New York, NY (SportsNetwork.com) – Florida State and Alabama are the top two
teams in the latest Associated Press college football poll.
The Seminoles are the lone undefeated team among the power conferences after a
stirring comeback win Saturday night against Miami-Florida and Mississippi
State’s loss at Alabama earlier in the day.
Florida State held the top ranking from the preseason until Mississippi State
ascended to the top spot in October. The Bulldogs, undefeated before heading
to Tuscaloosa this weekend, then spent the past six weeks at the top.
The Seminoles received 43 first-place votes and 1,476 points from a nationwide
media panel, while the Crimson Tide picked up 16 No. 1 votes. Alabama, which
was fifth in last week’s College Football Playoff rankings, has won five
straight since its lone loss at Ole Miss in early October.
Oregon, which was idle this weekend and picked up the final first-place vote,
remained third and Mississippi State dropped only to fourth. TCU, after
rallying to beat lowly Kansas, stayed fifth.
Baylor, Ohio State, Ole Miss, Georgia and Michigan State round out this week’s
top 10. Georgia vaulted seven spots from 16th back into the top 10 after a
34-7 rout of Auburn on Saturday.
The second 10 consists of UCLA, Kansas State, Arizona State, Wisconsin,
Arizona, Auburn, Georgia Tech, Marshall, Missouri and Utah. Arizona State
tumbled six places from seventh after a 35-27 loss at Oregon State and Auburn
dropped seven spots from ninth, while Wisconsin rose eight places from 22nd
after its 59-24 blowout of Nebraska behind an FBS-record 408 rushing yards
from Melvin Gordon.
Nebraska dropped 10 spots from 11th to 21st and is followed by Colorado State,
Oklahoma, Southern California and Duke as the last five teams ranked.
Missouri, Oklahoma and Southern California are this week’s newcomers, although
all were ranked for numerous weeks previously this season. Notre Dame, Clemson
and LSU all dropped out after losses on Saturday.
The Fighting Irish were 15th before an overtime home loss to Northwestern,
while Clemson had been 18th before a 28-6 loss at Georgia Tech. LSU was 20th
and suffered a 17-0 setback at Arkansas on the heels of its overtime loss to
Alabama a week ago.
Only two ranked matchups are on next Saturday’s schedule and both come from
the Pac-12, as Arizona visits Utah and UCLA hosts USC.
