Both the college football rankings and the College Football Playoff picture took a sharp turn on Saturday. More than a half-dozen ranked teams took losses, leaving voters — and the selection committee — with some tough decisions when it comes to sorting out the new top 25. In the case of the AP Top 25, there were eight teams ranked in last week’s poll lost on Saturday, including three of the top 10 and seven of the top 18 teams in the country.
The AP voters have weighed in with how they see the new landscape, leaving the top four intact but shaking up the top 10 and a majority of the top 20 in the wake of Week 13 results. Indiana dropped five spots after suffering its first loss of the season at the hands of Ohio State, but the Hoosiers hung on to remain a top-10 team. That No. 5 spot that was occupied by Indiana is now taken over by Notre Dame, which bumps up one spot to join unanimous No. 1 Oregon, Ohio State, Texas and Penn State inside the top five.
Alabama dropped six spots from No. 7 to No. 13 after Saturday night’s 24-3 loss at Oklahoma, now checking in behind No. 11 Boise State and No. 12 Clemson. Meanwhile, Ole Miss fell from No. 9 to No. 15 after losing at Florida and Texas A&M dropped from No. 15 to No. 20 after losing at Auburn. Those SEC road losses have left the conference with with just three teams in the top 10, but Georgia (up two spots to No. 6) and Tennessee (up three spots to No. 7) did strengthen their positions as a result of overall shake up.
One of the biggest moves up came from Arizona State, which improved to 9-2 with a 28-23 win against BYU. The Sun Devils are now the highest-ranked Big 12 team in the AP poll at No. 14, with BYU falling five spots to No. 19 and Colorado dropping from No. 16 to No. 23 after a loss to Kansas. The Big 12 in total has four teams ranked between No. 14 and No. 23, and that collection of contenders highlights tiebreaker scenario for the ages as the league enters the final week of the regular season with as many as seven teams still in the mix to make the conference title game.
Further down in the rankings Washington State dropped out after a loss to Pac-12 rival Oregon State, opening the door for Missouri to move back into the top 25.
Check out the full AP Top 25 poll below. First-place votes are in parenthesis.
Dropped out: No. 25 Washington State
Others receiving votes: Kansas St. 98, Memphis 46, Syracuse 37, Louisville 24, Washington St. 10, Duke 6, Louisiana-Lafayette 5, Florida 4, LSU 2, Georgia Tech 2.
