Ohio State, Miami and Clemson plunged in The Associated Press college football poll Sunday after their losses during a wild final weekend of the regular season, eight of the top 10 teams moved up one spot, and Oregon was No. 1 for the seventh straight week.
The shakeup creates two top-five matchups in conference championship games coming up on Saturday, a day before the College Football Playoff bracket — this time with 12 slots after a decade as a four-team event — is announced.
Oregon, the only unbeaten team remaining in the Football Bowl Subdivision this season, will face No. 3 Penn State in the Big Ten title game in Indianapolis. No. 2 Texas will play No. 5 Georgia in the Southeastern Conference title game in Atlanta, a rematch of their top-five meeting in October won by the Bulldogs in Austin.
No. 4 Notre Dame, 11-1 and a winner of 10 straight games, won’t play again until the College Football Playoff.
Ohio State lost for the fourth straight time to Michigan, which kept the Buckeyes from reaching the Big Ten title game, and dropped five spots to No. 7, behind Tennessee.
SMU is No. 8 and followed by Indiana and Boise State. Mountain West Conference member Boise State is in the top 10 for the first time since 2011 and the highest-ranked Group of Five team, two spots ahead of No. 12 Arizona State, the highest-ranked Big 12 team.
If the Broncos beat UNLV to win the MWC title and are one of the top-four seeded conference champions in the final CFP rankings, they would receive a bye to the quarterfinals.
Miami’s loss at Syracuse cost the Hurricanes a spot in the Atlantic Coast Conference championship game, and possibly the CFP, and dropped them six spots to No. 14. Clemson, which plays SMU in the ACC game, lost at South Carolina and fell six places to No. 18.
South Carolina has won six straight games — four against ranked opponents — and earned a three-rung promotion to No. 13. Ole Miss remained No. 15 and was followed by Iowa State and BYU.
POLL POINTS
Ohio State’s 13-10 loss to Michigan marked the fifth time this season a top-five team lost to an unranked opponent, the most since it happened five times in 2017.
Miami’s 42-38 loss to Syracuse was the 12th by a top-10 team against an unranked opponent, the most since there were 12 such losses in 2021.
It’s been 10 years since South Carolina, a Southeastern Conference program, was ranked higher than in-state rival Clemson. In 2014, the Gamecocks were No. 13 after a 3-1 start and finished 7-6 and unranked in Steve Spurrier’s last full season as coach.
Notre Dame has its highest ranking since it was No. 4 on Dec. 22, 2020.
IN & OUT
No. 23 Syracuse enters the AP Top 25 for the first time since Oct. 30, 2022, after winning nine games for the first time since 2018 under first-year head coach Fran Brown, who coached defensive backs at Georgia the past two years. The win over Miami was the Orange’s first over a top-10 opponent since 2017.
No. 25 Memphis, which was last ranked in October 2020, knocked off Tulane as a double-digit road underdog and has 10 wins for the second straight year.
Tulane, which plays at No. 24 Army in the American Athletic Conference title game, went from No. 18 to out of the rankings.
Texas A&M, No. 20 last week, was bounced after losing at home to Texas and dropping its last three SEC games.
CONFERENCE CALL
SEC: Seven (Nos. 2, 5, 6, 11, 13, 15, 22).
Big Ten: Five (Nos. 1, 3, 7, 8, 21).
ACC: Four (Nos. 8, 14, 18, 23).
Big 12: Four (Nos. 12, 16, 17, 20).
AAC: Two (Nos. 24, 25).
MWC: Two (Nos. 10, 19).
Independent: One (No. 4).
RANKED VS. RANKED
No. 1 Oregon vs. No. 3 Penn State in Indianapolis, Big Ten championship game.
No. 2 Texas vs. No. 5 Georgia in Atlanta, SEC championship game.
No. 8 SMU vs. No. 18 Clemson in Charlotte, North Carolina, ACC championship game.
No. 10 Boise State vs. No. 19 UNLV in Boise, Idaho, MWC championship game.
No. 12 Arizona State vs. No. 16 Iowa State in Arlington, Texas, Big 12 championship game.