AP Top 25 College Football Rankings: BYU Big Gainer; Ohio State and Georgia Tech Slighted

The first full week's games are over and college football settles down to ranking the teams as they prepare for their second games. Usually, the college football rankings are already out, but having to wait on the outcome of the Miami/ Florida State game set back the polling a day. After Miami won the hardfought match-up, 38 - 34, they basically replaced the Seminoles in the AP Top 25 college football poll and the rest of the teams were shuffled about a bit from the pre-season poll.

Of course, Oklahoma's loss to BYU not only was the week's biggest surprise but also created the two biggest movers in the college football rankings. Heisman Trophy winner Sam Bradford's injury may have been instrumental in their loss but a loss is still a loss, and Oklahoma fell from #3 to #13. BYU jumped from #20 to #9.

The #1 and #2 teams, Florida and Texas, respectively, remained stationary, both pulling off big wins. Last week's #4 and #5 teams both moved up as well. USC won handily over tiny San Jose State and Alabama defeated #7 Virginia Tech to move up to #3 and #4, respectively.

But a winning Buckeye team was shown a little disrespect this week by the Associated Press' college football rankings. After allowing Navy to score two quick touchdowns to nearly tie the game at game's end Saturday, Ohio State's lackluster performance dropped them to #8 from sixth in last week's rankings. Virginia Tech, ranked #7 last week, fell to #14 this week. Jumping over Ohio State with an impressive win over #13 Georgia, last week's #9 Oklahoma State Cowboys jumped into the #5 slot. Ole Miss jumped Ohio State as well, taking their place at #6, moving up two notches. But the disrespect wasn't nearly complete. Last week's #10 Penn State jumped the Buckeyes as well, holding down the #7 position.

To round out the Associate Press Top 10, California jumped two positions, leap-frogging a poor-showing LSU, who remained stationary. Boise State moved up two to grab the #12 position.

Georgia Tech got a little disrespect as well. Although they defeated Jacksonville State by 20 points, they still dropped a notch to #15.

Rounding out the Top 20 college football rankings were TCU (the only AP Top 25 team that has yet to play a game, and they still moved up one position), Utah (moving up two spaces), Notre Dame (moving up five slots), North Carolina (up two), and the aforementioned Miami Hurricanes (jumping in with their victory over Florida State).

The last five teams to secure positions in the AP Top 25 were Georgia (who fell eight positions), Nebraska (up 2), Cincinnati (a new entry), Kansas (up one), and Missouri (new entry).

Oregon, Florida State, and Iowa (who barely held off Northern Iowa to win Saturday, blocking two last-second field goals to do so) all fell out of the AP Top 25 college football rankings.

For the more linear-minded:

Associated Press College Football Top 25 Rankings (September 8):

1. Florida (56) 1-0
2. Texas (2) 1-0
3. USC 1-0
4. Alabama (2) 1-0
5. Oklahoma St. 1-0
6. Mississippi 1-0
7. Penn St. 1-0
8. Ohio St. 1-0
9. BYU 1-0
10. California 1-0
11. LSU 1-0
12. Boise St. 1-0
13. Oklahoma 0-1
14. Virginia Tech 0-1
15. Georgia Tech 1-0
16. TCU 0-0
17. Utah 1-0
18. Notre Dame 1-0
19. North Carolina 1-0
20. Miami 1-0
21. Georgia 0-1
22. Nebraska 1-0
23. Cincinnati 1-0
24. Kansas 1-0
25. Missouri 1-0

The Top 25 shouldn't see much of a shake-up this coming week, given that most of the teams are playing weaker teams. There are two big match-ups that are not to be missed. The ACC match-up between unranked and undefeated Clemson Thursday night, a team that narrowly missed the Top 25, and #15 Georgia Tech. But the big match-up is going to be narrow escape artists Ohio State, looking to recoup some respect, against a disciplined and highly touted #3 USC Trojans squad.

One interesting match-up is the UCLA and Tennessee game, where both undefeated teams will be looking to win to break into the AP Top 25. Another will be the #18 Notre Dame game against an always tough Michigan Wolverines club, who are also undefeated.

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Source:

Associated Press