After several college sports-less months from March through August, we’ve now reach somewhat of a busy season. In addition to the continuing college football season, this week sees the opening of college basketball.

That means there are two different AP Poll for us to check out this week. Luckily for us as UNC fans, we’re in a good place, as the Tar Heels feature in both!

Football

AP Top 25

1. Alabama Crimson Tide (62 first place votes)
2. Notre Dame Fighting Irish
3. Ohio State Buckeyes
4. Clemson Tigers
5. Texas A&M Aggies
6. Florida Gators
7. Cincinnati Bearcays
8. BYU Cougars
9. Oregon Ducks
10. Miami Hurricanes
11. Northwestern Wildcats
12. Indiana Hoosiers
13. Georgia Bulldogs
14. Oklahoma Sooners
15. Iowa State Cyclones
16. Coastal Carolina Chanticleers
17. Marshall Thundering Herd
18. Wisconsin Badgers
19. USC Trojans
20. Texas Longhorns
21. Oklahoma State Cowboys
22. Auburn Tigers
23. Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns
24. Tulsa Golden Hurricanes
25. North Carolina Tar Heels

Where is UNC?

They’re back! After three weeks out of the poll and two just barely missing out, Carolina has returned to the top 25, although it came from an unexpected source. The only team to drop out of this week’s rankings was Liberty, who lost to NC State. Were it not for State’s win, UNC might be on the outside looking in again. Congrats Wolfpack, you played yourselves.

Biggest Winners

No movement at all in the top eight, and in general, there weren’t many big jumps up. Oklahoma moved up four spots thanks to their win over Oklahoma State in Bedlam, the extremely one-sided rivalry that somehow continues to have the reputation as a crazy series where anything can happen.

Biggest Losers

On the other side of that, Oklahoma State fell seven spots. However, that’s only the second biggest drop of the week. Thanks to their loss to Northwestern, Wisconsin is down to #18 after entering the weekend in the top ten.

Conference Breakdown

• ACC: 4
• American: 2
• Big 12: 4
• Big Ten: 4
• Conference USA: 1
• Independent: 1
• Pac-12: 2
• SEC: 5
• Sun Belt: 2

Marquee Top 25 Matchups

• #15 Iowa State (6-2) at #20 Texas (5-2) - Friday at 12:00 PM ET on ABC
• #2 Notre Dame (8-0) at #25 North Carolina (6-2) - Friday at 3:30 PM ET on ABC
• #22 Auburn (5-2) at #1 Alabama (7-0) - Saturday at 3:30 PM ET on CBS

Basketball

AP Top 25

1. Gonzaga Bulldogs (28 first place votes)
2. Baylor Bears (24)
3. Villanova Wildcats (11)
4. Virginia Cavaliers (1)
5. Iowa Hawkeyes
6. Kansas Jayhawks
7. Wisconsin Badgers
8. Illinois Fighting Illini
9. Duke Blue Devils
10. Kentucky Wildcats
11. Creighton Blue Jays
12. Tennessee Volunteers
13. Michigan State Spartans
14. Texas Tech Red Raiders
15. West Virginia Mountaineers
16. North Carolina Tar Heels
17. Houston Cougars
18. Arizona State Sun Devils
19. Texas Longhorns
20. Oregon Ducks
21. Florida State Seminoles
22. UCLA Bruins
23. Ohio State Buckeyes
24. Rutgers Scarlet Knights
25. Michigan Wolverines

Where is UNC?

The Tar Heels will go into the new season at #16 in the country. It says something about the UNC basketball program and what Roy Williams has done with it that after the truly terrible 2019-20 season, UNC is right back into the rankings to kick off 2020-21.

Conference Breakdown

• ACC: 4
• American: 1
• Big 12: 8
• Big East: 2
• Big Ten: 4
• Pac-12: 3
• SEC: 2
• WCC: 1

Marquee Top 25 Matchups

• #2 Baylor vs. #19 Arizona State - Wednesday at 9:00 PM ET on ESPN
• #6 Kansas vs. #1 Gonzaga - Thursday at 1:30 PM ET on FOX
• #17 Houston vs. #14 Texas Tech - Sunday at 5:00 PM ET on ESPN