Illinois moved up one spot following the season-opening 52-3 win over Western Illinois on Friday night. Illini are a three-point favorite at Duke, who defeated Elon 45-17 in Week 1, on Saturday (11 a.m. CST, ESPN).

Week 2 Associated Press Top 25 Poll (first-place votes in parentheses)

1. Ohio State (55)
2. Penn State (7)
3. LSU (3)
4. Georgia
5. Miami
6. Oregon (1)
7. Texas
8. Clemson
9. Notre Dame
10. South Carolina
11. Illinois
12. Arizona State
13. Florida
14. Florida State
15. Michigan
16. Iowa State
17. SMU
18. Oklahoma
19. Texas A&M
20. Ole Miss
21. Alabama
22. Tennessee
23. Indiana
24. Texas Tech
25. Utah

By Matt Stevens - IlliniGuys Football Writer/Analyst

September 2, 2025

Illinois will be ranked just outside the top 10 teams in the nation, according to the latest Associated Press Top 25 poll, when they travel to play at Duke this weekend.

The Illini (1-0) moved up one spot following the season-opening 52-3 win over Western Illinois on Friday Illinos is a three-point road favorite at Duke (1-0), who received four ranking points this week, on Saturday (11 a.m. CST, ESPN). It’s been 25 years since Illinois was playing a true road game in non-conference play as a ranked team. Ron Turner’s 2000 Illini squad was ranked 21st in the AP poll when traveled to San Diego State and came home with a 49-13 victory.

Ohio State, the defending national champions, returning to the top spot after a 14-7 victory last weekend against then top-seeded Texas in a sold-out Ohio Stadium for one of the highlighted matchups of the opening weekend. The Buckeyes received 55 first-place votes, 44 more than they received in the preseason poll. Ohio State (1-0) obviously topped the season-ending poll after defeating Notre Dame 34-23 in the College Football Playoff National Championship game. However, today represents the Buckeyes’ first regular season No. 1 ranking since Nov. 1, 2015. The Big Ten Conference made it 1-2 in the poll as the Buckeyes leaped over Penn State (1-0), which maintained the No. 2 spot, after the Nittany Lions secured a 46-11 home victory over Nevada on Saturday.

Illinois was one of six Big Ten Conference programs ranked in this week’s AP poll (Ohio State 1, Penn State 2, Oregon 6, Illinois 11, Michigan 15 and Indiana 23).The University of Southern California and Nebraska also received votes in this week’s poll.

The 17-10 road victory at then-No. 4 Clemson helped LSU (1-0) jump six spots, from No. 9 to No. 3 in this week’s poll. LSU received the third-most first-place votes with three sportswriters putting the SEC’s Tigers atop their ballot.

It’s LSU’s highest ranking since topping the poll during a historic 2019 campaign, when ironically, they beat Clemson in the National Championship Game.

Miami (Fla.) jumped from No. 10 to No. 5 following a 27-24 Sunday night win at home against Notre Dame.

Florida State’s 31-17 home win over Alabama caused the most up-and-down chaos in the preseason poll as the Seminoles (1-0) moved into the poll at No. 14 and the Crimson Tide’s stunning loss in Tallahassee, Fla. caused a Southeastern Conference preseason favorite to fall from No. 8 to No. 21 in this week’s poll. FSU was joined as a new entrant in the poll by Utah as the Utes slid in at No. 25 after easily dispatching of UCLA 43-10 in Pasadena, Calif., on Saturday night.