AP Top 25 college football poll: Real games bring real changes. FSU, Clemson tumble
Preseason ACC favorite Florida State, having already lost two league games to fall into last place, is nowhere to be found in the new Associated Press Top 25, released Tuesday.
After losing 24-21 to Georgia Tech on Aug. 24 and 28-13 at home to Boston College on Monday night, the Seminoles (0-2, 0-2 ACC) fell from No. 10 to completely out of the national poll.
Clemson (0-1), expected to be Florida State’s top challenger for the ACC championship, tumbled to No. 25 in the new poll after losing 34-3 to No. 1 Georgia on Saturday at Atlanta. The Tigers were previously No. 14.
N.C. State (1-0) remained at No. 24 after it rallied in the fourth quarter to defeat Western Carolina, 38-21, last Thursday night. The Wolfpack play No. 14 Tennessee (1-0) in a spotlight game Saturday night at Charlotte’s Bank of America Stadium.
No. 12 Miami (1-0) now owns the ACC’s best national ranking. The Hurricanes jumped seven spots after winning, 41-17, at Florida on Saturday.
While the ACC lost Florida State from the rankings, the league saw two new teams enter the poll in No. 22 Louisville (1-0) and No. 23 Georgia Tech (2-0, 1-0 ACC). Boston College (1-0, 1-0 ACC) received votes but did not crack the top 25. ACC members SMU and North Carolina were also among teams receiving votes.
At the top of the poll, Georgia (1-0) and Ohio State (1-0) remained in the top two spots with Texas (1-0) moving up to No. 3. Alabama (1-0) and Notre Dame (1-0) both moved up a slot to round out the top five. Oregon (1-0) fell four slots to No. 7 after it opened the season with a 24-14 win over Idaho.
No. 9 Missouri (1-0) moved up two spots to enter the top 10.
Southern California (1-0) received the biggest boost at as the Trojans moved up 10 spots to No. 13 after beating LSU, 27-20 in Las Vegas on Sunday night. The Tigers fell five spots to No. 18.
Texas A&M, a 23-13 loser at home to Notre Dame in former Duke coach Mike Elko’s debut as head coach, joined Florida State in falling out of the poll. The Irish, meanwhile, moved up two spots.
Associated Press Top 25 poll
| Rank | Team |
| 1 | Georgia |
| 2 | Ohio State |
| 3 | Texas |
| 4 | Alabama |
| 5 | Notre Dame |
| 6 | Mississippi |
| 7 | Oregon |
| 8 | Penn State |
| 9 | Missouri |
| 10 | Michigan |
| 11 | Utah |
| 12 | Miami |
| 13 | Southern Cal |
| 14 | Tennessee |
| 15 | Oklahoma |
| 16 | Oklahoma State |
| 17 | Kansas State |
| 18 | LSU |
| 19 | Kansas |
| 20 | Arizona |
| 21 | Iowa |
| 22 | Louisville |
| 23 | Georgia Tech |
| 24 | N.C. State |
| 25 | Clemson |
Steve Wiseman’s AP Top 25 ballot
Through one week of actual, real college football games, the exercise of putting together a preseason AP Top 25 poll ballot proved mostly to be not as futile as usual.
The top teams in the top 25 took care of business without much sweat, including top-ranked Georgia steamrolling No. 14 Clemson, 34-3, in Atlanta.
But, beginning with Clemson, big changes needed to come with the first poll of the regular season.
Florida State, the preseason No. 10 team, needed to drop off most, if not all, voters’ ballots after losing 24-21 to Georgia Tech on Aug. 24 and, more shockingly, 28-13, at home to Boston College on Monday night.
I dropped both the Seminoles and the Tigers from my ballot after having them as the two highest ACC teams in the preseason poll.
That brought the question of what to do with Georgia Tech and Boston College. The Yellow Jackets appeared a lock to be ranked based on their upset of FSU. But when Boston College handled the Seminoles in an even easier fashion, that will cause voters to view Georgia Tech differently.
As for me, I put both those teams on my ballot, knowing they will have to earn the right to retain their positions in the coming weeks. Their wins over Florida State aren’t likely to look as impressive as the season progresses given how the Seminoles look.
I also dropped Texas A&M off my ballot after the Aggies lost, 23-13, to Notre Dame at home on Saturday night. Were this later in the season, I might keep the Aggies on the ballot after losing to a top-10 team. No shame in that. But with the season being so young, there aren’t enough data points to make Texas A&M worthy of inclusion.
I didn’t have Southern Cal on my preseason ballot. But that win over LSU in Las Vegas on Sunday night shows that was an error on my part. So the Trojans jump into the top 10.
Keeping N.C. State in the poll was not an easy decision. The Wolfpack looked lackluster in beating Western Carolina, 38-21, last Thursday night. Frankly, FSU’s loss to Boston College earned the Wolfpack a spot because that meant the Seminoles were not worthy of the top 25.
If the Wolfpack plays as poorly Saturday against Tennessee in Charlotte as it did against Western Carolina, there will be little chance of the fourth-quarter comeback the Pack completed against the Catamounts.
| Rank | School |
| 1 | Georgia |
| 2 | Texas |
| 3 | Ohio State |
| 4 | Oregon |
| 5 | Alabama |
| 6 | Penn State |
| 7 | Notre Dame |
| 8 | Mississippi |
| 9 | USC |
| 10 | Missouri |
| 11 | Utah |
| 12 | Tennessee |
| 13 | Michigan |
| 14 | Oklahoma |
| 15 | Miami |
| 16 | Kansas State |
| 17 | Oklahoma State |
| 18 | Georgia Tech |
| 19 | LSU |
| 20 | Kansas |
| 21 | Arizona |
| 22 | Iowa |
| 23 | Memphis |
| 24 | Boston College |
| 25 | NC State |
This story will be updated to include the new poll when it is released at 2 p.m.
This story was originally published September 3, 2024 at 11:34 AM.