Oregon moved up to No. 1 in the AP Top 25 college football poll Sunday for the first time since 2012 after Texas became the third top-ranked team in the country to lose this season by falling to Georgia. No. 15 Alabama dropped to its lowest ranking in 14 years following its loss to Tennessee.
The Ducks, who shut out Purdue on Friday, received 59 first-place votes to go from No. 2 to the top spot and Georgia jumped three spots to No. 2 after its win at Texas. Georgia received two first-place votes and the Longhorns slipped to No. 5. No. 3 Penn State and No. 4 Ohio State held their places after being idle, and No. 6 Miami, No. 7 Tennessee, No. 8 LSU, No. 9 Clemson and No. 10 Iowa State round out the top 10.
The Volunteers moved up four spots after beating Alabama, and the Crimson Tide dropped eight spots. Alabama was last ranked this low in 2010, when it fell to 17th after losing its regular-season finale to eventual national champion Auburn and Cam Newton. The Crimson Tide finished that season 10-3 and No. 10 in the country, their lowest final ranking of the Nick Saban era after his first team finished unranked in 2007.
No. 25 Vanderbilt entered the rankings for the first time since 2013, and defending national champion Michigan is unranked for the first time in three years. With Indiana moving up to No. 13 following its blowout win against Nebraska, this is the first AP poll to feature both the Commodores and Hoosiers since Nov. 15, 1937.
AP Top 25 after Week 8
|
Rank
|
Team
|
Record
|
Prev.
|
Matt’s vote
|
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
1 |
7-0 |
2 |
1 |
|
|
2 |
6-1 |
5 |
2 |
|
|
3 |
6-0 |
3 |
4 |
|
|
4 |
5-1 |
4 |
3 |
|
|
5 |
6-1 |
1 |
6 |
|
|
6 |
7-0 |
6 |
5 |
|
|
7 |
6-1 |
11 |
7 |
|
|
8 |
6-1 |
8 |
15 |
|
|
9 |
6-1 |
10 |
9 |
|
|
10 |
7-0 |
9 |
10 |
|
|
11 |
7-0 |
13 |
11 |
|
|
12 |
6-1 |
12 |
13 |
|
|
13 |
7-0 |
16 |
8 |
|
|
14 |
6-1 |
14 |
14 |
|
|
15 |
5-2 |
7 |
17 |
|
|
16 |
6-1 |
17 |
16 |
|
|
17 |
5-1 |
15 |
12 |
|
|
18 |
5-2 |
18 |
25 |
|
|
19 |
6-0 |
20 |
18 |
|
|
20 |
6-1 |
22 |
19 |
|
|
21 |
6-1 |
19 |
23 |
|
|
22 |
6-1 |
21 |
20 |
|
|
23 |
7-0 |
23 |
22 |
|
|
24 |
6-0 |
25 |
21 |
|
|
25 |
5-2 |
NR |
24 |
Others receiving votes: Washington State 46, Syracuse 15, UNLV 5, Duke 2, South Carolina 1, Nebraska 1, Liberty 1
No. 1 changes hands again
Oregon is the fourth team to be No. 1 this season, the most No. 1s in a single season since 2014.
Georgia began the season as No. 1 but was bounced from the top spot in mid-September and replaced by Texas after the Longhorns won at Michigan and the Bulldogs struggled with Kentucky. Alabama grabbed No. 1 for a week by beating Georgia, but then it lost to Vanderbilt, handing the top spot back to Texas. That lasted two weeks.
Georgia’s 15-point win Saturday night in Austin was the largest margin of victory against a team ranked No. 1 in the AP poll in the regular season since Oklahoma beat Nebraska 31-14 in 2000 — and it was the largest on the road since Notre Dame beat Pitt 31-16 in 1982.
Now, Oregon is the first team from the Big Ten to be No. 1 during the regular season since Ohio State in 2015. Michigan didn’t become No. 1 last season until after conference championship games. The Ducks have spent eight total weeks previously as the No. 1 team in the country, including one week in 2012 and seven in 2010. — Ralph Russo, national college football writer
In and out
Vanderbilt’s last time ranked was the end of the 2013 season under coach James Franklin. The Commodores had the second-longest active AP poll drought among power conference teams behind Rutgers, which hasn’t been ranked since November 2012.
Longest Power 4 AP poll droughts
| Team | Last time ranked |
|---|---|
|
Nov. 18, 2012 |
|
|
Sept. 23, 2018 |
|
|
Jan. 8, 2019 |
|
|
Sept. 3, 2019 |
|
|
Sept. 8, 2019 |
|
|
Sept. 22, 2019 |
|
|
Dec. 1, 2019 |
Vanderbilt (5-2) has won three consecutive games and will host Texas next week in the program’s first game involving two ranked teams since Oct. 18, 2008, when the No. 22 Commodores lost at No. 10 Georgia. Two weeks earlier, No. 19 Vandy beat No. 13 Auburn in its last ranked matchup at home. The last two times Vanderbilt was ranked both came in the final polls of the season (2012 and 2013).
Vandy essentially replaced Michigan in the rankings this week. The Wolverines were the only team to drop out after falling to 4-3 with a loss at Illinois on Saturday, and they’re unranked for the first time since the first regular-season poll of the 2021 season. It was Illinois’ first win in a ranked vs. ranked matchup on its home field since 1991 against Ohio State.
The Wolverines’ streak of 54 consecutive weeks being ranked was the fourth-longest active streak in the country behind Alabama, Ohio State and Georgia, according to College Poll Archive. The last defending national champ to finish unranked was 2020 LSU, which went 5-5 in that pandemic-shortened season. — Russo
Oregon a clear No. 1, Alabama a mystery and Indiana underrated
• I was one of six voters to rank Oregon No. 1 last week after its win against Ohio State, making the Ducks an easy choice there on my ballot after Texas’ loss. The rest of my top five fell into place pretty easily, with Georgia moving back up to No. 2 — it now owns a 15-point road win against a team that was ranked No. 1 and lost what turned into a toss-up at Alabama — followed by Ohio State, Penn State and Miami, which held steady in those three spots on my ballot. I voted Texas No. 6. On one hand, losing to Georgia is forgivable, but it’s also getting easier to poke holes in the Longhorns’ resume, given the struggles of Michigan and Oklahoma.
• How far should Alabama fall? It was the toughest question when voting this week. I dropped the Crimson Tide to 17th; they have a pair of losses to Vanderbilt and Tennessee, but they also have a win against Georgia that got a boost from Saturday’s result in Austin. There’s no perfect answer, especially because you could make a case for Alabama to fall behind Vanderbilt, given the head-to-head result and the identical records. But the win over Georgia — and Vandy’s loss to Georgia State — is enough to create separation.
• Everything from about No. 7 to No. 17 is bunched up, as the margins are very small between many of the one-loss Power 4 teams and unbeaten teams like Indiana, Iowa State, BYU and Pitt. There is a lot of shuffling to come. With that said, I think Indiana deserves to be higher than its No. 13 ranking. It’s true the Hoosiers have played a weak schedule, but they got a measure of validation by crushing Nebraska 56-7 — their biggest Big Ten win since 1945 — and have won by at least two touchdowns every week. They rank No. 1 in scoring and No. 7 in points allowed, and though the injury to quarterback Kurtis Rourke creates uncertainty, they’ve earned a top-10 spot on my ballot at No. 8. — Matt Brown, college sports managing editor and AP Top 25 voter
What’s next in Week 8?
Though there isn’t a top-five headliner like Georgia at Texas, next Saturday features five matchups of ranked teams:
No. 20 Illinois at No. 1 Oregon. The last time the Ducks played a game as the No. 1 team in the country they lost at home to No. 14 Stanford in overtime on Nov. 17, 2012.
No. 12 Notre Dame vs. No. 24 Navy (at East Rutherford, N.J.) The 97th meeting will be just the 11th with both teams ranked. The last was 2019, when No. 16 Notre Dame beat the 21st-ranked Midshipmen 52-20.
No. 21 Missouri at No. 15 Alabama. The Tide’s streak of consecutive appearances in the AP poll is now 270, which is second-best all-time to Nebraska’s 348 from 1981-2002. Could one more loss end it?
No. 5 Texas at No. 25 Vanderbilt. The first meeting since 1928, eight years before the AP poll started.
No. 8 LSU at No. 14 Texas A&M. Oddity: Every game between the Tigers and Aggies since 2017 has featured one ranked team. The last time both were ranked when they played was 2016. — Russo
Required reading
(Photo of Dillon Gabriel: Justin Casterline / Getty Images)