AP Top 25 College Football Poll: Alabama falls to 21st following loss to Florida State

Alabama has fallen from No. 8 to No. 21 in the AP Top 25 College Football Poll following its season-opening loss to unranked Florida State.

It’s the lowest ranking of the Crimson Tide in 17 seasons. Florida State, which beat Alabama 31-17 on Saturday, entered the poll at No. 14.  Florida State had been 15 spots outside the Top 25 in the preseason.

This is Alabama’s lowest ranking since it was No. 24 in the 2008 preseason poll. That was the second of Nick Saban’s 17 teams in Tuscaloosa.

Elsewhere, Ohio State climbed to No. 1, and LSU and Miami moved into the top five.

The defending national champion Buckeyes received 55 of 66 first-place votes to move up two spots after their win over preseason No. 1 Texas. Ohio State is at the top of a regular-season Top 25 for the first time since November 2015.

Texas dropped to No. 7 as the media voters shuffled the rankings following a topsy-turvy Labor Day weekend. It was only the second time, and first since 1972, that two top-five teams lost in Week 1 and the first time four top-10 teams lost. Only three teams in the Top 25 are in the same spot they were in the preseason poll.

Penn State got seven first-place votes and remained No. 2. LSU, which received three first first-place votes, was followed by Georgia and Miami to round out the top five.

Oregon got the other first-place vote and was followed by Texas, Clemson, Notre Dame and South Carolina.

LSU jumped six spots after winning at Clemson and Miami got a five-rung promotion for its victory over Notre Dame.

Utah, at No. 25, joins Florida State as the only newcomers this week.

The Utes had received the second-most points, behind BYU, among teams outside the preseason Top 25. Utah got more credit for beating UCLA 43-10 on the road than BYU got for hammering FCS foe Portland State. The Utes are ranked for the first time since last October, when they were at the front end of a seven-game losing streak.

Boise State, which had been No. 25, received no votes following its 34-7 loss at South Florida. The Broncos had appeared in 14 straight polls. The other team to drop out of the poll was No. 17 Kansas State, which followed up its season-opening loss to Iowa State with a last-minute home win over FCS team North Dakota.

AP Top 25 College Football Poll (first-place votes in parentheses; SEC teams in bold):