AP Top 25: Ohio State back at No. 1 in poll; Alabama tumbles to lowest ranking in 17 years

Ohio State jumped to No. 1 in the AP Top 25 on Tuesday, putting the Buckeyes in the top spot during the regular season for the first time since 2015, and Alabama’s latest stumble dropped the Crimson Tide out of the top 20 for the first time in 17 years.

Ohio State finished last season No. 1 after winning the first 12-team College Football Playoff, but it started this season No. 3 behind top-ranked Texas and Penn State. The Buckeyes took out Texas 14-7 at home on Saturday to begin their title defense and voters rewarded them with their 107th appearance at No. 1 and first during the regular season since they spent the first 10 polls of 2015 atop the rankings. That Ohio State team was also the defending national champ.

Only Alabama has more all-time appearances at No. 1 with 141. Oklahoma is third with 101.

The Crimson Tide stayed in the rankings at No. 21 despite their first opening-game loss in 24 seasons and extended their streak of poll appearances to 280, the second longest in history behind Nebraska’s 348 from 1981 to 2002. Still, Alabama reached a new low under second-year coach Kalen DeBoer.

Alabama was last unranked at the end of the 2007 season, Nick Saban’s first with the Tide. Alabama began the next season 24th, blew out Clemson in its 2008 opener to jump to No. 13 and stayed in the top 20 for the next 16 years. Even during last season’s inconsistencies, Alabama was never ranked lower than 17th.

Florida State’s resounding upset of the Tide on Saturday launched the Seminoles into the Top 25 at No. 14. It has been a wild ride for Florida State over the past two seasons and one week, going from unbeaten regular season and Playoff snub in 2023 to an epic collapse to 2-10 in 2024 and now looking like an ACC contender again.

Florida State’s entry also puts the Sunshine State’s big three of Florida State, Florida and Miami inside the top 15 together for the first time since the 2006 preseason poll.

Alabama was one of four top-10 teams to lose to start the season, but the only one to an unranked opponent. Texas-Ohio State was one of an unprecedented three top-10 matchups in Week 1, all won by the lower-ranked team:

• Texas, which was preseason No. 1 for the first time in school history, dropped six spots to No. 7.
• LSU moved up six spots to No. 3 after winning at Clemson, which slipped from No. 4 to No. 8.
• Miami’s victory at home against Notre Dame bumped the Hurricanes five places to No. 5. The Fighting Irish fell from sixth to No. 9.

Penn State remained No. 2 and Georgia moved up a spot to No. 4. Oregon also moved up a spot to No. 6, and South Carolina moved up to No. 10, its best ranking since 2014.

Others receiving votes: BYU 102, Auburn 94, Georgia Tech 67, USC 64, Louisville 59, TCU 49, Missouri 42, South Florida 25, Tulane 18, Nebraska 13, Kansas State 7, James Madison 4, Liberty 4, UNLV 4, Duke 4, Navy 2, Pittsburgh 2, Baylor 2, Virginia 2, Memphis 2

Also considered by Ralph: Auburn, SMU, Georgia Tech, TCU, USF

Who should be No. 1?

Ohio State was a fairly obvious choice to me, but there had to be at least some thought given to what was the better victory: beating Clemson on the road, as LSU did, or Texas at home, as the Buckeyes did.

Winning on the road against a quality opponent is hard. But for me, Texas is just clearly better than Clemson. I came into the season behind consensus on Clemson (I had the Tigers No. 6 in the preseason) and then was kicking myself for not being even more bearish about the hype Dabo Swinney’s team was getting this offseason. I was tempted to have Clemson closer to 10th than fifth but gave the Tigers the benefit of the doubt because of a ton of returning production.

Week 1 suggested my instincts (and the various computer ratings I like to consult) were right on Clemson. Still, it’s a good team and tough place to play, so LSU, welcome to the top five.

Of the 66 voters, 55 chose Ohio State for No. 1. Penn State got seven first-place votes, LSU three and Oregon one.

What to do with FSU and Alabama?

Figuring out what to do with Alabama and Florida State had me already regretting taking this job after two decades overseeing the Top 25 as the AP’s national college football writer.

I was ahead of consensus on Alabama coming into the season, convinced that a roster with as many blue-chip recruits as any in the country would take a step forward in Year 2 under DeBoer. I had the Tide ranked No. 3, while they started eighth in the poll. Then Bama lost to an unranked team for the fourth time in 14 games under Saban’s replacement. And there was nothing fluky about it.

Optimism for Alabama started up front. The Tide brought back enough talent and experience to make a case for having both the best offensive and defensive line in the nation. But the Seminoles, after yet another portal-heavy rebuild by coach Mike Norvell, ran all over Alabama and stuffed the Tide’s running game.

So how much to reward Florida State and penalize Alabama? Dropping Alabama all the way out of the rankings would then make it hard to justify ranking FSU. How good are either of these teams?

We often cite the infamous “Texas is back, folks” game from 2016 when the Longhorns beat Notre Dame in double OT as the most notable example of Week 1 fool’s gold. The unranked Longhorns beat the 10th-ranked Irish 50-47 and moved into the poll at No. 11 the next week. Both teams finished under .500. Whoops.

Maybe we’ll look back on Saturday’s events in Tallahassee, Fla., similarly, but as of now there is enough evidence to suggest Alabama should at the very least be a pretty good team.

Coming into this season, the Tide ranked second behind Georgia in 247Sports’ talent composite rankings, which measures the recruiting stars that make up a team’s roster. Since the website started doing the talent composite in 2015, only two teams ranked in the top two have won fewer than 10 games. Last year’s Alabama team went 9-4 and the 2015 USC team finished 8-6. All the others were in the national title race.

With that, I slid in Florida State at No. 10 this week to reward the Seminoles for their upset, which seems reasonable considering most of the teams I’m comparing them to played far lesser opponents.

I put Alabama at No. 21, ahead of a group of teams that I was tentative about ranking at all coming into the season that then opened against lower-level opponents.

In and out

I moved Tennessee in at No. 25 for being impressive against Syracuse after leaving the Volunteers out in the preseason. Do I think the Orange will push for 10 wins again this year? No. But they should be better than most of the Group of 5 and FCS teams that more than half the Top 25 fattened up on last week. I came into the season skeptical of the Vols despite what most of the power ratings were saying. This is me taking a step toward acknowledging I might be wrong.

Boise State and Kansas State dropped out of the Top 25 after being ranked in the preseason. The Broncos began the post-Ashton Jeanty era by getting blown out at USF and the Wildcats returned from Ireland 0-1 after a Week 0 loss to Iowa State and proceeded to need a last-minute rally to beat FCS North Dakota.

No. 25 Utah, like Florida State, entered the rankings this week, but for me the Utes actually moved up rather than in. I had Utah No. 19 in the preseason and bumped the Utes up to No. 14 for absolutely mauling UCLA on the road.

These rankings will be particularly fluid for the first six weeks. If not, I run the risk of just rewarding sequencing. The good news is LSU and Miami both have some more stiff September tests to come, so they’ll either validate or recalibrate my rankings.

Last thing to keep in mind if you follow along with me this season: I believe a ranking is a reward. I’m more inclined to reward winners than who oddsmakers favor in a hypothetical matchup. But again, everything is fluid.

Looking ahead

The only matchup of ranked teams in Week 2 is No. 15 Michigan at No. 18 Oklahoma (7:30 p.m. ET Saturday, ABC).

I am spotting a few games that could have a ranking up for grabs. Duke hosts No. 11 Illinois and Iowa is at No. 16 Iowa State. USF could make a huge statement at No. 13 Florida. No. 12 Arizona State travels to Mississippi State, and the Sun Devils are only a 6 ½-point favorite, according to BetMGM.

The winner of Kansas at Missouri should be in the mix next week, too.

(Photo: Gregory Shamus / Getty Images)