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Initially, I was not going to put out my True Top 25 Rankings until after the first weekend of games were played in October. Well, how things have changed! The hype surrounding opening weekend and the excitement of a few of the outcomes have me going against my original plan. I do still believe that the first set of rankings that anyone can truly judge teams on will be in October, as of right now, it's really a crap shoot, but these are The True Top 25's attempt at making sense of it all after week 1.

The TRUE Top 25

1. USC Trojans - It seems like Mark Sanchez's knee is just fine, USC rolled over Virginia 52-7 and the Trojans hold the top spot after week 1.

2. Florida Gators - Hawaii's defense never saw the speed they saw against Florida as the Gator's ran past the Warriors with ease 56-10.

3. Georgia Bulldogs - The Bulldogs took care of business against Georgia Southern, now Georgia has one more tuneup against Central Michigan, before they go through a murderer's row of 9 consecutive opponents.

4. Ohio State Buckeyes - OSU dominated Youngstown State to open the season, but the bigger story coming out of this contest was Beanie Wells' injury. His health will be one of the most enormous keys to the Buckeyes entire season.

5. Oklahoma Sooners - A 57-2 rout against Chattanooga to start the year, next week will be tougher against a Cincinnati Bearcats team the Sooners shouldn't take lightly.

6. Missouri Tigers - Mizzou just simply outscored Illinois 52-42. The concern for the Tigers will never be on offense, but it will be how well can their defense play against upper echelon competition?

7. LSU Tigers - The Tigers were smart enough not to pull a Michigan, the defending national champs dominated Appalachian State.

8. West Virginia Mountaineers - Pat White did it with his arm instead of his legs against Villanova throwing 5 touchdowns, up next for WVU a dangerous East Carolina team.

9. Auburn Tigers - The new offense and stout defense led the Tigers to a 34 point shutout of Louisiana-Monroe.

10. Texas Longhorns - The Longhorns didn't want to play another Florida team close to start the season as they routed defending Sun Belt champ Florida Atlantic.

11. Alabama Crimson Tide - We knew Nick Saban would turn the Tide at Alabama, but did we think it would happen this season? A dominating win against ACC favorite Clemson has sure started the Tide rolling for Saban.

12. Wisconsin Badgers - PJ Hill left, PJ Hill middle and PJ Hill right. That seems to be all the Badgers offense consists of, Hill running the football, but honestly why stop doing what works?

13. Texas Tech Red Raiders - See Wisconsin and reverse the statement about offense to passing. Grahm Harrel threw for over 500 yards opening day!

14. Arizona State Sun Devils - The Sun Devils opened the year by jumping out to a quick lead on Northern Arizona and eventually defeating them 30-13. The Sun Devils need not to fall into the trap of looking ahead to the Georgia game, they play a dangerous Stanford team this week.

15. Kansas Jayhawks - Kansas opened the year by beating what might be the worst team in all of college football 40-10, Florida International.

16. Oregon Ducks - The Ducks dominated Washington with their 3^rd string quarterback Jeremiah Masoli, that is a sign of a very talented football team.

17. South Florida Bulls - The Bulls were up 28-0 with 5 minutes left in the first quarter during their win against Tennessee-Martin, as they should have been.

18. Wake Forest Demon Deacons - Wake Forest was the only ranked ACC team not to get upset this week, granted they were playing Baylor.

19. BYU Cougars - The Cougars will face a better test than Northern Iowa this week when they travel to Washington to take on the Huskies.

20. Penn State Nittany Lions - Joe Paterno ties Bobby Bowden on the all-time wins list is about the only real information anyone can get from Penn State's whooping of Coastal Carolina.

21. Clemson Tigers - The epitome of the annual choke artist, never living up to the hype. The Tigers have all the talent in the world, except on the offensive line which was exposed by Alabama.

22. Fresno State Bulldogs - Fresno State just made beating Rutgers in Piscataway look way to easy.

23. South Carolina Gamecocks - So much for the ole ball coach's offense, defense is how the Gamecocks win football games.

24. Illinois Fighting Illini - It is now two straight years the Illini could not beat Missouri on opening day. Illinois should be concerned about their defense after giving up 52 points to the Tigers.

25. UCLA Bruins - The Bruins pulled off the win it was the best game of all of opening weekend, defeating Tennessee 27-24 in overtime, what a homecoming for Rick Neuheisel and what resilience from UCLA QB Kevin Craft.

The Next 5

26. Utah Utes

27. Tennessee Volunteers

28. East Carolina Pirates

29. Cincinnati Bearcats

30. Arizona Wildcats

Rating The BCS Conferences

1. SEC - Simply the best conference in all of college football once again.

2. Big 12 - All of the conferences upper echelon teams took care of business opening weekend.

3. Pac10 - After USC, the most underrated conference in the nation.

4. Big 10 - A lot of good, but still no great, that could change if OSU knocks off USC.

5. Big East - The most inconsistent conference in the nation.

6. ACC - It is well known that the ACC is a weak conference, but did we all really know how bad it actually is? Way to represent Clemson and Virginia Tech.

Next Week's Top 5 Games to Watch

1. East Carolina @ West Virginia - Can the Pirates pull two consecutive upsets?

2. Cincinnati @ Oklahoma - The Sooners should not overlook the Bearcats.

3. Miami @ Florida - A measure of where the Hurricane program is at.

4. Stanford @ Arizona State - A measure of where the Cardinal program is at.

5. BYU @ Washington - The first step towards a BCS bowl berth for BYU, a win against the Pac-10.

Tyler Crane

The True Top 25 Inc.