AP Top 25 Poll: Week Six

In what is very much not a pedestrian college football season, we continue to get some un-pedestrian weeks.

Over the weekend, we saw a top five team go down, the reigning national champions take a second early loss, a four overtime game, and high scoring games involving top 25 teams all over the place.

Now that the dust has settled let’s check in on the new edition of the AP Top 25 poll. This week sees UNC reach heights they haven’t been at in quite a while, and a historic feat for the ACC.

AP Top 25 Poll

1. Clemson Tigers (59 First Place Votes)
2. Alabama Crimson Tide (2)
3. Georgia Bulldogs (1)
4. Notre Dame Fighting Irish
5. North Carolina Tar Heels
6. Ohio State Buckeyes
7. Oklahoma State Cowboys
8. Cincinnati Bearcats
9. Penn State Nittany Lions
10. Florida Gators
11. Texas A&M Aggies
12. Oregon Ducks
13. Miami Hurricanes
14. Auburn Tigers
15. BYU Cougars
16. Wisconsin Badgers
17. SMU Mustangs
18. Tennessee Volunteers
19. Michigan Wolverines
20. Iowa State Cyclones
21. Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns
22. Kansas State Wildcats
23. Virginia Tech Hokies
24. Minnesota Golden Gophers
25. USC Trojans

Where is UNC?

For the first time since 1997 in Mack Brown’s first tenure at the school, the Tar Heels have cracked the top five of the AP Poll.

Two teams above them losing and the win over still ranked Virginia Tech has seen Carolina jump up three spots to number five. In doing so, they hopped over Ohio State, who has still yet to play this season. The weirdness of this season has arguably propped up that ranking, but it’s still an incredible turnaround from where the program was at this point at any time in the last three years.

Biggest Winners

UNC are one of the biggest winners with their three spot jump, but the biggest one of the week belongs to Texas A&M. After their last second upset win over Florida, the Aggies are up to #11, up ten spots from last week’s poll.

USC also made a jump, moving to #25 despite still not playing yet this season.

Biggest Losers

After said loss, Florida is one of the biggest drops, falling six spots. However, the biggest belongs to reigning national champions LSU. The Tigers are currently gone from the top 25 entirely after taking a loss to Missouri, the second of the season so far.

Miami also fell six spots, while Virginia Tech hung on to a top 25 spot, but is down four after the loss to the Tar Heels.

Conference Breakdown

• ACC: 5
• American: 2
• Big 12: 3
• Big Ten: 5
• Independent: 1
• Pac-12: 2
• SEC: 6
• Sun Belt: 1

With UNC’s move up and 2020 only member Notre Dame counting towards the total, the ACC now has three teams in the top five, the first time that has happened in conference history.

Next Week’s Marquee Top 25 Matchups

• LSU (1-2) at #10 Florida (2-1) - Saturday, 3:30 PM ET, ESPN
• #3 Georgia (3-0) at #2 Alabama (3-0) - Saturday, 8 PM ET, CBS
• Boston College (3-1) at #23 Virginia Tech (2-1) - Saturday, 8 PM ET, ACC Network