AP Top 25: Week Four

From a North Carolina fan perspective, Saturday was a nice break as the Tar Heels got the weekend off ahead of their matchup next week against Notre Dame. While UNC might’ve gotten a chance to breathe, there was still plenty college football action going on around the country.

Week three didn’t end up being quite as chaotic as week two, but there were still some fairly notable results. While there was nothing that greatly changed the top of the AP Top 25 rankings, there were some notable changes in the lower half of the poll. Now that the weekend is in the books, let’s check in on where things stand in the AP rankings.

AP Top 25

1. Georgia Bulldogs (59 first place votes)
2. Alabama Crimson Tide (3)
3. Ohio State Buckeyes (1)
4. Michigan Wolverines
5. Clemson Tigers
6. Oklahoma Sooners
7. USC Trojans
8. Kentucky Wildcats
9. Oklahoma State Sooners
10. Arkansas Razorbacks
11. Tennessee Volunteers
12. NC State Wolfpack
13. Utah Utes
14. Penn State Nittany Lions
15. Oregon Ducks
16. Ole Miss Rebels
17. Baylor Bears
18. Washington Huskies
19. BYU Cougars
20. Florida Gators
21. Wake Forest Demon Deacons
22. Texas Longhorns
23. Texas A&M Aggies
24. Pitt Panthers
25. Miami Hurricanes

Where is UNC?

Having been on the outside looking in last week, it’s not shocking that the Tar Heels didn’t managed to jump into the poll after a bye week. Carolina is now the unofficial #29 team in the AP Poll, 51 ranking points behind #25 Miami. In terms of number of ranking points, the Heels are now slightly further away than they were in last week’s poll. However in terms of teams, 29th is an improvement on last week. Even with Notre Dame unranked and not getting any votes after a 2-1 start, should the Heels knock them off, you’d have to think that would get them into the top 25.

Biggest Winners

Washington went from unranked to #18 after beating previously #11 Michigan State. The Huskies hadn’t even received any votes in last week’s poll. Another big jump belonged to Oregon, who moved up 10 spots after demolishing BYU.

Biggest Losers

The flip side of the Washington win was Michigan State, who went from #11 to unranked, finishing 26th, 32 ranking points back of #25. Miami had a fairly anemic showing in their trip to Texas A&M, and as a result, the Hurricanes are now just hanging on to the final spot in the poll.

Conference Breakdown

• SEC: 8
• ACC: 5
• Big 12: 4
• Pac-12: 4
• Big Ten: 3
• Independent: 1

Marquee Matchups This Week

• #5 Clemson (3-0) at #21 Wake Forest (3-0) - Saturday at 12:00 PM ET on ABC
• #20 Florida (2-1) at #11 Tennessee (3-0) - Saturday at 3:30 PM ET on CBS
• #10 Arkansas (3-0) at #23 Texas A&M (2-1) - Saturday at 7:00 PM ET on ESPN

Coaches Poll

1. Georgia (40 first place votes)
2. Alabama (24)
3. Ohio State (1)
4. Michigan
5. Clemson
6. Oklahoma
7. USC
8. Oklahoma State
9. Kentucky
10. Arkansas
11. NC State
12. Tennessee
13. Ole Miss
14. Utah
15. Penn State
16. Wake Forest
17. Baylor
18. Oregon
19. Texas
20. Texas A&M
21. Michigan State
22. Florida
23. BYU
24. Washington
25. Miami