Texas A&M fell out of the top five of The Associated Press college football poll for the first time in two months Sunday, Texas Tech notched its highest ranking in 17 years and a season-high four teams from Group of 5 conferences are ranked as the top five got a shuffle with a week to go before the postseason bracket is set.
No. 1 Ohio State and No. 2 Indiana, the only remaining unbeatens, are the top two teams for a seventh straight poll heading into their Big Ten title game showdown on Saturday. No. 3 Georgia and No. 4 Oregon each moved up a spot, and Texas Tech’s No. 5 ranking is its best since it spent three weeks at No. 2 in November 2008.
Ole Miss remained No. 6 and was followed by Texas A&M, which slipped four spots after its 10-point loss at Texas. Oklahoma, Notre Dame and Alabama rounded out the top 10 for the third straight week.
The weekend results created two top-10 matchups in conference championship games this Saturday. Besides the Big Ten showdown, Georgia and Alabama will play for the SEC crown. The other Top 25 matchup pits Texas Tech against No. 11 BYU in the Big 12. The ACC game matches No. 16 Virginia against a Duke team that is 7-5 and received no votes in Sunday’s poll.
No. 12 Miami (Fla.) and No. 13 Vanderbilt traded places in the rankings. The Hurricanes, who finished the regular season with a 31-point road win over Pittsburgh, are the highest-ranked ACC team and hope to receive a College Football Playoff at-large bid. Vanderbilt slipped despite beating Tennessee by 21 points on the road.
James Madison, which will host Troy for the Sun Belt championship game Friday, moved up one spot to No. 19 and is the highest-ranked Group of 5 team. Three teams from the American Conference are behind the Dukes: No. 20 North Texas, No. 21 Tulane and No. 23 Navy.
North Texas visits Tulane for the American championship game Friday. Tulane, at No. 24, was the only G5 team in last week’s CFP rankings.
Full top 25:
25. Missouri
24. Georgia Tech
23. Navy
22. Arizona
21. Tulane
20. North Texas
19. James Madison
18. Michigan
17. USC
16. Virginia
15. Utah
14. Texas
13. Vanderbilt
12. Miami (Fla.)
11. BYU
10. Alabama
9. Notre Dame
8. Oklahoma
7. Texas A&M
6. Ole Miss
5. Texas Tech
4. Oregon
3. Georgia
2. Indiana
1. Ohio State
Conference call
- SEC (8): Nos. 3, 6, 7, 8, 10, 13, 14, 25.
- Big Ten (5): Nos. 1, 2, 4, 17, 18.
- Big 12 (4): Nos. 5, 11, 15, 22.
- ACC (3): Nos. 12, 16, 24.
- American (3): Nos. 20, 21, 23.
- Independent (1): No. 9.
- Sun Belt (1): No. 19.
Reporting by The Related Press.
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