Ohio State is back on top of the Associated Press’ Top 25 college football poll after a stunning upset win over preseason No. 1 Texas – and its quarterback Arch Manning.
LSU and Miami have also moved into the top five after big opening weekend wins, and Florida State is back into the rankings at the expense of Alabama – which plummeted to its lowest spot in 17 seasons.
The defending national champion Buckeyes received 55 of 66 first-place votes to move up two spots after their win over the Longhorns – the statement performance of a brilliant Week 1.
Ohio State is at the top of a regular-season Top 25 for the first time since November 2015. Texas, meanwhile, 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.
Ohio State are top of the Associated Press college football rankings after beating Texas
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.
The biggest movers in the poll were Florida State and Alabama after the Seminoles’ 31-17 victory in their head-to-head matchup: Florida State, 15 spots outside the Top 25 in the preseason, is now No. 14.
Alabama dropped all the way from No. 8 to No. 21 – its lowest ranking since it was No. 24 in the 2008 preseason poll. That was the second of Nick Saban’s 17 teams in Tuscaloosa.
It’s been quite a turnabout for Florida State. The Seminoles were No. 10 in the 2024 preseason, lost their first two games, finished 2-10 and weren’t ranked again until now.
Florida State produced the shock of the weekend by downing Alabama in Tallahassee
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.
