Florida State fell from the Associated Press college football poll on Tuesday after starting the season 0-2, becoming just the third team to go from the preseason top 10 to unranked in the regular season poll for the first time since the ranking increased to 25 in 1989.
Georgia remains No. 1, receiving 57 first votes after starting the season with a blowout of then-No. 14 Clemson. The Tigers hang on at number 25.
Ohio State No. 2 with the first five votes. No. 3 Texas and No. 4 Alabama each moved up a spot, putting three Southeastern Conference teams in the top four along with Georgia.
No. 5 Notre Dame jumped two spots after opening the season with a win at then-No. 20 Texas A&M, which fell from the rankings.
Florida State has been a major disappointment in his early season. The defending Atlantic Coast Conference champions lost their Week 0 game in Dublin, Ireland, to ACC rival Georgia Tech and then dropped another league game last night at home to Boston College.
No other preseason Top 25 team this year has lost to an unranked opponent to open the season. Florida State did so twice as a double-digit favorite and did not receive a single vote from the AP poll panel.
In the past 35 years, the only other preseason top 10 team to fall out of the Top 25 after Week 1 was Michigan in 2007 after infamously losing to No. 1 Appalachian State. 5 and Clemson in 2008. The Tigers were number 9 but opened with a blowout loss to Alabama and tumbled out of the rankings.
Mississippi remains at No. 6. Oregon slides four spots to No. 7 after winning a close game against Idaho. Penn State stayed at No. 8. Missouri moved up two spots to No. 9 to give the SEC five teams in the top 10. Michigan dropped one spot to No. 10.
Georgia Tech’s 2-0 start has the Yellowjackets ranked No. 23 for the first time since 2015.
Polling point
Because Florida State starts its season a week before the rest of the country, they move into the exclusive club of teams that start the season 0-2 with every loss coming while ranked in the top 10.
Notre Dame is the last to do so in 2022, when the Fighting Irish start the season No. The Irish went on to finish 9-4.
Ohio State opened the 1986 season ranked ninth and lost back-to-back games to ranked opponents, No. 5 Alabama and No. 17 Washington. The Buckeyes were No. 10 when they played the Huskies. Ohio State finished the season 10-3.
The 1967 Texas and 1952 TCU teams also started 0-2 when ranked in the top 10 of both games.
Florida State was only the second ranked team to lose twice before the first regular season poll was released, joining Kentucky in 1951. The Wildcats went from No. 6 to No. 17 while going 1-2 to start the season, losing to No. 11 Texas and in Mississippi.
Florida State gets the weekend off before continuing its schedule with home games against Memphis and new ACC member California before a trip to SMU followed by a home game against Clemson.
“You have a football team that no one thought was going to be anywhere and it was disappointing, it fell short, but I believe in what this team can do,” coach Mike Norvell said after the BC loss. “I believe in what this team can do.”
Move up
The big risers in the Top 25 are Miami and Southern California.
The Hurricanes jumped seven spots to No. 12 after leading Florida in The Swamp and has his best ranking since breaking the top 10 at the end of the 2020 season.
No. 13 USC moved up 10 spots after beating LSU with a late touchdown Sunday night in Las Vegas. The loss dropped LSU to 18th.
The Trojans started last season at No.
in and out
The only other team to move into the rankings this week, along with Georgia Tech, is fellow ACC school Louisville. The Cardinals were one of the top unranked pollsters in the preseason and currently sit at No. 22.
Conference call
Despite Florida State and Clemson starting the season 0-3, the ACC has more teams in the rankings this week than last:
SEC – 8 (No. 1, 3, 4, 6, 9, 14, 16, 18).
Big Ten – 6 (No. 2, 7, 8, 10, 13, 21).
ACC – 5 (No. 12, 22, 23, 24, 25).
Large 12 – 5 (No. 11, 16, 17, 19, 20).
Independent – 1 (No. 5).
Rank vs
No. 3 Texas at No. 10 Michigan. The first regular season meet is a top-10 matchup at the Big House.
No. 14 Tennessee vs. No. 24 NC State in Charlotte, North Carolina. An interesting SEC-ACC ranking matchup.