NORMAN, OK, Sporting Alert – Ohio State, as expected, stayed No. 1 in the latest AP college football top 25 poll, but there were lots of movements below them.
The Buckeyes toiled to a 20-13 victory over Northern Illinois on Saturday, a game in which starting quarterback Cardale Jones struggled while throwing two interceptions before being replaced by J.T. Barrett.
Several pundits had suggested that the defending champions could have been bumped from the top after such an unconvincing performance, but the voting panel stuck with them for another week after collecting 1490 points.
Ohio State received 42 of the 61 first place votes, with Michigan State, Ole Miss and LSU also receiving votes to be the No. 1 college football team in the country.
At the same time though, previous No. 2 Alabama, which suffered a 43-37 defeat to Ole Miss on Saturday night, dropped 10 places to No. 12.
Michigan State moved up two-places to No. 2, while Ole Miss, which collected 11 first place votes, is tied with TCU for No. 3 – moving up 12 places from No. 15 at the start of last week, while Baylor remains at No. 5.
Notre Dame moved up two spots to No. 6, Georgia stayed stable at No. 7, but LSU, on the back of the big win over Auburn, jumped five-places to No. 8. The Tigers received one first-place vote from the panel.
The top 10 is completed by UCLA at No. 9 and Florida State, which dropped a slot to No. 10.
The biggest droppers in Week 4 AP 25 rankings was USC, after falling 13-places to No. 19, following the 41-31 defeat to Stanford.
Auburn, which was ranked No. 18 in last week’s poll, dropped out of the top 25.
College Football Rankings – Poll
AP Top 25
1 Ohio State(42)
2 Michigan State(7)
3 Ole Miss(11); TCU
5 Baylor
6 Notre Dame
7 Georgia
8 LSU(1)
9 UCLA
10 Florida State
11 Clemson
12 Alabama
13 Oregon
14 Texas A&M
15 Oklahoma
16 Arizona
17 Northwestern
18 Utah
19 USC
20 Georgia Tech
21 Stanford
22 Wisconsin; BYU
24 Oklahoma State
25 Missouri
Dropped from rankings: Auburn 18
Others receiving votes: Mississippi State 52, West Virginia 48, Tennessee 45, California 38, Toledo 36, Arizona State 25, Houston 22, Texas Tech 20, Auburn 20, Temple 20, Boise State 17, Miami (FL) 13, Iowa 10, Kansas State 8, Florida 7, NC State 5, Virginia Tech 4, Minnesota 4, Memphis 1
