College Football Week 1 Review

by Zak Drapeau

Sportz Nation - 9/8/2026

Zak's Top-25

Updated

1. Ohio State (1-0) /\1

2. Georgia (1-0) /\1

3. Oregon (1-0) \/2

4. Texas (1-0) /\1

5. Miami (1-0) /\2

6. Indiana (1-0) --

7. LSU (1-0) /\3

8. Notre Dame (1-0) \/4

9. Texas A&M (1-0) \/1

10. Oklahoma (1-0) /\1

11. Ole Miss (1-0) /\2

12. USC (2-0) /\2

13. Alabama (1-0) \/1

14. Texas Tech (1-0) \/5

15. BYU (1-0) /\1

16. Penn State (1-0) /\2

17. Washington (1-0) --

18. SMU (1-0) /\2

19. Florida (1-0) /\3

20. Iowa (1-0) /\3

21. Utah (1-0) --

22. Michigan (1-0) \/7

23. Louisville (0-1) \/4

24. Tennessee (1-0) /\1

25. Missouri (1-0) NR

Next 5

26. South Carolina (1-0) NR

27. Virginia Tech (1-0) NR

28. Arizona (1-0) NR

29. Houston (1-0) NR

30. Pittsburgh (1-0) NR

Michigan Wins at the Buzzer

Photo Credits to Jacob Hamilton via Ann Arbor News

Week 1 of the CFB season had a bunch of crazy games and moments but none captured the world's attention like the end of the Michigan-Western Michigan game.

Down 12-7 with 8 seconds on the clock Michigan threw a Hail Mary that sailed out of the end zone with zeros showing on the clock. After Western Michigan starts running on the field and everyone's celebrating, the official review goes back and puts 1-second back on the clock. After the restart, Michigan miraculously throws another Hail Mary and completes it for the game-winning touchdown

So much has already been made about this sequence of events from media programs bringing in past referees to talk about the difference between game clocks and official's clocks to why referees should always go by the TV clock.

Michigan was ranked #16 before this home game against the Broncos who are consensously a Top-50 program. After narrowly escaping with a win, I brought them down 7 spots to #22 in my poll and the new AP Poll doesn't release until 2:00 EST today.

LSU is For Real

Photo Credits to Gerald Herbert via Associated Press

Before the season started we weren't sure which LSU we would get. From last year's disaster of a 7-6 season to bringing in Lane Kiffin under shady circumstances and one of the largest transfer portals in the country, we could only speculate.

After their 51-10 drummig of Clemson this weekend in Baton Rouge, there's no question anymore how good this team is and can be.

Kiffin as always been a dynamic offensive coach but the way LSU made Clemson look like an FCS school almost from start to finish was eye-opening. QB Sam Leavitt made his debut for the purple and gold and was elite both on the ground and through the air and RB Dilin Jones kept ripping off big plays. It was almost as if his Ole Miss backfield duo came with him to LSU for the night and helped him destroy a team I had as my #24 team going into the game.

I moved them up 3 spots to #7 in this week's poll and I wouldn't be shocked at all if AP has them even higher.

Watch Out For..

Next week's slate of games have a bunch of high stakes games between some of the top teams in the country.

- Ohio State at Texas

- Oklahoma at Michigan

- Arizona at BYU

- Arizona St at Texas A&M

- Oregon at Oklahoma St

Check out fansonlysportz.com/news for more sports media content posted daily.

Make sure to stay tuned as we continue coverage of the 2026 CFB Season every Monday and Thursday.

-Z.D.