Alabama returned to No. 1 in the Associated Press college football poll for the first time in two years Sunday after a dizzying victory over Georgia, making it 16 of the 17 seasons the Crimson Tide has held the top spot at some point.
UNLV, unbeaten through four games for the first time in Division I history, cracked the rankings for the first time ever just days after losing its starting quarterback to the NIL dispute. The Rebels are tied for No. 25 with Texas A&M.
Alabama received 40 of the 63 first votes and leapfrogged three teams to take over No. 1 from Texas, which tussled with Mississippi State deep in the second half as a five-touchdown favorite and looked at No. 2. The Longhorns got the first 19. – Place votes, good last week 44.
Ohio State remains No. 3 with the first four votes. Tennessee, which has an open date, moved up to No. 4. Georgia, whose only three losses since 2021 have come to Alabama, dropped to No. 5.
Oregon, Penn State, Miami, Missouri and Michigan rounded out the top 10.
Ole Miss and Utah took the biggest drops. The Rebels, upset by Kentucky at home, dropped from No. 6 to No. 12. The Utes, who lost to Arizona at home, then from No.
Alabama, which is No. 1 for the first time under coach Kalen DeBoer, has posted back-to-back impressive wins with Heisman Trophy front-runner Jalen Milroe and freshman phenom wide receiver Ryan Williams leading the way.
The Crimson Tide won 42-10 on the road against Wisconsin two weeks ago and won 41-34 against Georgia on Friday night after squandering a 28-point first half lead.
The Tide haven’t been ranked No. 1 since Oct. 2, 2022. They remain in the spot just one week after needing a late goal line to beat unranked Texas A&M at home, with Milroe subbing for the injured 2021 Heisman winner. Bryce Young that night.
Alabama is the 141st No. 1, the most by a team since the AP rankings began in 1936, and the 105th since 2009 when Nick Saban won the school’s first of six national championships.
POLL POINTS
The SEC held four of the top five spots for the fourth consecutive week, a first in the AP poll. The only other time in the poll’s 88-year history that a conference had four of the top five teams was the SEC on Oct. 19, 2014 (No. 1 Mississippi State, No. 3 Ole Miss, No. 4 Alabama and No. 5 Auburn). That lasted a week.
The SEC has nine spots in the Top 25, one shy of its own record for the number of ranked teams from one conference.
The Big Ten has four teams in the top 10 for the first time since October 2021 and seven in the Top 25.
WHO IS IT? WHO is out
UNLV is one of the great stories of this season, even before Matthew Sluka announced that he will sit out the rest of the season, because he was cheated out of $100,000 in name, picture and likeness payments.
The Rebels, with Hajj-Malik Williams starring as the freshman quarterback, defeated Fresno State 59-14 on Saturday. Now the Rebels sit 4-0 for the first time since 1976, when they were Division II, and they will look to beat their third power conference opponent when they visit Syracuse this week.
Also entering the rankings is Indiana at No. 23. The Hoosiers, who are 5-0 for the first time since 1967, have not been ranked since they were No. 17 in the 2021 preseason poll.
Oklahoma State dropped out. The Cowboys, who were No. 20, have lost two straight against ranked opponents, most recently getting blown out at Kansas State.
CONFERENCE CALL
SEC: 9 (No. 1, 2, 4, 5, 9, 12, 13, 19, T-25)
The big ten: 7 (No. 3, 6, 7, 10, 11, 23, 24)
the big 12: 4 (No. 16, 17, 18, 20)
ACC: 3 (No. 8, 15, 22)
West Mountain: 2 (No. 21, T-25)
Independent: 1 (No. 14).
RANK VS. RANK
No. 9 Missouri at No. 25 Texas A&M: The Tigers got a week off to recover from a double overtime scare against Vanderbilt and will make their first visit to College Station since 2014. The teams have split four meetings since joining the SEC in 2012.
