Oklahoma dropped four spots to No. 10, the top five teams held their places, and Kansas and Kansas State both entered The Associated Press college football poll on Sunday.
Two-time reigning national champion Georgia is No. 1 for the 20th straight week, receiving 48 of 63 first-place votes, with the Bulldogs distancing themselves from No. 2 Michigan — which was idle this weekend — after walloping Florida 43-20 on Saturday in “The World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party.” It was Georgia’s third straight win in the old series between Southeastern Conference rivals and the Bulldogs’ 25th consecutive win overall.
Georgia improved to 8-0 overall this season with its fifth victory in league play, moving one step closer to what would be the program’s sixth SEC East Division title in Kirby Smart’s eight seasons as head coach at his alma mater.
This is the 50th consecutive week that either Georgia or fellow Southeastern Conference power Alabama has been No. 1 in the AP Top 25.
Sunday’s poll sets up the final month of the regular season and the stretch run for league title races and the coveted spots in the College Football Playoff, which is in its final season as a four-team bracket before expanding to 12 teams in 2024.
Halloween will provide the setting for the first CFP rankings of the 2023 season. The selection committee will reveal its 25 ranked teams to this point at 7 p.m. Tuesday on ESPN, with the CFP rankings released four more times on Tuesday nights before the four-team field is revealed on Sunday, Dec. 3, a day after conference championship games are held.
Michigan (8-0, 5-0 Big Ten), off Saturday after a week of being in the news for an NCAA sign-stealing investigation, received nine first-place votes in the latest AP Top 25. No. 3 Ohio State (8-0, 5-0 Big Ten) and No. 4 Florida State (8-0, 6-0 Atlantic Coast Conference) each received three first-place votes.
Washington (8-0, 5-0 Pac-12) remained at No. 5, one spot ahead of conference rival Oregon (7-1, 4-1), which lost 36-33 to the Huskies on Oct. 14. The Ducks moved up two spots to No. 6 after a dominant Pac-12 win at Utah (6-2, 3-2), which dropped five spots to No. 18.
Texas (7-1, 4-1 Big 12) stayed put at No. 7, while Alabama (7-1, 5-0 SEC) — which was off Saturday but has won six straight games since losing to the Longhorns in early September — moved up to No. 8 and Penn State (7-1, 4-1 Big Ten) went to ninth.
Oklahoma (7-1, 4-1 Big 12) lost to Kansas for the first time since 1997, with the 38-33 road loss to the Jayhawks sending the Sooners tumbling in the rankings behind Texas — a team Oklahoma beat in a “Red River Rivalry” thriller on Oct. 7 in Dallas.
Oklahoma and Texas will take their series to the SEC next year when they exit the Big 12, but the Sooners’ “Bedlam” rivalry with Oklahoma State has no planned series meetings beyond this Saturday. Oklahoma travels to face the Cowboys (6-2, 4-1 Big 12), who have won four straight games since back-to-back losses to South Alabama and Iowa State and received the most poll points among teams outside of the AP Top 25 this week.
Kansas (6-2, 3-2 Big 12) returned to the rankings at No. 22 after one of the biggest victories in program history, and reigning Big 12 champion Kansas State (6-2, 3-2) moved back in at No. 25 ahead of a big matchup at Texas on Saturday.
Air Force (8-0, 5-0 Mountain West) moved up two spots to No. 17, the Falcons’ best ranking since finishing No. 13 in 1998.
Tennessee (6-2, 3-2 SEC) moved up two spots to 19th after holding on for a 33-37 win at Kentucky, the Volunteers’ 36th win in the past 39 meetings with the Wildcats.
AP photo by Reed Hoffmann / Kansas State cornerback Will Lee III (8) celebrates his interception against Houston with cornerback Jacob Parrish (10) and safety Marques Sigle during the second half on Saturday.POLL POINTS
Sunflower State rivals Kansas and Kansas State have a long history of bad football.
Kansas State turned one of the most hapless programs in the country around in the 1990s under coach Bill Snyder, who was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2015, and the Wildcats have stayed competitive to varying degrees ever since, winning three Big 12 titles.
Historically, Kansas has had a few more runs of success, though the Jayhawks’ most recent conference championship was won in the Big Eight in 1968. From 2010-20, Kansas was the standard for Power Five ineptitude, winning a total of 21 games.
That has turned around in three seasons under coach Lance Leipold, who has the Jayhawks bowl eligible in consecutive seasons for just the second time in program history.
“It’s probably time for me to start talking about how proud I am of how far this program’s come,” Leipold said after the Oklahoma game. “That has to do with the players.”
A 5-0 start to last season for Kansas put the Jayhawks and Wildcats in the AP Top 25 together for two weeks, the first time since 2007 that had happened. Other than that, there were 17 AP polls in 1995-96 that featured both Kansas and Kansas State — and that’s it.
With both teams sitting at 6-2 heading into the final month of the season, the Jayhawks and Wildcats have a solid chance to finish the season with both of them ranked for just the second time in the 87-year history of the AP poll.
In 1995, Kansas State was No. 7 and Kansas was ninth in the final AP Top 25.
IN & OUT
Kansas and Kansas State were the only teams that moved into the poll this week.
Atlantic Coast Conference rivals Duke and North Carolina, better known for their success in basketball, both dropped out after failing to rebound from a loss a week earlier.
North Carolina (6-2, 3-2) is unranked for the first time this season. The Tar Heels rose to a season-best No. 10 in the poll before a stunning 31-27 home loss to one-win Virginia on Oct. 21, and they fell 46-42 on Saturday at Georgia Tech — which has yet to win back-to-back games this season and has a lopsided home loss to the Mid-American Conference’s Bowling Green among its setbacks.
Duke had been ranked since beating Clemson in the season opener for both, but the Blue Devils have lost two straight to fall to 5-3, 2-2, getting shut out at Louisville on Saturday a week after losing 38-20 at Florida State.
Duke’s other loss was to Notre Dame, 21-14 on Sept. 30.
CONFERENCE CALL
SEC: Six (Nos. 1, 8, 11, 13, 14, 19).
Pac-12: Six (Nos. 5, 6, 16, 18, 20, 24).
Big 12: Four (Nos. 7, 10, 22, 25).
Big Ten: Three (Nos. 2, 3, 9).
ACC: Two (Nos. 4, 15).
Mountain West: One (No. 17).
American Athletic: One (No. 21).
Sun Belt: One (No. 23).
Independent: One 1 (No. 12).
RANKED vs. RANKED
No. 14 Missouri at No. 1 Georgia: This is the first meeting with both teams ranked since 2014.
No. 5 Washington at No. 24 Southern California: This is the second straight year the Huskies and Trojans meet ranked, which hadn’t happened since 1994-95.
No. 25 Kansas State at No. 7 Texas: This is their first matchup as ranked foes since 2012, when the Wildcats were No. 7 and the Longhorns were No. 23.
No. 13 LSU at No. 8 Alabama: This is the 31st ranked-versus-ranked matchup in the series, and the 18th since 2002. As usual, it has big implications in the SEC West race.
AP TOP 25 SCHEDULE
Saturday, Nov. 4
No. 1 Georgia vs. No. 14 Missouri, 3:30 p.m.
No. 2 Michigan vs. Purdue, 7:30 p.m.
No. 3 Ohio State at Rutgers, noon
No. 4 Florida State at Pittsburgh, 3:30 p.m.
No. 5 Washington at No. 24 Southern California, 7:30 p.m.
No. 6 Oregon vs. California, 5:30 p.m.
No. 7 Texas vs. No. 25 Kansas State, noon
No. 8 Alabama vs. No. 13 LSU, 7:45 p.m.
No. 9 Penn State at Maryland, 3:30 p.m.
No. 10 Oklahoma at Oklahoma State, 3:30 p.m.
No. 11 Ole Miss vs. Texas A&M, noon
No. 12 Notre Dame at Clemson, noon
No. 15 Louisville vs. Virginia Tech, 3:30 p.m.
No. 16 Oregon State at Colorado, 10 p.m.
No. 17 Air Force vs. Army at Denver, 2:30 p.m.
No. 18 Utah vs. Arizona State, 2 p.m.
No. 19 Tennessee vs. Connecticut, noon
No. 20 UCLA at Arizona, 10:30 p.m.
No. 21 Tulane at East Carolina, 3:30 p.m.
No. 22 Kansas at Iowa State, 7 p.m.
No. 23 James Madison at Georgia State, 3:30 p.m.