AP Top 25: Projecting Auburn’s ranking after win against No. 6 Washington
By Rob Maxwell
The ninth-ranked Auburn football team earned a huge win Saturday, beating No. 6 Washington and the Tigers will move up in the AP Top 25 when it’s released Tuesday.
Auburn is 1-0 and picked up one of the biggest victories of the first weekend of the 2018 college football season when it knocked off the Huskies in Atlanta.
The win is the first for Auburn against a top-10 team this season — the Tigers schedule features three games against preseason top-10 teams (also No. 3 Georgia and No. 1 Alabama).
The Auburn football team plays Alabama State at home this Saturday, but the game in two weeks against SEC West rival LSU just picked up steam after the Tigers beat No. 8 Miami, 33-17, on Sunday night.
Report card for Auburn's win vs. Washington. light. Game 1 grades
Projected AP Top 25 rankings
1. Alabama
2. Clemson
3. Georgia
4. Wisconsin
5. Ohio State
There’s no reason to see any movement from the top five teams. Each one took care of business against inferior opponents.
6. Auburn
7. Oklahoma
8. Notre Dame
9. Stanford
10. Washington
The SEC can claim the two biggest wins of the weekend — Auburn over No. 6 Washington and LSU over No. 8 Miami. Both teams will be rewarded. Will Auburn jump Oklahoma, which blew out FAU? That’s the big question among top-10 teams. Washington led Auburn in the fourth quarter and shouldn’t be dinged too much.
Dropped from top 10: Miami, Penn State. Nothing against Appalachian State, a program that’s won 30 games over the last three seasons, but escaping with an overtime (and yes, it was a major escape) win at home against a non-Power 5 opponent is not a good sign.
11. LSU
12. Virginia Tech
13. Penn State
14. Stanford
15. TCU
16. Michigan State
17. West Virginia
18. USC
19. Mississippi State
20. Michigan
21. Miami
22. UCF
23. Oregon
24. Boise State
25. South Carolina
LSU, along with Auburn, was responsible for the best wins of Week 1. Its 33-17 win against Miami put LSU in position to arrive in Auburn in two weeks for what should be another huge showdown. We’ll predict that TCU and West Virginia will pass USC, which struggled against UNLV even though the final score doesn’t indicate that. Another big game is being played tonight, so FSU and Virginia Tech will make moves after the game Monday night in Tallahassee.
It will be interesting to see how far the Wolverines drop after losing at Notre Dame.
Dropped from Top 25: FSU, Texas. It’s a little surprising the Longhorns began the season in the Top 25 after going 7-6 last season, but voters likely went with them based on name recognition because they are not a Top 25 team.
Florida State played a very good team in Virginia Tech, but Willie Taggart’s debut as Seminoles coach was not a good one as the Hokies dominated them in Tallahassee.
More on Auburn football
Things could not have played out for the Auburn football team any better this weekend.
First, there was the 21-16 victory against No. 6 Washington. Then, Sunday night, LSU whipped No. 8 Miami. The LSU Tigers should vault up the polls when they’re released Tuesday. Auburn and LSU should steamroll their opponents Saturday (Alabama State and Southeastern Louisiana), setting up another potential game between top-10 opponents.
If that happens and Auburn can pick up a pair of top-10 wins in the first three weeks of the season, that will be two more than any other team inside the top 10 and would be a huge resume booster, not to mention a huge SEC victory. But let’s not jump ahead.
Next. Things Auburn needs to address after Week 1 win. dark
Auburn has things to iron out this week before LSU visits Jordan-Hare Stadium on Saturday, Sept. 15 (3:30 p.m., CBS).