When the College Football Playoff selection committee meets for the first time on Halloween to discuss its first top 25 of the season, the people in the room will consider everything we just witnessed in Week 1.
Colorado's dazzling debut. Ohio State's "meh emoji" win at Indiana. Notre Dame's 2-0 turnaround.
And of course, Florida State's resounding 45-24 win against LSU.
With just four teams invited to the playoff for one final season before the 12-team tournament, every game still counts. Committee members will say repeatedly that they're not looking for teams to run up the score (the Oregon duck is still doing push-ups), but they want to see playoff contenders win convincingly against lesser competition -- not struggle or lose like Texas Tech and Baylor did.
Nothing from Week 1, though, will likely have a bigger impact on Selection Day than Sunday night's game at Camping World Stadium. Here's a look at how the committee will view Florida State's win, how much it will hurt LSU, and other playoff clues that were revealed by each Power 5 conference and Notre Dame.
Matchup that mattered most: LSU-FSU
Jordan Travis finds Lawrance Toafili on fourth down for a 41-yard reception that leads to a Travis touchdown.
Entering this season, no team in the country had a better chance to impress the selection committee in the month of September than Florida State. Following Sunday's win against LSU, the Noles are halfway there, with their next-biggest opportunity for a statement win coming Sept. 23 at Clemson.
Florida State, which faces Southern Miss and Boston College over the next two weeks, should be undefeated heading into Death Valley. Even if the Seminoles lose to Clemson, though, their win against LSU will help them with the committee should they finish as a one-loss ACC champion.
The Seminoles' win against a ranked SEC opponent would provide an edge against another playoff contender with a similar record. Teams like Oklahoma, Michigan and Penn State don't have any nonconference opponents as strong as LSU. That assumes, of course, that LSU goes on to have a respectable season.
Florida State outscored the defending SEC West champions 31-7 in the second half -- a convincing performance that will resonate when the committee members watch the cut-ups of the film on their iPads. They'll see that fourth-and-2 conversion that changed the game; the masterful playcalling by FSU coach Mike Norvell; the in-your-face, aggressive defense that flustered LSU quarterback Jayden Daniels. It was not a flawless performance -- the seven penalties for 64 yards hurt at particularly inopportune times. But Florida State looked good.
For LSU, the Tigers almost certainly have to beat Alabama now and win the West again, as there's no margin for error following the loss for them to make the CFP. No team has made the playoff after losing its season opener. Let that sink in a minute. That doesn't mean it can't happen. In 2014, Ohio State lost to Virginia Tech at home in the second week of the season. Nearly everyone on the planet wrote the Buckeyes off.
They went on to win their next 13 games, including the national championship, with their third-string quarterback in what remains one of the sport's most improbable runs to the national title.
And yet ...
No two-loss team has ever made the playoff. That doesn't mean it can't or won't happen, but if Alabama couldn't do it last year ...
Big Ten: Michigan still the team to beat
Deep breath, Ohio State fans.
The selection committee isn't going to snub the Buckeyes because their normally unstoppable offense looked pedestrian in their first conference road game with a rookie quarterback. The group does look at how games unfold and digs deeper than the score, and it wasn't always pretty for Ohio State and quarterback Kyle McCord against Indiana. The Buckeyes won, though, and the committee likes road wins, but it's clear there is a learning curve ahead.
Rival Michigan simply looked better under the veteran leadership of quarterback J.J. McCarthy, who was spot-on during the win against East Carolina. And Penn State, which officially introduced Drew Allar as its new starting quarterback in a win against West Virginia, also looked more competent offensively than the Buckeyes did.
This will be a problem for Ohio State in the CFP's weekly ranking only if it doesn't improve. Ohio State got into the top four last year without beating Michigan because it was so darn potent offensively, and it beat Penn State and Notre Dame. Those same opportunities remain.
The Buckeyes are still loaded with offensive star power at the skill positions, but you wouldn't have known it Saturday. Their offense just needs to get into sync by the Sept. 23 trip to Notre Dame. Ohio State still has Youngstown State and Western Kentucky to work the kinks out before heading to South Bend.
None of these three Big Ten powers beat an elite top-25 opponent, but the committee will notice the difference in how they won.
Pac-12: Take Colorado seriously
North Carolina scores again with a nice throw from Drake Maye to John Copenhaver.
Don't put Colorado in your top four just yet, but if the Buffaloes opened the Deion Sanders era with a road win against a program that just played for the national title, it's fair to assume his team can at least compete in the Pac-12.
The reality is twofold: TCU was picked by the media to finish fifth in the Big 12 this year, but nobody knows what Colorado's win will amount to come late November. The value of wins and losses changes in the selection committee meeting room as résumés become complete. This is a drastically different TCU team than the one that finished in the top four last year.
Still, the committee also considers how a team won, and while it wasn't a defensive clinic, Colorado's offensive numbers were astounding. Travis Hunter, who played receiver and defensive back, played 129 total snaps in a historic performance that should catapult him into the Heisman conversation. Quarterback Shedeur Sanders had more passing touchdowns (four) than Colorado did in six road games all of last year (three). It. Was. Wild.
The question is if the Buffs can do it at Oregon. Against USC. At UCLA. Against Oregon State. And at Utah, where Florida just lost.
Any Power 5 team that can win its league with one loss or fewer has a shot at the top four. After Saturday, it's not a stretch to think Colorado can be undefeated heading into its Sept. 23 game at Oregon. The Buffs next face Nebraska and Colorado State.
Sanders has always had everyone's attention. The question is if he can get the selection committee's votes.
SEC: Georgia, Bama doing what they do
Bring on Texas.
It's one thing for Alabama quarterback Jalen Milroe to light it up against Middle Tennessee, a Group of 5 team that lost five games last year. It will be far more revealing for him to have a stellar performance against Texas, which is the heavy favorite to win the Big 12.
If we learned one thing from the committee last year, it should be that Alabama doesn't finish in the top four on name alone. Part of Nick Saban's challenge this season is putting a better product on the field -- without Bryce Young, the No. 1 overall pick in the 2023 NFL draft. Saban will be the first to admit the Tide made uncharacteristic mistakes last year that contributed to their two-loss season. One thing the committee would notice from Saturday is that Milroe didn't have any turnovers, an issue that plagued him in the past.
Alabama shockingly didn't always pass the so-called "eye test" last year, but it has a chance to do that on Saturday AND boost its strength of schedule on Selection Day. Milroe had a better day than Georgia quarterback Carson Beck, who got off to a slow start in his debut against FCS opponent UT Martin.
Georgia fans were likely disgruntled that the defending national champs led only 17-0 at the half. The Bulldogs eventually pulled away, and Beck played a respectable game with a passing touchdown, a rushing touchdown and no turnovers. If Georgia is going to win a third straight national title, though, the offense needs to progress.
On the same day Beck was getting acclimated to the starting role, Tennessee quarterback Joe Milton III threw two touchdown passes and ran for two more in a 49-13 win against Virginia. If Georgia is going to win the East, it needs to be able to beat the Vols on the road on Nov. 18. The selection committee uses head-to-head results as one of its tiebreakers between comparable teams. That would only come into play, though, if they both had one loss -- which is very possible, as Tennessee is at Alabama on Oct. 21. It's also not the lone consideration, which means anything is possible if Georgia looks like the two-time defending national champion every week.
Big 12: League needs Texas, Oklahoma
As good as commissioner Brett Yormark is feeling these days about the strength of his conference following recent realignment, the reality is none of those teams are currently at the tip of the tongue when it comes to playoff contenders.
Houston. UCF. Cincinnati. BYU. Arizona. Arizona State. Colorado (see above). Utah (well, OK, maybe).
Kansas State, last year's Big 12 champ, finished with four losses, including one to a ranked Tulane team. Baylor just lost to Texas State?! Texas Tech lost to Wyoming?! And the feel-good Frogs of TCU were exposed by Georgia in the national championship game last year and are already playing from behind following the loss to Colorado.
Texas has a chance to reassert itself in the national conversation Saturday against Alabama, but if it's not the Longhorns this year, the Big 12's playoff hopes could be in trouble. Oklahoma could have a strength of schedule issue. With a nonconference schedule that includes Arkansas State, Tulsa and SMU, the selection committee is going to need to see near perfection from the Sooners all season. Winning 73-0 to open the season, even if it was against Arkansas State, is a good start.
Strength of schedule is a critical component of the debates in the committee meeting room, and while the league is certainly bigger after adding four teams this year, that doesn't necessarily equate to anyone's résumé being better right now.
Unless, of course, Texas finds a way to beat Bama.
ACC: North Carolina a factor
You already knew about North Carolina quarterback Drake Maye, who should be a high first-round NFL draft pick.
He wasn't the story in the Tar Heels' win against South Carolina. It was the defense, which had nine sacks, and that will catch the committee's attention. It was quite a turnaround for a defense that had just 17 sacks all last year and allowed 30.8 points and 436.5 yards per game.
If UNC can continue that combination of success on both sides of the ball, Florida State and Clemson could have another threat for the ACC title. If the Tar Heels are going to enter the CFP conversation, they almost certainly would have to beat Minnesota and beat Clemson at least once. UNC travels to Clemson on Nov. 18, and could also face the Tigers in the ACC title game. Without those wins, though, the selection committee would have a tough time finding a statement win. If UNC runs the table, that's a different conversation.
Notre Dame: Off to a better start
Last year, Notre Dame started the season 0-2 with a shocking loss to Marshall and had played its way out of the CFP conversation before TCU was even in it. The Irish are 2-0 in coach Marcus Freeman's second season and have reached 40 points against Navy and Tennessee State while not allowing a touchdown.
Yes, those dominant performances came against unheralded, unranked opponents, but it also revealed what the Irish are capable of with transfer quarterback Sam Hartman and first-year offensive coordinator Gerad Parker. Notre Dame will have a more difficult test on Saturday at NC State, but the Irish enter their third game in a completely different spot than a year ago -- still in the hunt.