Texas remains No. 1 in the Associated Press college football Top 25 rankings after Week 4, but its status could be threatened next week by the winner of a top-four showdown between SEC rivals Georgia and Alabama, neither of which played Saturday.
The Longhorns actually received nine first-place votes this week thanks to a win over Louisiana-Monroe in coach Arch Manning’s first start and are now at 44, but the No. 2 Bulldogs and No. 4 Crimson Tide are set to play in the biggest game of the year so far, with the attention on first-place votes likely to depend on who wins next Saturday night in Tuscaloosa.
Going deeper
AP Top 25 highlights: Who’s No. 1? Tennessee can’t be ignored amid fierce SEC debate
The SEC continues to dominate the rankings, taking five of the top six spots in the Associated Press rankings and occupying nine spots total. Tennessee is new to the top five, but its win over Oklahoma put it ahead of Ole Miss. One SEC team dropped in the rankings despite a win, with Missouri dropping four spots to 11th after escaping an overtime game against Vanderbilt.
Following Texas was Georgia with 13 first-place votes, with third-place Ohio State receiving the remaining five.
Other schools that received votes were: Washington State University 67, Indiana University 63, Boston University 55, UNLV 53, University of Pittsburgh 37, University of Nebraska 25, University of Iowa 24, James Madison University 11, University of South Carolina 7, Liberty University 4, University of Arkansas 3, UCF 3, University of Arizona 2, SMU 2, Naval War College 1.
How Week 4 affected the rankings
All seven of the top 10 teams that competed won, but six other ranked teams were eliminated, causing a lot of shakeup in the top 25 teams.
The biggest jump was made by Michigan, which jumped six spots to 12th after a hard-fought win over USC on a 32-yard pass. The Trojans dropped two spots to 13th. No. 15 Louisville and No. 17 Clemson each jumped four spots after double-digit conference wins. Illinois jumped five spots to 19th after beating Nebraska on the road.
The loss marked Nebraska’s 25th straight loss to an AP-ranked opponent since 2016. The Huskers fell out of the rankings following Northern Illinois’ loss to Buffalo, and were replaced by No. 22 BYU and No. 25 Boise State.
Kansas State dropped 10 spots to 23rd after its 38-9 loss to BYU, while No. 20 Oklahoma State (Utah) and No. 21 Oklahoma State (Tenn.) each dropped six spots after their losses.
What’s next?
The primetime action next Saturday will be between No. 2 Georgia and No. 4 Alabama, marking just the third time these two top-five teams have met in a regular season game, following Alabama’s win in 2020 and Georgia’s win in 1942.
There are three other ranked matchups: No. 19 Illinois visits No. 9 Penn State, No. 15 Louisville visits No. 16 Notre Dame and No. 20 Oklahoma State visits No. 23 Kansas State. There’s also a poll-place battle between No. 25 Boise State and Washington State, the first team to lose to the Broncos by just two votes.
(Photo by Tim Werner/Getty Images)
