UNC moves up to No. 13 in new AP Top 25. NC State unranked for first time this season
North Carolina’s ability to keep winning close games, especially on the road, landed it officially in the ACC championship game on Saturday night.
Despite the Tar Heels’ 9-1 record, their rise in the Associated Press Top 25 remained capped because so few of their wins came over teams with winning records.
That changed Saturday night when UNC edged Wake Forest, 36-34, in Winston-Salem and it helped move the Tar Heels closer to the top 10 when the new poll was released Sunday.
With wins at Wake (6-4), at Duke (7-3) and at home over Pitt (6-4) in league play, No. 13 UNC rose two places in the poll. The Tar Heels are guaranteed two more chances to add to that list when they play N.C. State (7-3) in the regular-season finale and No. 9 Clemson (9-1) in the ACC title game Dec. 3 in Charlotte.
Speaking Clemson, the Tigers moved up three spots to return to the top 10 following a one-week absences. Clemson beat Louisville 31-16 on Saturday, rebounding from its 35-14 loss to Notre Dame a week earlier.
Losses by two teams from last week’s top-10 — Oregon’s 37-34 loss and UCLA losing 34-28 at home to an Arizona team with a losing record — opened room for Clemson to rise again.
No. 12 Oregon (8-2) fell six spots while No. 16 UCLA (8-2) plummeted seven spots.
N.C. State fell out of the poll for the first time this season. Ranked No. 16 last week, the Wolfpack lost 21-20 at home on Saturday to Boston College.
No. 20 Florida State (7-3), which entered the poll at No. 25 last week, rose five spots after its 38-3 hammering of Syracuse on Saturday.
Losses by No. 19 Liberty and No. 21 Illinois to unranked teams UConn and Purdue dropped them out.
No. 23 Coastal Carolina (9-1) moved into the rankings ahead of its game at Virginia this Saturday.
Duke (7-3), heading for a bowl game for the first time since 2018, received votes to accumulate 16 poll points but did not crack the top 25. Four other unranked teams — N.C. State (77), Texas (65), Texas-San Antonio (51) and Troy (22) — had more poll points than Duke.
Latest AP poll football rankings
Rk. | Team |
1 | Georgia |
2 | Ohio State |
3 | Michigan |
4 | TCU |
5 | Tennessee |
6 | LSU |
7 | USC |
8 | Alabama |
9 | Clemson |
10 | Utah |
11. | Penn State |
12 | Oregon |
13 | North Carolina |
14 | Mississippi |
15 | Washington |
16 | UCLA |
17 | UCF |
18 | Notre Dame |
19 | Kansas State |
20 | Florida State |
21 | Tulane |
22 | Cincinnati |
23 | Coastal Carolina |
24 | Oklahoma State |
25 | Oregon State |
Steve Wiseman’s latest AP Top 25 ballot
| 1 | Georgia |
| 2 | Ohio State |
| 3 | Michigan |
| 4 | TCU |
| 5 | Tennessee |
| 6 | USC |
| 7 | LSU |
| 8 | Alabama |
| 9 | Clemson |
| 10 | North Carolina |
| 11 | Mississippi |
| 12 | Oregon |
| 13 | Penn State |
| 14 | UCLA |
| 15 | Utah |
| 16 | Washington |
| 17 | Notre Dame |
| 18 | UCF |
| 19 | Tulane |
| 20 | Kansas State |
| 21 | Cincinnati |
| 22 | Florida State |
| 23 | Coastal Carolina |
| 24 | Oklahoma State |
| 25 | N.C. State |
This story was originally published November 13, 2022 at 11:15 AM.