AP Top 25 football poll: Georgia still No. 1, Florida State drops, UNC and Duke rise
Duke football’s season-opening winning streak has the Blue Devils higher in the Associated Press Top 25 poll than they’ve been in 29 years.
The Blue Devils, 3-0 after blasting Northwestern, 38-14, rose three spots to No. 18 in the latest poll, which was released on Sunday.
The last time Duke was ranked No. 18 or better was November 1994 when the Blue Devils were No. 18. This is Duke’s first ranking in the teens since November 2014 when it was No. 19.
Sunday’s new poll has the Blue Devils one spot behind rival North Carolina (3-0), which rose three spots to No. 17 after whipping Minnesota, 31-13, on Saturday.
The ACC team with the best ranking, Florida State (3-0), fell one spot to No. 4 after edging Boston College, 31-29, on Saturday in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. After receiving three first-place votes last week, the Seminoles received only one this week.
Georgia stayed at No. 1 with Michigan at No. 2. Texas switched places with Florida State and is now No. 3.
The rest of the top 10 stayed the same except at No. 10, where Oregon moved up three spots to take that position. Alabama fell three spots to No. 13 after a lackluster 17-3 win at South Florida.
Tennessee, after losing 29-16 at Florida, took the biggest tumble, falling 12 spots to No. 23.
Kansas State went from No. 15 to out of the poll after Missouri beat the Wildcats, 30-27, on a last-second field goal.
No. 20 Miami joined Florida State, UNC and Duke to give the ACC four teams in the top 25. Clemson missed the poll for the second consecutive week although the Tigers are the top team in the others receiving votes category. Clemson received 76 poll points to trail No. 25 Florida’s 103 points.
Latest AP poll football rankings
Rk. | Team |
1 | Georgia |
2 | Michigan |
3 | Texas |
4 | Florida State |
5 | USC |
6 | Ohio State |
7 | Penn State |
8 | Washington |
9 | Notre Dame |
10 | Oregon |
11. | Utah |
12 | LSU |
13 | Alabama |
14 | Oregon State |
15 | Mississippi |
16 | Oklahoma |
17 | North Carolina |
18 | Duke |
19 | Colorado |
20 | Miami |
21 | Washington St |
22 | UCLA |
23 | Tennessee |
24 | Iowa |
25 | Florida |
Steve Wiseman’s ballot
Saturday turned into a day of survival for a pair of the Associated Press Top 25 polls top four teams.
No. 1 Georgia and No. 3 Florida State posted wins but both teams made their fans nervous.
Playing at home, Georgia trailed by 11 points at halftime before shutting South Carolina out in the second half to win, 24-14. Florida State, on the road, let a not-very-good Boston College team hang around the whole game before winning, 31-29.
Georgia should maintain its spot atop the poll but that performance means it might not get the benefit of the doubt next time.
The Seminoles (3-0), after showing vulnerability for the first time in the young season, drop on spot to No. 5 on my ballot. Florida State struggled with an Eagles team that lost to Northern Illinois and struggled to beat Holy Cross in the first two weeks. Not good.
So I boosted Ohio State back into my top four, ahead of FSU.
I had some minor shuffling at the bottom of the top 10, moving Utah up to No. 10 after Alabama struggled to beat South Florida, 17-3, and Tennessee lost 29-16 at Florida.
Utah (3-0) moves up to the No. 10 slot based on its play but also because of Florida’s win over Tennessee. The Utes beat the Gators, 24-11, back in their season-opening game. So that win looks even better now.
The rest of the teams between 13-20 all moved up a slot on my ballot as Tennessee took a tumble to No. 24 following its loss.
Florida moves in at No. 23, one spot ahead of the Vols, and Missouri enters after it’s thrilling, last-second, 30-27, win over Kansas State.
Speaking of the Wildcats, they fell off my ballot. Same is true for Kansas State’s in-state rivals, the Kansas Jayhawks.
I had the unbeaten Jayhawks at No. 25 in my ballot last week. I still like Kansas (3-0), but Missouri (3-0) now has a better win with the same record.
I also considered moving Clemson (2-1) back in the poll but I need to see a win over a better team before moving a team with a loss, albeit to a ranked team like Duke (3-0), back in.
| 1 | Georgia |
| 2 | Michigan |
| 3 | Texas |
| 4 | Ohio State |
| 5 | Florida State |
| 6 | Penn State |
| 7 | USC |
| 8 | Notre Dame |
| 9 | Washington |
| 10 | Utah |
| 11 | LSU |
| 12 | Alabama |
| 13 | Oregon |
| 14 | UNC |
| 15 | Duke |
| 16 | Mississippi |
| 17 | Oregon State |
| 18 | Oklahoma |
| 19 | Colorado |
| 20 | Miami |
| 21 | Washington St. |
| 22 | UCLA |
| 23 | Florida |
| 24 | Tennessee |
| 25 | Missouri |
This story was originally published September 17, 2023 at 10:21 AM.