College football rankings: Alabama joins top four as SEC teams headline CBS Sports 138

The SEC continued to fill out the top of the college football rankings, with Alabama moving into the top four in the updated CBS Sports 138, a ranking of every FBS team.

Our panel of experts from CBS Sports and 247Sports found themselves facing some real headaches in the top 30, like listing a Florida team that beat Ole Miss but lost to Missouri or an Oregon team that beat USC but lost to Oklahoma State. But one thing our experts can agree on is that the Alabama Crimson Tide are one of the hottest teams in the country and are now pushing the discussion as a No. 1 contender as they head into this weekend’s showdown with Georgia.

Alabama’s surge keeps the SEC well-represented even as Florida falls out of the top 10 following a shockingly uncompetitive performance at Missouri, and the conference is poised to have three of the top four, five of the top ten and nine of the top twenty teams in our rankings.

Another interesting issue this week was the team logjam between #20 and #40. As fans fight and scream over which teams make it to a traditional top 25 or not, our CBS Sports 138 exposes just how tight these teams are in this bracket of the rankings. From 20th-ranked Iowa to 28th-ranked Nebraska, every team has an average poll ranking above 25.0. With lopsided schedules and only a few conference games completed, we expect a week where there will be around 30 teams deemed “top 25” by experts.

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

The biggest movers

• No. 35 Arizona (+11): The Wildcats had a strong performance Saturday night, and our voters noticed, sliding Arizona into the top 40 after the team handed Cincinnati its first loss of the season. This is a 4-1 team that has few power conference wins (1) at the moment, but is capable of continuing to improve with wins in the Big 12 in the coming weeks.
• No. 34 Minnesota (+10): Back-to-back wins over Washington and Michigan reset Minnesota’s place in the Big Ten pecking order in 2026. The Gophers entered both games as betting underdogs, but won by the margins. Now, they’re eyeing the opportunity to be a dark horse candidate in the Big Ten race.
• No. 64 NC State (+10): The stock had gotten pretty low for the Wolfpack, so there was certainly room for upside after upsetting Louisville at home in a rainy Saturday afternoon affair. The win marked the offense’s fourth straight game with 30-plus points after a slow start to Week Zero, and now NC State is back in the top 70 of our full 138-team rankings.
• No. 37 Virginia Tech (-11): This is a somewhat surprising situation for the Hokies given that James Franklin’s team is 4-1 with two power conference wins (and the only loss came on a missed field goal attempt by a few inches), but Virginia Tech is one of those teams struggling with a seeding logjam right now. The average ballot ranking for Virginia Tech is 33.75, but unfortunately, 15 teams occupy ballot averages between #23 and #34. With 15 teams for 12 spots, voters are splitting hairs, and Virginia Tech’s best win is either Maryland or Boston College.
• No. 44 Penn State (-12): A predictable decline here for Penn State after getting mauled by Northwestern Friday night in the opening of the new Ryan Field. There is an opportunity to come back strong for the Nittany Lions after two straight losses to conference opponents, but it will require more offensive production with USC coming to town for a White Out in Week 6.
• No. 49 Virginia (-13): The Wahoos have had a tough time coming back from that Week Zero rout against NC State, as since August 30, we’ve only seen one FBS win for Virginia, and that came against Delaware (42-3) last week. A 38-7 loss to Florida State has voters seriously rethinking where this group stands among its power conference peers and top Group of Six contenders.
• No. 48 Michigan (-17): We’re five games into the season, and the only time Michigan has scored 20 or more points was against UTEP in Week 3. Kyle Whittingham takes this group into the bye week with a lot of work to do, and our voters have firmly stated that this is a team to watch for potentially being kicked out of the top 50 if they can’t turn things around when the Wolverines return to play in Week 7 against Penn State.

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