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Top 25: Week Two

The Tar Heels took a dip after the season opening loss.

By Matt Ferenchick
NCAA Football: North Carolina at Virginia Tech Reinhold Matay-USA TODAY Sports

North Carolina’s 2021 season got off to quite the inauspicious start last Friday night in Blacksburg. Their offense was held in check by Virginia Tech, dooming the Tar Heels to a 17-10 loss to open the new year.

However, they ended up being far from the biggest story of the week. The opening week of the season was filled with some interesting results, from Georgia’s defensive domination of Clemson, to the numerous upsets, FCS over FBS, Group of 5 over Power 5, and more.

Week one lasted all the way through Monday, but now that the dust has settled on the opening week of the season, let’s check in on the top 25 rankings ahead of week two.

AP Top 25

  1. Alabama Crimson Tide (59 First Place Votes)
  2. Georgia Bulldogs (4)
  3. Ohio State Buckeyes
  4. Oklahoma Sooners
  5. Texas A&M Aggies
  6. Clemson Tigers
  7. Cincinnati Bearcats
  8. Notre Dame Fighting Irish
  9. Iowa State Cyclones
  10. Iowa Hawkeyes
  11. Penn State Nittany Lions
  12. Oregon Ducks
  13. Florida Gators
  14. USC Trojans
  15. Texas Longhorns
  16. UCLA Bruins
  17. Coastal Carolina Chanticleers
  18. Wisconsin Badgers
  19. Virginia Tech Hokies
  20. Ole Miss Rebels
  21. Utah Utes
  22. Miami Hurricanes
  23. Arizona State Sun Devils
  24. North Carolina Tar Heels
  25. Auburn Tigers

Where is UNC?

Despite the loss, the Tar Heels hung onto their top 25 spot, but fell from the top ten all the down to the fringes at #24. Saturday showed the program still has a long ways to go, but the fact that they lost the way the did and didn’t completely fall out shows how far they’ve already come.

Biggest Winners

Two Big Ten teams who had nice week one wins in Iowa and Penn State moved up eight spots, but the biggest jump of the week belonged to UCLA. The Bruins went from not ranked to #16 after their win over LSU.

Biggest Losers

UNC have the, uh, “accolade” of having the biggest drop of any team still ranked, falling 14 spot. However, there was a couple teams that had even bigger falls. Indiana went from #17 to the eighth placed teams among the “others receiving votes,” which is a 16 spot drop. Topping them is Washington, who went from #20 to getting no votes at all, thanks to their loss to FCS team Montana.

Conference Breakdown

  • SEC: 6
  • Pac-12: 5
  • ACC: 4
  • Big Ten: 4
  • Big 12: 3
  • AAC: 1
  • Independent: 1
  • Sun Belt: 1

Marquee Matchups This Week

  • #12 Oregon (1-0) at #3 Ohio State (1-0) - Saturday at 12 PM ET on FOX
  • #10 Iowa (1-0) at #9 Iowa State (1-0) - Saturday at 4:30 PM ET on ABC
  • #15 Texas (1-0) at Arkansas (1-0) - Saturday at 7 PM ET on ESPN

Coaches’ Poll

  1. Alabama (64)
  2. Georgia (1)
  3. Ohio State
  4. Oklahoma
  5. Texas A&M
  6. Clemson
  7. Notre Dame
  8. Cincinnati
  9. Florida
  10. Iowa State
  11. Oregon
  12. Iowa
  13. Penn State
  14. USC
  15. Texas
  16. UCLA
  17. Wisconsin
  18. Utah
  19. Coastal Carolina
  20. Ole Miss
  21. Virginia Tech
  22. North Carolina
  23. Oklahoma State
  24. Miami
  25. Arizona State

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