College Football

AP Top 25: SEC grabs six of first seven spots; Notre Dame tumbles

Published Sep. 8, 2024 2:33 p.m. ET

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After the first shake-up of the college football season, the SEC grabbed six of the top seven spots in the AP Top 25 — a first in the 88-year history of the rankings — and Notre Dame tumbled all the way to No. 18 on Sunday after being stunned at home.

Georgia received 54 out of a possible 63 first-place votes to keep a firm hold on No. 1. No. 2 Texas jumped a spot after dominating defending national champion Michigan on the road and received four first-place votes. The Longhorns have their best ranking since finishing second in 2009. The Wolverines were down to No. 17.

No. 3 Ohio State from the Big Ten Conference slipped a spot. Then there were four more SEC teams. Alabama held steady at No. 4 and Ole Miss moved up a spot to No. 5.

Missouri moved up three spots to No. 6 and Tennessee made a big jump from No. 14 to No. 7 after routing North Carolina State in Charlotte.

With the SEC bigger (16 teams) and seemingly better than ever given the additions of Texas and Oklahoma, the circumstances were right for an early season takeover like never before.

Not only are six of the top seven teams from one conference a record for a poll, but never before had a single league held as many as five of the top seven places.

Those teams will start playing each other in the coming weeks, so it is unlikely the SEC can keep this up, but it's a stark example of what's possible in the superconference era.

Especially after the first huge upset of the college football season. Notre Dame's 16-14 loss to Northern Illinois marked the first time a top-five team lost to an unranked team since the 2022 season, when Purdue knocked off then-No. 2 Iowa on Nov. 5, 2022.

The Huskies' victory, the first top-five win for a Mid-American Conference team in league history, landed Northern Illinois at No. 25 in the rankings. NIU is ranked for the first time since 2013 and is the first team from a non-Power 4 conference to be ranked this season.

Rounding out the top 10 were No. 8 Penn State and No. 9 Oregon of the Big Ten and No. 10 Miami (Fla.). The Ducks slipped two spots after a wild comeback victory against Boise State.

Poll points

Northern Illinois is one of four teams to move into the rankings this week for the first time this season, most notably Nebraska at No. 23.

The Cornhuskers are ranked for the first time since 2019 after easily handling Colorado at home. That was a brief stay. After starting that season ranked No. 24, the Huskers lost in Week 2, fell out the rankings and have been gone ever since.

The last sustained season in the rankings for Nebraska was 2016, though even that season ended with the Huskers unranked. They have not finished a season ranked since 2012. That's what second-year coach Matt Rhule and freshman quarterback Dylan Raiola are aiming for.

Just a reminder: Nebraska still owns the record for the longest streak of poll appearances with 348 under coach Tom Osborne from 1981-2002. The second-best streak is Alabama's active 264 straight weeks ranked.

In and out

The turnover came from the bottom of the rankings, where Kansas, Iowa, Georgia Tech and NC State all fell out after losses.

No. 21 Iowa State essentially switched places with its Cy-Hawk rivals by beating Iowa.

Last week, Georgia Tech made its first appearance in the AP Top 25 since 2015, snapping one of the longest active droughts among power conference teams. The Yellow Jackets lasted only a week after losing at Syracuse, but another ACC team snapped its own lengthy drought.

No. 24 Boston College is ranked for the first time since 2018.

Conference call

The only other time a conference had four of the top five teams was the SEC on Oct. 19, 2014, when Mississippi State was No. 1, Ole Miss was third, Alabama was fourth and Auburn was fifth.

SEC: 8 (Nos. 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 15, 16).

Big Ten: 6 (Nos. 3, 8, 9, 11, 17, 23).

Big 12: 5 (Nos. 12, 13, 14, 20, 21).

ACC: 4 (Nos. 10, 19, 22, 24).

MAC: 1 (No. 25).

Independent — 1 (No. 18).

Ranked vs. ranked

No. 20 Arizona at No. 14 Kansas State, Thursday. A Big 12 game that's not actually a Big 12 game. This is a nonconference matchup that was already set before realignment.

No. 24 Boston College at No. 6 Missouri, Saturday. An unexpectedly ranked ACC-SEC matchup.

Reporting by The Associated Press.

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