Texas is back at No. 1 in the Associated Press college football Top 25, and Ohio State returned to No. 2 after a weekend filled with upsets caused a major shake-up that sent previously top-ranked Alabama tumbling to seventh.
The Crimson Tide were one of five teams ranked in the top 11 coming into Saturday that lost. Alabama’s loss to Vanderbilt was the centerpiece, as the Tide lost for the first time in 40 years to the Commodores in just the second loss by a No. 1 team to an unranked team in college football in the past 16 seasons.
Texas, which escaped the chaos that fell on the SEC by being off, received 52 first-place votes and moved back to No. 1 after getting pushed to No. 2 last week when the Crimson Tide beat Georgia. No. 2 Ohio State got nine first-place votes and is followed by Big Ten rivals Oregon at No. 3 and Penn State at No. 4. The Buckeyes and Ducks meet next Saturday night in a top-three matchup in Eugene.
Georgia held its place at No. 5 and Miami, which barely escaped being the fifth highly ranked team to lose to an unranked team when it rallied from 25 points down to beat Cal, moved up two spots to No. 6.
Behind Alabama is No. 8 Tennessee, the other top-five SEC team to be upset on the road Saturday. The Vols fell 19-14 to Arkansas. No. 9 Mississippi and Clemson round out the top 10.
No. 22 Pitt and No. 25 SMU moved into the rankings for the first time this season, and previous No. 11 USC, No. 22 Louisville and No. 25 UNLV fell out (26 teams were ranked last week because of a tie).
AP Top 25 after Week 6
| Rank | Team | Record | Prev. | Matt’s vote |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
1 |
5-0 |
2 |
1 |
|
|
2 |
5-0 |
3 |
2 |
|
|
3 |
5-0 |
6 |
3 |
|
|
4 |
5-0 |
7 |
4 |
|
|
5 |
4-1 |
5 |
7 |
|
|
6 |
6-0 |
8 |
5 |
|
|
7 |
4-1 |
1 |
6 |
|
|
8 |
4-1 |
4 |
15 |
|
|
9 |
5-1 |
12 |
16 |
|
|
10 |
4-1 |
15 |
8 |
|
|
11 |
5-0 |
16 |
10 |
|
|
11 |
4-1 |
14 |
13 |
|
|
13 |
4-1 |
13 |
17 |
|
|
14 |
5-0 |
17 |
11 |
|
|
15 |
5-1 |
25 |
14 |
|
|
16 |
4-1 |
18 |
NR |
|
|
17 |
4-1 |
21 |
9 |
|
|
18 |
6-0 |
23 |
12 |
|
|
18 |
4-1 |
20 |
18 |
|
|
18 |
4-1 |
19 |
19 |
|
|
21 |
4-1 |
9 |
NR |
|
|
22 |
5-0 |
NR |
20 |
|
|
23 |
4-1 |
24 |
25 |
|
|
24 |
4-2 |
10 |
NR |
|
|
25 |
5-1 |
NR |
21 |
|
|
NR |
3-2 |
NR |
22 |
|
|
NR |
5-0 |
NR |
23 |
|
|
NR |
5-0 |
NR |
24 |
Others receiving votes: USC 98, Nebraska 51, Navy 43, Army 33, Vanderbilt 26, Arkansas 17, Washington State 8, Iowa 8, Texas Tech 7, Syracuse 6, Washington 4, Louisville 4, Colorado 3, Kentucky 1
More change at No. 1
The turnover at No. 1 is already like nothing college football has had in a while. The last time three different teams held No. 1 by Week 6 was 2008, when Georgia was the top team in the preseason before immediately passing it along to USC — despite the Bulldogs winning their opener — and then Oklahoma took the top spot after the Trojans were upset by unranked Oregon State and Jacquizz Rodgers in a famous Thursday night game in Corvallis.
Overall this season, No. 1 has changed hands three times between three teams already. The last time the No. 1 ranking changed hands as many as three times during the first six weeks of the season was 1984, when it went from preseason No. 1 Auburn to Miami to Nebraska to Texas by Week 5, according to College Poll Archive. — Russo
How wild was Week 6?
- Seven of the 18 ranked teams that played lost, starting with UNLV falling in overtime to Syracuse late Friday night.
- Six ranked teams lost to unranked opponents.
- Saturday was the first day in which four of the top 11 teams lost to unranked opponents since five did so on Nov. 12, 2016.
- Saturday was the first day in which two of the top four teams lost to unranked opponents since three did so on Nov. 12, 2016.
- Vanderbilt’s win against Alabama was its first against an AP top-five team in 61 tries.
- Arkansas’s win against Tennessee was its first against an AP top-five team since 2007 against No. 1 LSU, which went on to win the BCS title anyway.
- Texas A&M’s 41-10 win against No. 9 Missouri was its largest against a top-10 opponent, topping its 52-28 win at No. 9 South Carolina in 2014.
And the week was close to being even more chaotic, as Miami needed a big comeback to beat Cal. — Brown
Required reading
(Photo: Carly Mackler / Getty Images)
