WFAA’s State of Texas College Football Rankings for Week 1

TEXAS, USA — While Week 0 offered college football fans just four games to tip-toe their way into the 2024-2025 season, it’s now time for a full slate of football for Week 1. 

Since we only saw one Texas team compete during Week 0, our rankings, which are made based on the average rank given by three members of WFAA’s digital team: Ryan Osborne, Paul Livengood and Zach Yanes, will only reflect changes based on the Mustangs’ performance against Nevada. 

And let’s just say, it shook some things up. 

Remember, these rankings are simply our opinions on each program and where we think they measure up compared to one another, so if you disagree – that’s completely fine.

• Paul Livengood – 1
• Ryan Osborne – 1
• Zach Yanes – 1

• Paul Livengood – 2
• Ryan Osborne – 2
• Zach Yanes – 2

• Paul Livengood – 4
• Ryan Osborne – 4
• Zach Yanes – 4

• Paul Livengood – 3
• Ryan Osborne – 6
• Zach Yanes – 5

• Paul Livengood – 5
• Ryan Osborne – 3
• Zach Yanes – 7

Paul Livengood: SMU’s performance – albeit a season-opening “comeback” win – was not conducive to what we have been pitched the Mustangs to be as a Power 4 member. Nevada went 2-10 in the Mountain West last year and outplayed SMU for 48 out of 60 minutes. The Mustangs are lucky to be 1-0. The eye in the sky don’t lie, they say, and SMU looked awful in Week 0. They’ll need to perform much better moving forward to rise again in my rankings.

Ryan Osborne: So, what exactly was that? SMU struggled mightily against a Nevada team that went 4-20 in its last two seasons. And first-game rustiness aside, neither Preston Stone nor Kevin Jennings seemed ready to take the reigns at quarterback. SMU has a tuneup against Houston Christian before BYU comes to town. And if any team needs a “get right” game, it’s the Ponies. Better to do that 1-0 than 0-1, though. 

Zach Yanes: This game had everything. There was frustration, confusion, anger, hope triumph and defeat — and I wasn’t impressed with any of it. SMU has some serious work to do in the weeks leading up to ACC play if they want to be a contender. The Mustangs looked completely out of sync on offense to start the game. However, they were eventually able to figure it out but were very lucky to get out of Nevada with a win. Also, there seemed to be a serious lack of discipline for SMU as the Mustangs were called for 11 penalties, costing them 125 yards in total — one of which ended in an ejection after an SMU player spit on a member of the Wolf Pack. 

• Paul Livengood – 6
• Ryan Osborne – 5
• Zach Yanes – 6

• Paul Livengood – 7
• Ryan Osborne – 7
• Zach Yanes – 3

• Paul Livengood – 8
• Ryan Osborne – 8
• Zach Yanes – 8

• Paul Livengood – 9
• Ryan Osborne – 9
• Zach Yanes – 10

• Paul Livengood – 11
• Ryan Osborne – 10
• Zach Yanes – 9

• Paul Livengood – 10
• Ryan Osborne – 11
• Zach Yanes – 11

• Paul Livengood – 13
• Ryan Osborne – 12
• Zach Yanes – 12

• Paul Livengood – 12
• Ryan Osborne – 13
• Zach Yanes – 13