've learned about top teams - ESPN

Texas has two wins over ranked competition. But they came by narrow margins in which its offense struggled for long stretches.

Oregon toppled USC without its starting quarterback. But the Ducks also have an ugly loss to Oklahoma State and — potentially — no Dante Moore for a while.

Florida and Mississippi State are ascendant in the SEC; Oklahoma and Texas A&M are tumbling.

Indiana, Miami, BYU, Notre Dame and Georgia: They all look terrific, and none has played a team that has tested them.

So, what do we know through a full month of the season? Perhaps not as much as we might hope, and odds are, a lot of narrative twists we didn't see coming are in store for October.

But with one-third of the 2026 campaign in the books, it does seem clear that USC's Lincoln Riley is in for a long few months of grumbling over his future, Arch Manning still needs to prove he's an elite-tier QB and Kamario Taylor is going to make some defensive coordinators' lives incredibly unpleasant.

There's more that we learned from September, of course, but the fun of what remains throughout the season is how much is yet to be decided. — David Hale

Previous ranking:1

The Longhorns sometimes look sloppy. But you know what's pristine? Their résumé, which includes wins over No. 5 Ohio State at home and at No. 17 Tennessee. Inside a deafening Neyland Stadium, Texas didn't get a ton of production out of its offense. Quarterback Manning was up and down, and the running game missed Hollywood Smothers' playmaking (see: longest rush of 11 yards, by Manning). But the defense stepped up in a big way with 10 sacks and only 1.6 yards per rush allowed. The bye week comes at a great time for Steve Sarkisian's squad, as it gets a breather after a fast start to the