A month before the playoff matchups are set, the AP Top 25 college football poll shuffled in a big way: 19 teams are in new spots, including Texas at No. 10.
The top five — No. 1 Ohio State, No. 2 Indiana, No. 3 Texas A&M, No. 4 Alabama and No. 5 Georgia — were unchanged.
Incremental moves follow: No. 6 Ole Miss swapped spots with No. 7 Oregon after the Ducks’ narrow win at Iowa. No. 8 Texas Tech and No. 9 Notre Dame both inched one notch.
The Longhorns,
ranked No. 1 in the preseason poll, jumped three spots to round out the top 10. They’ll face the Bulldogs in an SEC showdown next week.
No. 11 Oklahoma was the only other ranking that stayed put.
Here's the latest:
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
1. Ohio State
2. Indiana
3. Texas A&M
4. Alabama
5. Georgia
6. Ole Miss
7. Oregon
8. Texas Tech
9. Notre Dame
10. Texas
11. Oklahoma
12. BYU
13. Vanderbilt
14. Georgia Tech
15. Utah
16. Miami (Fla.)
17. USC
18. Michigan
19. Louisville
20. Virginia
21. Tennessee
22. Cincinnati
23. Pittsburgh
24. James Madison
25. South Florida
By DAVID JABLONSKI
There were tough calls at the bottom of my ballot, too.
The American Conference has two eight-win teams and three seven-win teams. I decided to rank South Florida, which has been dominant in conference play outside of a loss to Memphis, and Tulane, which won at Memphis on Friday.
Memphis might deserve to be ranked ahead of South Florida, except it has a loss to a 3-6 UAB. One-loss North Texas is another deserving team, but it lost 63-36 at home to South Florida.
David Jablonski is a sports reporter for the Dayton Daily News and has been an AP Top 25 college football voter for six years. You can follow him on X: @davidpjablonski.
By MAURA CAREY
No. 9 Texas Tech improved to first place in the Big 12 after a 29-7 win against No. 8 BYU on Saturday.
Texas Tech kicker Stone Harrington led the team to the win with a school-record of five field goals. The Red Raiders’ defense held the Cougars scoreless until midway through the fourth quarter, when BYU quarterback Bear Bachmeier found Chase Roberts in the end zone.
If both teams win out, they’ll meet again in the Big 12 Championship game, but BYU’s late November matchup against Cincinnati could be a challenge.
By DAVID JABLONSKI
Another big question for me was what to do with Notre Dame and Miami. Miami beat Notre Dame in Week 1. They’re both 7-2.
I’ve kept Miami ahead of Notre Dame (unlike the College Football Playoff committee), but that has limited my ability to move Notre Dame up in the poll. With Virginia and Louisville losing this week, Miami and Notre Dame both rose on my ballot.
By DAVID JABLONSKI
I ranked Texas Tech seventh.
It’s having a great season but is just behind Georgia and Ole Miss in my poll. It will need those teams, or others, to stumble to move into the top five.
By MAURA CAREY
No. 12 Virginia and No. 14 Louisville both lost in Week 11, improving an idle Georgia Tech team’s chances at the ACC Championship game.
Virginia lost 16-9 to Wake Forest on Saturday. Cavaliers’ quarterback Chandler Morris went down with an injury early in the game and Virginia failed to find the end zone under backup quarterback Daniel Kaelin.
Louisville fell 29-26 in an overtime thriller against California, marking the Cardinals’ second conference loss this season.
Stock up: Texas Tech, Miami, Notre Dame, USC, Ole Miss, Vanderbilt.
Stock down: BYU, Memphis, Missouri, Washington, Virginia, Louisville.
James Madison is chasing the Group of Five spot in the College Football Playoff, with this weekend’s 35-23 win against Marshall strengthening its resume.
The Dukes are on a seven-game winning streak and top the Sun Belt with a perfect 6-0 conference record. They’re 8-1 overall. The team’s only loss was early in the season against Louisville, which went on to crack the rankings.
By DAVID JABLONSKI
It was a busy day in the top 25 with six teams losing, including one defeated team and some close calls involving top-10 teams.
Fortunately, my dog Fergus woke me up at 6 a.m., so I had plenty of time to analyze the results. I had to balance that with attending to my 7-year-old son’s needs. That’s the challenge every Sunday morning.
I moved Texas A&M up a spot on my ballot, past Indiana, to reward the Aggies for their victory against Missouri. Anyone putting Texas A&M at No. 1, ahead of Ohio State, wouldn’t be wrong.
Ohio State, Texas A&M and Indiana should all receive first-place votes this week. I like to mix it up with my poll, especially with the top spot, but I wasn’t ready to drop the Buckeyes.
Indiana, Oregon and Vanderbilt narrowly avoided losses on Saturday.
The Hoosier’s Fernando Mendoza found Omar Cooper Jr. in the back of the end zone for a touchdown with 36 seconds remaining in the fourth against Penn State, turning a 26-24 deficit into a 27-24 lead. The Nittany Lions couldn’t answer and Indiana improved to 10-0.
Oregon’s 18-16 win against Iowa also came down to the final whistle. Iowa scored a touchdown to take a late one-point lead, but Oregon responded with a game-winning field goal in the final three seconds.
Vanderbilt allowed an Auburn touchdown and two-point conversion late in the fourth to force overtime, but Diego Pavia and Co. came out on top with a game-winning touchdown in OT.
No organization has been ranking teams and naming a major college football national champion longer than The Associated Press, since 1936.
AP employees don’t vote themselves, but they do choose the voters. AP Top 25 voters comprise around 60 writers and broadcasters who cover college football for AP members and other select outlets. The goal is to have every state with a Football Bowl Subdivision school represented by at least one voter.
There is a 1-to-25 point system, with a team voted No. 1 receiving 25 points down to 1 point for a 25th-place vote. After that, it’s simple: The poll lists the teams with the most points from 1 to 25, and others receiving votes are also noted.
Voting is done online, and the tabulation is automated.
