AP Top 25: Ole Miss surges to No. 4; Oregon climbs to No. 2 behind Ohio State in rankings

After three top-five teams lost to lower-ranked opponents this weekend, Oregon moved up to No. 2, Mississippi jumped to No. 4 and No. 5 Oklahoma rounded out the shuffled top of the AP Top 25 college football poll on Sunday.

Ohio State received 46 first-place votes to remain No. 1 and No. 2 Oregon received 16 first-place votes after the Ducks beat Penn State in double overtime on Saturday night in Happy Valley. The Nittany Lions dropped four spots from No. 3 to No. 7.

Idle Miami slipped a spot to No. 3 and received four first-place votes. No. 4 Ole Miss has its highest ranking since 2015 after the Rebels beat LSU. The loss sent the Tigers tumbling nine spots from fourth to No. 13.

No. 5 Oklahoma, which had the week off, was followed by No. 6 Texas A&M. The Aggies moved up three places following a win over Auburn.

No. 8 Indiana, No. 9 Texas and Alabama round out the top 10. The Crimson Tide moved up seven spots to return to the top 10 after beating Georgia on Saturday in Athens. The Bulldogs fell seven places from No. 5 to No. 12, their lowest ranking since 2020. Alabama started the season at No. 8 and took a big tumble to No. 21 after losing its opener at Florida State. The Crimson Tide have been on a steady climb since then and are back in the top 10.

The last time three top-five teams lost on the same day was Nov. 12, 2016, when it happened to No. 2 Michigan, No. 3 Clemson and No. 4 Washington. The big difference back then was they all lost to unranked opponents.

Overall, four top-10 teams fell this weekend, starting with Florida State being upset at Virginia in overtime on Friday night. It was the start of a wild couple of days in college football, with 11 games featuring 15 ranked teams being decided by one possession. Four of those games went into overtime. The Seminoles slipped 10 spots to No. 18. Virginia moved into the rankings at No. 24, the Cavaliers’ first poll appearance since 2019.

Others receiving votes: South Florida 53, Utah 52, Mississippi State 46, Memphis 38, Louisville 36, USC 22, Maryland 7, North Texas 7, TCU 6, UNLV 3

Also considered by Ralph: Arizona State, Utah, USF, BYU, Boise State

How I voted

We’re starting to get into the portion of the season where weighing head-to-head matchups becomes a major part of putting together a ballot.

We already have this scenario: Florida State beat Alabama, which beat Georgia, which beat Tennessee.

This one was fairly easy to line up by just sticking with the results on the field, which I did. That was not the consensus in this week’s rankings, however. Alabama is now eight spots head of the Florida State team it lost to 31-17 in Week 1.

Two issues I had to grapple with:

Florida State just lost to a Virginia (4-1) team that has an otherwise unimpressive resume. I squeezed the Cavaliers onto my ballot at No. 24 to reward the big victory, but my first reaction was to want to drop the Seminoles significantly.

But if I was committed to having Alabama, Georgia and Tennessee behind Florida State, then I couldn’t drop the Seminoles too far. I ended up having Florida State No. 11 this week, two spots lower than last week.

Is that enough? Florida State was the only one of four top-10 teams that lost this weekend to do so to an unranked opponent.

Also, by stacking those teams where I did, I ended up bumping up Iowa State and Texas Tech to Nos. 9 and 10, respectively.

Iowa State is 5-0 against a competitive schedule, so that seems fine. As for Texas Tech, one convincing victory against Utah is now doing a lot of work for the Red Raiders. The alternative was to drop the Red Raiders several spots behind that FSU/Bama/UGA/Tennessee group, and there was no particularly good reason to do that. Texas Tech was idle this week.

All the top-five teams that lost dropped all the way out of the top 10 on my ballot.

AP voters overall were far more forgiving of Penn State than me. The Nittany Lions are No. 7 in the poll but ended up at No. 16, one behind LSU, on my ballot because they haven’t beaten anyone. There is probably a case to be made that Penn State and Texas, which I slotted in at No. 8, should be treated more similarly.

Both are 3-1 with not much in the win column to impress and a competitive loss to one of the best teams in the country.

Maybe it’s recency bias or maybe I’m giving Texas too much credit for playing Ohio State close on the road to open the season. For now, Texas is getting the benefit of the doubt. Penn State, less so.

In and out

TCU lasted a week in the rankings before losing at Arizona State. The Sun Devils used that come-from-behind victory at home Friday night to move back into the Top 25 at No. 25.

USC also dropped out after a last-second loss at Illinois and was replaced by Virginia, which ended its six-year poll drought. The only Power 4 schools that currently have longer AP Top 25 droughts are Rutgers, West Virginia, Stanford, Maryland and Cal.

The Cavaliers have not finished a season ranked since 2004. Purdue is the only Power 4 team that has gone longer without a ranked finish.

Next week

No. 16 Vanderbilt at No. 10 Alabama. A revenge game for Bama after being upset by Vandy and Diego Pavia last season. The Tide and Commodores have played 84 times. This will be just the second time both were ranked at the time of the game — and the first since 1937.

No. 3 Miami at No. 18 Florida State. The first ranked matchup between the Hurricanes and Seminoles since 2016 and 27th time overall. Had the Noles not been upset at Virginia, this could have been the first top-10 matchup in the rivalry since 2013.

(Photo of Trinidad Chambliss: Justin Ford / Getty Images)

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