The college football rankings look different at the top after three top-six teams all lost on Saturday in Week 10. The defeats for Tennessee, Clemson and Alabama have consequences in the AP Top 25 poll. Still, of all the winners in those games, few teams saw as signs of a rankings adjustment as LSU crashing the top 10 after its dramatic win over the Crimson Tide.
The Tigers were No. 15 in last week’s AP Top 25 poll, positioned as the third-best two-loss team in the country, according to the voters. Since those ballots were turned in, two things have influenced a move to No. 7 in the new rankings. Most important is LSU’s 32-31 overtime win, highlighted by another excellent performance from quarterback Jayden Daniels and a game-winning 2-point conversion call that paid off for Brian Kelly. The AP voters also saw the College Football Playoff Selection Committee slot LSU five spots higher at No. 10. Combine the impressive win with a new perspective of LSU as a top-10 team, and now the Tigers are one of the biggest movers in this week’s poll.
Georgia, which was No. 1 in last week’s AP Top 25 and could move into that same spot in the new College Football Playoff rankings, handed Tennessee its first season loss on Saturday afternoon in Athens. The Volunteers dropped from No. 2 to No. 5 after the defeat, while the Bulldogs took control of the top spot collecting 62 of 63 first-place votes.
The loss to LSU had Alabama falling from No. 6 to No. 10. At the same time, Clemson’s 35-14 loss at Notre Dame sent the Tigers plummeting from No. 5 to No. 12. The win also put the Fighting Irish back into the AP Top 25 for the first time since September, reentering the poll at No. 20. All the shakeup at the top provided the opportunity for TCU, now 9-0 after a win against Texas Tech, to crash the top five in a move from No. 7 to No. 4. The Horned Frogs’ next opponent, Texas, made a return to the top 25 after its win at Kansas State, checking in at No. 18.
Check out the full top 25 below from the AP poll voters. First-place votes are in parenthesis.
AP Top 25 poll
- Georgia (62 first-place votes)
- Ohio State (1)
- Michigan
- TCU
- Tennessee
- Oregon
- LSU
- USC
- UCLA
- Alabama
- Ole Miss
- Clemson
- Utah
- Penn State
- North Carolina
- Tulane
- NC State
- Texas
- Liberty
- Notre Dame
- Illinois
- UCF
- Kansas State
- Washignton
- Florida State
