College Football

AP Top 25: Miami jumps to No. 2 behind Alabama; Oklahoma 3rd

Updated Mar. 4, 2020 7:37 p.m. ET

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Miami is back at No. 2 in The Associated Press college football poll , the Hurricanes' best ranking since 2003.

The undefeated Hurricanes leaped five spots from No. 7 after routing Notre Dame on Saturday night. Alabama remained No. 1, where it has been since the preseason, getting 57 first-place votes. Miami received the other four first-place votes.

Oklahoma moved up to two spots to No. 3, jumping Clemson, which remained No. 4. Unbeaten Wisconsin moved up a spot to No. 5.

Three matchups of top-10 teams on Saturday produced lopsided victories for the home teams, including Miami over Notre Dame. The Irish dropped six spots to No. 9.

Auburn moved up to No. 6 after beating Georgia. The Bulldogs fell from second to seventh. TCU dropped out of the top 10 after losing at Oklahoma.

POLL POINTS

The Atlantic Coast Conference is finally getting the Miami it invited to join the league back in the early 2000s. In the four seasons before the Hurricanes entered the ACC in 2004, they went 46-4, won a national championship, nearly won another, were ranked as high as No. 2 in the country each season and never finished lower than fifth.

When the Hurricanes were placed in the Coastal Division, opposite Florida State and Clemson in the Atlantic, the conventional wisdom was that they would routinely reach the league championship game and give the ACC a perennial national championship contender to go along with Florida State.

Since then, Miami has never reached the ACC title game or finished better than 11th in the final AP rankings.

THIS WEEK IN `BAMA

Alabama notched its 101st appearance at No. 1 in the AP poll, matching Oklahoma for second most behind Ohio State's 105. The Tide should take over sole possession next week after its plays Mercer and could match the Buckeyes if it runs the table as No. 1 this season.

UP

- No. 8 Ohio State moved up three spots and back into the top 10. A week after getting blown out at Iowa, the Buckeyes bounced back with an emphatic victory against Michigan State .

- No. 12 USC moved up three spots, taking advantage of the some losses to teams above and below the Trojans.

- No. 15 Washington State jumped four spots, making the Cougars the second-highest ranked Pac-12 team behind USC.

DOWN

- No. 16 Washington dropped seven spots after losing at Stanford on Friday night.

- No. 22 Michigan State tumbled nine spots after being blown out at Ohio State.

IN

All three teams that moved back into the rankings this week have been there for much of the season, starting with No. 20 Stanford.

- No. 21 LSU has been back and forth for most of the season.

- No. 25 North Carolina State is back in a week after falling out.

OUT

- Virginia Tech fell out for the first time this season after a losing its second straight game.

- Iowa and Iowa State both dropped out after losses. The schools were ranked together last week for the first time since 2005.

CONFERENCE CALL

SEC - 5

Big Ten - 5

Big 12 - 4

Pac-12 - 4

ACC - 3

American - 3

Independent - 1

RANKED vs. RANKED

No. 19 Michigan at No. 5 Wisconsin. After two straight weeks of schedules loaded with marquee matchups, Wolverines-Badgers is the only game on the slate matching ranked teams.

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Follow Ralph D. Russo at www.Twitter.com/ralphDrussoAP

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More AP college football: www.collegefootball.ap.org and www.twitter.com/AP-Top25

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