Alabama returned to the No. 1 spot in the Associated Press college football poll for the first time in two years on Sunday following a stunning win over Georgiamaking 16 of these 17 seasons the Crimson Tide have held the lead at some point.
UNLV, undefeated in 4 matches broke the standings for the first time in Division I history just days after losing its starting quarterback for a game NIL dispute. The Rebels are tied for 25th place with Texas A&M.
Alabama received 40 of 63 first-place votes and edged out three teams to take the No. 1 spot from Texasstruggle with Mississippi State delve into the second half was a five-touchdown favorite and slipped to 2nd place. The Longhorns received 19 first-place votes, well behind last week’s 44.
Ohio State remained in 3rd place with four first-place votes. Tennesseehas opening day, moved up one spot to No. 4. Georgia, whose only three losses since 2021 were to Alabama, fell to No. 5.
Oregon, Pennsylvania, Miami, Missouri And Michigan entered the top 10.
Miss Ole And Utah had the biggest fall. rebels, annoyed by Kentucky at home, dropped from 6th to 12th place. The Utes, who lost? ARRIVE Arizona at home, from 10th place to 18th place.
Alabama, which is ranked No. 1 for the first time under coach Kalen DeBoer, has had impressive back-to-back wins with the Heisman Trophy front-runner Jalen Milroe and freshman phenom wide receiver Ryan Williams guide.
The Crimson Tide won 42-10 first Wisconsin two weeks ago and prevailed 41-34 over Georgia on Saturday night after squandering a 28-point first-half lead.
The Tide haven’t held the No. 1 ranking since October 2, 2022. They memorably held it for just a week after needing a late goal-line stand to beat unranked Texas A&M home field, with Milroe filling in for the injured 2021 Heisman winner Young Bryce that night.
Alabama is No. 1 for the 141st time, the most of any team since the AP rankings began in 1936, and the 105th time since 2009 when Nick Saban won the first of six national championships national championship at school.
TESTING POINT
The SEC holds four of the top five spots for the fourth straight week, a first for the AP poll. The only time in the poll’s 88-year history that a conference had four of the top five teams was the SEC on October 19, 2014 (No. 1 Mississippi State, No. 3 Ole Miss, No. 4 Alabama and No. 5 yellow brown). That lasted a week.
The SEC holds nine spots in the Top 25, a record in its own right for the number of ranked teams in a conference.
The Big Ten had four teams in the top 10 for the first time since October 2021 and seven teams in the Top 25.
WHO IS COMING IN; WHO IS GOING OUT
UNLV was one of the feel-good stories of the season even before Matthew Sluka announced he would sit out the rest of the season, claiming he was cheated out of a $100,000 payment to his name , images and portraits.
Rebels with Hajj-Malik Williams Play as the new quarterback, beat Fresno State 59-14 on Saturday. Now the Rebels are 4-0 for the first time since 1976, when they were in Division II, and they will look to knock off their opponents in the third power conference when they host Syracuse this week.
Also making the charts was Indiana at No. 23. The Hoosiers, who are 5-0 for the first time since 1967, have not been ranked since they finished 17th in the 2021 preseason poll.
Oklahoma State dropped out of school. The Cowboys, a 20th-ranked team, have lost two straight games to ranked opponents, most recently being eliminated in the Kansas State.
CONFERENCE CALL
SECOND: 9 (No. 1, 2, 4, 5, 9, 12, 13, 19, T-25)
Big Ten: 7 (No. 3, 6, 7, 10, 11, 23, 24)
Big 12: 4 (numbers 16, 17, 18, 20)
ACC: 3 (numbers 8, 15, 22)
Western mountains: 2 (No. 21, T-25)
Independence: 1 (no. 14).
RANKING VS. RATED
No. 9 Missouri and No. 25 Texas A&M: The Tigers were given a week off to recover from the double scare in the match against Vanderbilt and will make their first visit to College Station since 2014. The teams have split into four meetings since they joined the SEC in 2012.
