Steve Wiseman’s AP Top 25 ballot: Welcome Baylor, Cincinnati and SMU.
Florida shook up the bottom half of the nation’s top 10 ranked teams with its upset win over the Tigers on Saturday, setting off a month when the teams vying to crack into the top five get a chance with key conference opportunities.
I had the Gators (6-0) among my top 10 in earlier ballots this season but had them at No. 11 last week following a couple of shaky wins. But Florida’s 23-14 win over Auburn at the Swamp validated Dan Mullen’s team as a contender for the College Football Playoff, so I moved the Gators up to No. 9 with Auburn dropping to No. 10.
Florida’s faces LSU and Georgia among its next three games come with neither being played in Gainesville. The Gators will get their shot to make the case for a top-four placement.
Elsewhere, I left my top six teams in place -- Clemson, Alabama, Georgia, Ohio State, LSU and Oklahoma.
Notre Dame, with its lone loss coming at Georgia, and Wisconsin are next. Texas had been No. 10 last week but I dropped the Longhorns to No. 11 as I believe Florida and Auburn now have better resumes.
The rest of the ballot saw some shakeups with Central Florida, Washington and California suffering losses that caused me to drop them from my ballot. All three are now two-loss teams, with Cal having the best resume among them thanks to road wins at Washington and Mississippi.
But as Washington falters, like in its 23-13 loss to a 3-3 Stanford team on Saturday, that hurts the Golden Bears. I was skeptical UCF was as good as its previous versions when I didn’t have the Knights ranked in the preseason. That has proven correct with its losses to Pittsburgh and Cincinnati.
Speaking of Cincinnati, the Bearcats (4-1) are among the three new teams in my ballot this week. Cincinnati beat UCF 27-24 on Friday night and its lone loss came at Ohio State.
Baylor (5-0) and SMU (6-0) are my other newcomers. A Texas two-step, if you will.
The Mustangs were oh so close to not appearing before rallying from 21 points down in the fourth quarter to beat Tulsa 43-37 in three overtimes. You’re on notice, SMU. Playing that way against a team with a losing record doesn’t bode well for the future.
I’ve had my eye on Baylor since the preseason and its dominating 31-12 win at Kansas State on Saturday told me it was time. The Bears are jockeying with Texas as the prime contenders to Oklahoma in the Big 12 race.
Here’s the full ballot submitted to the Associated Press on Sunday morning, with where I had them ranked last week in parenthesis.
Clemson (1)
Alabama (2)
Georgia (3)
Ohio State (4)
LSU (5)
Oklahoma (6)
Notre Dame (8)
Wisconsin (9)
Florida (11)
Auburn (7)
Texas (10)
Penn State (12)
Oregon (13)
Boise State (15)
Michigan (21)
Virginia (17)
Iowa (14)
Wake Forest (18)
Texas A&M (19)
Utah (20)
Arizona State (23)
Baylor (NR)
Cincinnati (NR)
Appalachian State (25)
SMU (NR)