| Rank | Team | Comments | Prior | |
| 1 |  | Alabama | Alabama starts out conference play with a tough home game against Arkansas, but the key word is home. | 1 |
| 2 |  | Oklahoma | Following the game against FSU, Oklahoma will be tested again this week when Missouri comes to Norman. | 2 |
| 3 |  | LSU | LSU proved they have a great defense. It will again be the D that needs to show up to stop West Virginia. | 3 |
| 4 |  | Wisconsin | The Badgers continue their streak of offensive terror. South Dakota is the next victim. | 4 |
| 5 |  | Nebraska | Nebraska keeps having slow starts, but they win big. That should not end at Wyoming. | 5 |
| 6 |  | Boise State | Boise State easily handled a road trip to Toledo. A shootout victory against Tulsa awaits this week. | 6 |
| 7 |  | Oklahoma State | The Big 12 season starts with a bang as OSU and Texas A&M battle for the second spot behind the Sooners. | 8 |
| 8 |  | Stanford | Stanford could use a week off after road trips to Duke and Arizona. They get to stay at home for a few weeks now. | 9 |
| 9 |  | Florida State | The schedule does not get any easier for Florida State with a trip to Clemson coming up. | 7 |
| 10 |  | South Carolina | South Carolina is not always pretty, but they get the job done. Hosting Vanderbilt could be another example. | 10 |
| 11 |  | Oregon | Oregon will have a tougher time at Arizona this week than they did against Missouri State last week. | 11 |
| 12 |  | Texas A&M | Texas A&M and OSU both have their eyes on Oklahoma, but this is a huge game between two top tier teams. | 12 |
| 13 |  | Arkansas | Arkansas can prove they are a major contender for the national championship if they can knock off Alabama. | 13 |
| 14 |  | West Virginia | West Virginia could shoot towards the top ten if they can knock off LSU in Morgantown. | 18 |
| 15 |  | Florida | Florida has another SEC opponent in week four, but a game in Kentucky is not the toughest SEC road trip. | 15 |
| 16 |  | Virginia Tech | Virginia Tech's Beamer Ball keeps on getting results and a trip to Marshall should not slow down the Hokies. | 17 |
| 17 |  | Texas | Texas finally looked good last week when they beat UCLA and they have a week off before starting Big 12 play. | 21 |
| 18 |  | Miami | Miami is moving in the right direction and they should have little trouble with KSU after shutting down OSU. | NR |
| 19 |  | Clemson | Clemson beat Auburn to get into the Top 25. If they can knock off FSU, they will be the team to beat in the ACC. | NR |
| 20 |  | Illinois | Nathan Scheelhaase and Illinois keeps on winning and they should have a nice shootout with WMU this week. | NR |
| 21 |  | USC | USC needs to beat somebody decent and Arizona State, on the road, would be a very, very good win. | 19 |
| 22 |  | Ohio State | Ohio State's offense has two more games without their star running back and receiver. First up is Colorado. | 13 |
| 23 |  | Penn State | Penn State did not look pretty against Temple, but even their anemic offense should look decent against EMU. | 23 |
| 24 |  | Baylor | Baylor has another easy game this week with Rice coming to Waco, but Robert Griffin has looked great. | 24 |
| 25 |  | Arizona State | The two Pac-12 South favorites face off early and this could be a huge game for ASU if they can win at home. | 16 |
Week 3 Football Top 25
Sat, 09/17/2011
