The college football rankings get a new look when they update on Sunday after many of the ranked teams were eliminated in Week 8. His AP Top 25 for his rising LSU team handily beating previously undefeated Ole Miss in the SEC of the CBS Game of the Week.
The Tigers’ 45-20 win in the Magnolia Bowl was the program’s sixth win in the past seven meetings in this historic rivalry. It also extended their winning streak in Death Valley to seven games. Just like in 2014, Ole Miss showed up to his rouge in Button, Louisiana and went undefeated in hopes of contending with the SEC West. The Rebels drop down and enter the new AP Top 25. LSU is now 6-2 overall, putting him in first place in the SEC West. – Week displayed at the beginning of the current month.
Ole Miss wasn’t the only one to start the day undefeated, but the ranking advantage of zero losses no longer exists. Of the nine teams that went undefeated into Week 8, six were against his FBS opponents (Georgia and Michigan were off, and Tennessee he played against UT-Martin). Three of the remaining six lost. UCLA suffered its first loss of the season in Oregon, Ole his mistake was his LSU loss, and Clemson beat Syracuse. Of course, the matchup between the Tigers and the Orange guaranteed an undefeated team to lose, but it was sure to make an ugly show along the way, an example of how difficult it is to stay undefeated.
AP Top 25 voters have a habit of slowly sliding teams that avoid the first loss, resulting in higher rankings later in the year. But when they lose, those teams become less special and more scrutinized in terms of quality wins. In this case, the big swing in the college football rankings after Week 8 will see teams like LSU and Oregon rise exponentially and see where previously undefeated teams land in the rankings.
Sunday’s new AP Top 25 looks like this:
1. Georgia (last week — 1): The Bulldogs are off in Week 8 and will be back in action next week for their annual rivalry game against Florida.
2. Ohio (2): After a sloppy start, the Buckeyes held up and scored 38 unanswered points in a 54-10 win over Iowa. CJ Stroud threw his four touchdowns to increase his season total to 28, leading all his FBS quarterbacks.
3. Tennessee (3): The ability to easily defeat any threat is Tennessee’s greatest strength. Alabama’s hungover threat against UT-Martin was cured by points as the Volunteers took his 52-7 halftime lead to a 65-24 win.
4. Michigan (4): The Wolverines are off in Week 8 and will face rival Michigan State next week.
5. Clemson (5): DJ Uiagalelei sitting on Cade Klubnik’s bench will generate a lot of conversation, but I worry that DJU’s struggle against Syracuse will lead to the Tigers being jumped to Alabama in fifth place. In last week’s poll, Clemson was closer to Michigan than Alabama. points, and the Tigers fell short of expectations of a two-touchdown spread, but beat a previously undefeated opponent in the top 15.
6. Alabama (6): After being shredded by 52 points, Alabama held Mississippi to just 6 points. And after committing his program-record 17 penalties, the Crimson Tide was just 3 for 20 yards on a 24-point get-right win.
7. TCU (8): Moving up the rankings may be just one or two spots, but Horned Frogs are doing something special this season and should shift their focus to what they can achieve at the end of the year. States were the fourth consecutive opponents ranked at the time of their loss to TCU, and now the 7-0 team is looking to a schedule conclusion against a largely unranked opponent. Sonny Dykes’ team proved to be a resilient group, overcoming his double-digit deficit for the second week in a row. And now the challenge is to maintain that dominance without the kind of weekly hype it delivered last month.
8. Oregon (10): Bo Nix was one of the big winners in Week 8, scoring five touchdowns in the Ducks’ 45-30 win over UCLA. After performing well against lower-ranked opponents in the Pac-12, this was a group in need of quality wins on its profile. And now there’s a win that confirms what Oregon fans have been saying for weeks: the Nix, and the Ducks, aren’t the teams blown away by Georgia in Week 1. Oregon has improved (as the team has) and suddenly his 6-1 record stands out, with a lone loss to No. 1. The best defeat profile in the country.
9. Oklahoma (11): It was the Cowboys who won the fourth quarter with a 41-34 victory over Texas, a week after falling to TCU in double overtime as a result of not scoring enough points late in the game. Oklahoma State’s defense emerged when he beat Texas 17-0 in his final 16 minutes of the game and counted in a game-sealing interception.
10.USC (12): The Trojan goes off in week 8 and resumes activity in Arizona next week.
11. Wake Forest (13): Sam Hartman was electric as the Demon Deacons returned from the off-week in style in a 43-15 home victory over Boston College.
12.UCLA (9): Utah’s win provides the floor for Mr. Bruins’ relegation. AP Top 25 voters call Utah a top 15 team with his two losses, so UCLA isn’t expected to drop significantly in the rankings.
13.LSU (NR): Last week’s poll saw LSU check in at No. 27 on a losing Purdue team in Wisconsin, and there was already significant voter support for the Tigers, less than 30 votes behind No. 25 Tulane. So after not only Ole breaking his mistake, but imposing its will after halftime with a 45-20 victory, LSU is poised to be his highest-ranked two-loss team in the country.
14. Ole Miss (7): Rebels, who are currently being judged against 1- and 2-loss teams, could see their ranking plummet. The best win in profile is a 22-19 home win over Kentucky, and the next best win is the debate between Troy and Auburn.
15. Pennsylvania (16): AP voters sometimes make “sticker shock” moves as a result of a victory that is far from their pre-game expectations. Penn State has been on alert as the home favorites for less than a touchdown with Minnesota, but the Nittany Lions are washing the memory of last week’s Michigan loss and heading into next week’s showdown with Ohio State. Will a 45-17 victory be enough to overtake the one-loss teams (UCLA, Ole Miss, etc.) they lost in Week 8? I’m predicting no, but I’m trying to break into the top 12.
16. Utah (15): Utes will be off in Week 8 and will resume activity in Washington State on Thursday night.
17. Illinois (18): Fighting Illini is off in Week 8 and will be back in action next week in Nebraska.
18. Kentucky (19): The Wildcats are off in Week 8 and will be back in action next week in Tennessee.
19. Syracuse (14): AP voters were slow to turn their attention to Syracuse, who started undefeated, and are usually beaten quickly after a loss. From a rankings perspective, two things should help give Syracuse the floor. The first is how far the Oranges have been able to pull off a chaotic trail in Death He Valley, and the second is a head-to-head win against the perilous North Carolina State. We jumped a few polls, but we should still be in the top 25 on Sunday.
20. Kansas (17): Quarterback injury — Wildcats were down to third signaler in loss at TCU — voters take into account to prevent falling out of rankings entirely … Knockdown Not enough spots to avoid being in some spots.
21. Cincinnati (21): Teams like South Carolina and the Liberty expected a late burst of SMU scores and a two-point draw attempt to lead to a Bearcats loss and an open top 25 spot. .
22. North Carolina (22): The Tar Heels are out in Week 8 and will be back in action next week against Pittsburgh.
23. NC State (23): Wolfpack is off in Week 8 and will take on Virginia Tech on Thursday night.
24. Tulane (25): Like Cincinnati, Tulane had to defer late fees, but unlike the Bearcats, the lead built by the Green Wave (35-0) meant that much of Memphis’ scoring was unofficially in garbage time. recorded as a score.
25. South Carolina (NR): Gamecocks faced a large margin in vote points from the top 25 cutoff, but tied for 28th place with UCF, who were easily defeated in the ECU on Saturday night, when it came to the rankings. But it wasn’t just a loss by Purdue and his UCF that paved the way for South Carolina to qualify for his AP Top 25 for the first time since 2018. South Carolina jumped past Texas A&M early on to keep the Aggies in the second half of his 30-24 win.
Expected dropouts: Texas (20), Mississippi (24)
