AP Top 25 College Football Poll: Alabama Falls to No. 2 Despite Win over Texas
Alabama’s one point victory over Texas wasn’t enough to keep the Crimson Tide atop the AP Top 25 College Football Poll.
Georgia has taken the top spot, with Alabama falling to No. 2 and Kentucky, Oklahoma State and Arkansas moving into the top 10 after an upset-filled weekend across the country.
The defending national champion Bulldogs, which started the season at No. 3, took two weeks to get back to where they spent most of last year. Georgia jumped Alabama after it cruised to a 33-0 victory against Samford.
But it wasn’t so much about what the Bulldogs did this week as much as what they did last week, combined with the Crimson Tide needing a late field goal to escape with a 20-19 win at Texas on Saturday.
Georgia, which opened the season by beating Oregon 49-3, received 53 of 63 first-place votes from the media panel. Alabama received nine first-place votes and No. 3 Ohio State got one first-place vote.
No. 4 Michigan and No. 5 Clemson held their places, but the rest of the top 10 was shuffled.
Oklahoma moved up a spot to No. 6. Southern California jumped three places to No. 7, its best ranking since September 2017.
The rest of the top 10 are new arrivals: No. 8 Oklahoma State moved up three spots. No. 9 Kentucky jumped 11 places for its best ranking since it reached No. 8 in October 2007. And No. 10 Arkansas was up six.
After being upset at home by Sun Belt schools, Texas A&M dropped from No. 6 to No. 24 and Notre Dame tumbled out all the way from No. 8.
The Aggies were beaten by Appalachian State and the Fighting Irish fell to 0-2 after losing to Marshall.
It was the fifth time in the last 10 seasons and first time since 2020 that two top-10 teams lost at home to unranked teams in the same week.
Notre Dame is unranked for the first time since Sept. 17, 2017, snapping a streak of 80 straight poll appearances, which was fourth in the country behind Alabama, Ohio State and Georgia among active runs.
No. 1 winning and dropping, as Alabama did, is a common occurrence. Since the AP college football poll started in 1936, it has happened 91 times. The last time it happened was 2019, when twice during the season the top spot flipped twice while teams remained unbeaten.
Texas was rewarded for its effort against Alabama by moving into the ranking for the first time since Oct. 10. The Longhorns are No. 21. Texas is believed to be the first team to lose and still enter the AP Top 25 since Missouri did it in 1997.
No. 22 Penn State appeared in the ranking for the first time since dropping out in the middle of last November during a late-season slide. They will travel to face unranked Auburn this weekend.
AP TOP 25 COLLEGE FOOTBALL POLL (First place points in parenthesis, SEC teams in bold):
1. Georgia (53)
2. Alabama (9)
3. Ohio State (1)
4. Michigan
5. Clemson
6. Oklahoma
7. USC
8. Oklahoma State
9. Kentucky
10. Arkansas
11. Michigan State
12. BYU
13. Miami
14. Utah
15. Tennessee
16. NC State
17. Baylor
18. Florida
19. Wake Forest
20. Ole Miss
21. Texas
22. Penn State
23. Pittsburgh
24. Texas A&M
25. Oregon
(Copyright 2022 The Associated Press contributed to this report. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.)
