Alabama passes Texas for No. 1 spot in AP Top 25; Georgia ranked 5th

Alabama returned to No. 1 in the Associated Press college football poll for the first time in two years on Sunday after its dizzying win over Georgia, giving the Crimson Tide the top spot at some point in 16 of 17 seasons.

UNLV, undefeated through four games for the first time in its Division I history, cracked the rankings for the first time ever, just days after losing its starting quarterback to a no-go. The Rebels are tied with Texas A&M for 25th place.

Alabama received 40 of 63 first-place votes and passed three teams to take No. 1 from Texas, which battled into the second half with Mississippi State as a five-touchdown favorite and slipped to No. 2. The Longhorns received 19 first-place votes, well below last week’s 44.

Ohio State remained No. 3 with four first-place votes. Tennessee, which had an open appointment, moved up one spot to No. 4. Georgia, whose only three losses since 2021 came at Alabama, fell to No. 5.

Oregon, Penn State, Miami, Missouri and Michigan rounded out the top 10.

Ole Miss and Utah suffered the biggest falls. The Rebels, upset at home by Kentucky, fell from No. 6 to No. 12. The Utes, who lost at home to Arizona, fell from No. 10 to No. 18.

Alabama, a No. 1 seed for the first time under coach Kalen DeBoer, has rattled off two impressive wins in a row, led by Heisman Trophy front-runner Jalen Milroe and freshman phenom wide receiver Ryan Williams.

The Crimson Tide beat Wisconsin 42-10 on the road two weeks ago and beat Georgia 41-34 on Saturday night after blowing a 28-point lead in the first half.

The Tide hasn’t been ranked No. 1 since Oct. 2, 2022. They memorably held the spot for just a week after needing a late goal-line stand to beat unranked Texas A&M at home , with Milroe subbing in for injured 2021 Heisman winner Bryce Young that evening.

Alabama is ranked No. 1 for the 141st time, the most of any team since the AP rankings began in 1936, and the 105th time since 2009, when Nick Saban won the first of his six national championships at the school.

POLL POINTS

The SEC holds four of the top five spots for the fourth straight year, a continued high in the AP poll. The only other time in the poll’s 88-year history that a conference had four of the top five teams was the SEC on October 19, 2014 (No. 1 Mississippi State, No. 3 Ole Miss, No. 4 Alabama and No .5 Auburn). That took a week.

The SEC holds nine spots in the top 25, a new record for the number of ranked teams in a conference.

The Big Ten has four teams in the top 10 and seven in the top 25 for the first time since October 2021.

WHO’S IN; WHO’S OUT

UNLV was one of the feel-good stories of the season even before Matthew Sluka announced he would sit out the rest of the season, claiming he was cheated out of a $100,000 payment for names, images and likenesses.

The Rebels, with Hajj-Malik Williams as their new quarterback, defeated Fresno State 59-14 on Saturday. Now the Rebels are 4-0 for the first time since 1976, when they were in Division II, and they will try to eliminate a third power conference opponent this week when they host Syracuse.

Also included in the rankings was Indiana at No. 23. The Hoosiers, who are 5-0 for the first time since 1967, have not been ranked since they were ranked No. 17 in the 2021 preseason poll.

Oklahoma State dropped out. The Cowboys, ranked 20th, have lost two straight to ranked opponents, most recently falling at Kansas State.

Conference call

SEC: 9 (No. 1, 2, 4, 5, 9, 12, 13, 19, T-25)
Big Ten: 7 (No. 3, 6, 7, 10, 11, 23, 24)
Big 12: 4 (No. 16, 17, 18, 20)
ACC: 3 (No. 8, 15, 22)
Mountain West: 2 (No. 21, T-25)
Independent: 1 (No. 14).

RANKING VS. RANKING

No. 9 Missouri at No. 25 Texas A&M: The Tigers were given a week off to recover from their double-overtime scare against Vanderbilt and will visit College Station for the first time since 2014. Since joining the SEC in 2012, the teams have split four matchups.