Alabama remains No. 4 in AP Top 25 College Football Poll
Despite Alabama’s struggles in most of Saturday’s game to defeat South Florida, the Crimson Tide remains No. 4 in this week’s AP Top 25 College Football poll.
Alabama beat South Florida 42-16, but didn’t pull away until late due to penalties and issues on the offensive line.
The Southeastern Conference grabbed six of the top seven spots in the poll — a first in the 88-year history of the rankings — and Notre Dame tumbled all the way to No. 18 on Sunday after being stunned at home by Northern Illinois.
Georgia received 54 out of a possible 63 first-place votes to keep a firm hold on No. 1. No. 2 Texas jumped a spot after dominating defending national champion Michigan on the road and received four first-place votes. The Longhorns have their best ranking since finishing second in 2009.
The Wolverines were down to No. 17.
No. 3 Ohio State from the Big Ten Conference slipped a spot. Then it was four more SEC teams. Ole Miss moved up a spot to No. 5 after Alabama.
Missouri moved up three spots to No. 6 and Tennessee made a big jump from No. 14 to No. 7 after routing North Carolina State in Charlotte.
With the SEC bigger (16 teams) — and seemingly better — than ever given the additions of Texas and Oklahoma — the circumstances were right for an early season takeover like never before.
Not only is six of the top seven teams from one conference a record for a poll, but never before had a single league held as many as five of the top seven places.
Those teams will start playing each other in the coming weeks so it is unlikely the SEC can keep this up, but it’s a stark example of what’s possible in the superconference era.
Rounding out the top 10 were No. 8 Penn State and No. 9 Oregon of the Big Ten and No. 10 Miami. The Ducks slip two spots after a wild, comeback victory against Boise State.
In and out
The turnover came from the bottom of the rankings, where Kansas, Iowa, Georgia Tech and North Carolina State all fell out after losses.
No. 21 Iowa State essentially switched places with its Cy-Hawk rivals by beating Iowa.
Last week, Georgia Tech made its first appearance in the AP Top 25 since 2015, snapping one of the longest active droughts among power conference teams. The Yellow Jackets lasted only a week after losing at Syracuse, but another Atlantic Coast Conference team snapped its own lengthy drought.
No. 24 Boston College is ranked for the first time since 2018.
AP Top 25 poll (First place votes in parentheses; SEC teams in bold)
- Georgia (57)
- Texas (4)
- Ohio State (5)
- Alabama
- Ole Miss
- Missouri
- Tennessee
- Penn State
- Oregon
- Miami
- USC
- Utah
- Oklahoma State
- Kansas State
- Oklahoma
- LSU
- Michigan
- Notre Dame
- Louisville
- Arizona
- Iowa State
- Clemson
- Nebraska
- Boston College
- Northern Illinois
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