Saturday didn’t nudge the poll. It tossed the poll out a window. The college football rankings just got flipped upside down, because five of the AP’s top seven teams lost on the same day, and Sports Illustrated says it’s the first time that has happened in the history of the rankings.
In fact, Saturday’s slate was a demolition derby.
The headline casualty was No. 1 Georgia, which lost 27-24 to Auburn. Meanwhile, No. 2 Notre Dame fell 28-24 at No. 8 BYU. No. 6 Alabama dropped a 26-10 game at No. 14 Tennessee, and No. 7 Texas lost 27-24 to Florida. The fifth was No. 5 Indiana, which lost 19-15 to No. 4 Ohio State.
Hold on, though: Indiana’s loss came against a top-five team, so it’s the least shocking of the bunch. If you want the full pre-chaos picture, our Week 7 schedule preview shows how much was riding on these games.
Why this Saturday blew up the AP Top 25
The scoreboard alone tells the story, but the details make it wilder. Sports Illustrated reports that Georgia, Alabama and Texas were the SEC’s three highest-ranked teams. All three lost on the same day, which SI says hasn’t happened since 1996.
The pain spread further down the poll, too. No. 13 Missouri lost 31-3 at No. 9 Ole Miss. No. 16 Mississippi State was shut out 31-0 at No. 22 LSU.
SI notes Mississippi State is one of only three ranked SEC teams to be blanked like that in the last 10 seasons. For more on how the poll shook out, see our breakdown of Texas, LSU and Oregon stumbling.
Who is on top of the top 25 rankings now
If you want a new No. 1, look to the teams that stayed perfect. Miami beat Florida State 43-35 in double overtime in Miami Gardens, according to Yahoo Sports. As a result, the Hurricanes stayed at 6-0 alongside BYU.
Brett McMurphy’s AP ballot, published by Yahoo, puts Miami No. 1 and BYU No. 2. Georgia (6-1) lands at No. 3, followed by Ohio State (6-1) at No. 4 and Ole Miss (5-1) at No. 5.
That is one voter’s ballot, not the official poll, so treat it as a preview.
FOX Sports went a different direction with its own opinion-based ranking. It dropped Texas all the way to No. 25 after the loss to Florida, a long fall from its previous spot at No. 4, per its Week 7 Top 25. LSU, which crushed Mississippi State, jumped into FOX’s list at No. 21.
Still, those FOX numbers are not the AP poll, so don’t mix them up.
Here’s the thing: the CFB rankings and playoff picture just got wider
So what does this mean for the sport’s biggest prize? Plenty of teams that looked like locks now have a loss, and a loss in October is not the end. Georgia sitting at No. 3 on one ballot with a loss shows how thin the unbeaten ranks are.
Fewer perfect records means the race gets messier, and that means more chances for teams that stumbled to climb back.
It also raises the stakes for the games ahead. Texas faces Ole Miss next, and the Longhorns badly need a response. LSU, meanwhile, visits Auburn, the team that just toppled Georgia. FOX also lists James Madison at Appalachian State, Northwestern against Rutgers, SMU against Cal, Oregon at Illinois and Oklahoma State against Colorado.
The official AP Top 25 and Coaches Poll for Week 8 drop Sunday, Oct 18. Expect new faces on top, a lot of shuffling and some angry fan bases.
After a day like this, who’s brave enough to predict next Saturday?
