College football rankings: Penn State joins Texas, Ohio State in top three amid reshuffling in CBS Sports 134

College football fans across the country are still recovering from a Saturday of upsets that will prove a turning point in the 2024 season. We know that by the end of the year many debates around how these teams stack up will be decided on the field, but after all the chaos of Week 6, there is certainly some confusion when filling out a rankings ballot. 

Our voters in the CBS Sports 134, a comprehensive ranking of every FBS team, had to decide how much to punish teams like Alabama, Tennessee and Missouri, all of whom were inside the top 10 last week and took their first loss over the weekend. There is also the other rankings aspect of those results: identifying where Vanderbilt and Arkansas fit into the full FBS picture in the wake of those upset wins. For Texas A&M, the victory affirmed the Aggies’ quality as our voters eyed the 31-10 victory as good enough for a 13-spot move up to No. 15 in the new rankings. 

And with all the shuffling comes new opportunity for teams that have taken care of business so far in 2024. That includes Texas reassuming the No. 1 spot the Longhorns ceded to Alabama just one week ago; Ohio State closing the gap on No. 1 and holding strong at No. 2; and Penn State jumping up from No. 6 to No. 3 as the Nittany Lions continue to build their own resume as one of the top teams in the country. 

Further down in the top 20, we see teams like BYU, Indiana and Pitt continue to rise as they maintain an unbeaten start to the 2024 season and some interesting rankings debates among the many one-loss teams vying for spots in the top 30. 

As you might expect, a weekend filled with unexpected results is going to lead to a robust set of changes throughout the entire CBS Sports 134. It’s easier for a traditional poll voter to move a team off their ballot and be done, but we try to figure out exactly where some of these teams fit in the larger landscape. For some of the notable week-to-week adjustments, check out the Mover’s Report below the top 25 table. 

College football experts from CBS Sports and 247Sports contribute ballots each week, which are averaged together for our rankings. You can see the top 25 below and 26-134 on our rankings page.

Biggest movers 

• No. 38 Vanderbilt (+35): Obviously, there needed to be a major adjustment to Vanderbilt’s standing in the wake of the Alabama win, and there may be a new floor for how far they would fall again because it seems unlikely the voters will look at this profile and slot the Commodores outside of the top 60 or top 70 again in 2024. Vanderbilt beat Alabama and Virginia Tech while taking Missouri to overtime, and while the road ahead includes more tough challenges, there is belief in that building now that this year’s team can hang with anyone.  
• No. 27 Army (+28): While Navy had the win against Memphis to spark a major move up in the CBS Sports 134, Army has continued to stack dominant win on top of dominant win and finally gets its day in the Mover’s Report after thrashing Tulsa 49-7. The Black Knights have put up 35+ points in four of their five wins and have yet to allow an opponent to score more than 14 points. 
• No. 30 Arkansas (+22): The Razorbacks are now 4-2 with a win against Tennessee and two one-score losses to power conference teams. The voters weren’t racing to move Arkansas all the way up to jump Tennessee inside the top 15, but certainly the strong play from the last couple of weeks needs to be rewarded in the rankings.   
• No. 21 SMU (+15): It’s been a slow climb back up the rankings for the Mustangs since taking a tumble in the wake of their Week 2 loss to BYU. Slow adjustments were made after wins against TCU and Florida State, but it was beating Louisville on the road that pushed Rhett Lashlee’s 5-1 team back inside the top 30 of our rankings. 
• No. 33 Syracuse (+14): Losing to Stanford at home in Week 4 had the Orange falling in the rankings, but Friday night’s overtime win at UNLV has been a rankings rebound for Fran Brown’s team, which now sits at 4-1 on the season.    
• No. 29 Michigan (-13): Now with two losses on the season, Michigan joins different debates when it comes to filling out a rankings ballot. And while the USC win helped those tie-breaking debates, that part of the profile took a hit over the weekend as well with the Trojans picking up their second loss at Minnesota. 
• No. 25 Missouri (-16): After winning the first two games of the season by a combined score of 89-0, the Tigers had yet to really flex their muscles in the way that’s often expected of a top-10 team. Narrow wins against Boston College and Vanderbilt led to some small adjustments at the top of ballots, but now voters’ suspicions have been confirmed with a 31-point loss at Texas A&M. 
• No. 28 USC (-16): The Trojans are off to a 1-2 start to Big Ten play, and while the season-opening win against LSU still deserves respect from a rankings perspective, the voters are clearly focusing on the more recent performances. USC got off to a slow start in all three conference games and now faces a must-win scenario against Penn State at home if it wants to remain a player in the playoff picture. 
• No, 44 Arizona (-17): This group continues to ping-pong up and down the rankings. First came a drop after a 24-point loss to Kansas State, then a surge back up following a win at Utah, and now another adjustment down after losing to Texas Tech at home late Saturday night. The overall quality definitely suggests a top-50 ranking is warranted, but where Arizona fits between No. 30 and No. 50 seems to vary from week-to-week. 

Check out the rest of the CBS Sports 134: Teams ranked 26-134