AP Top 25: Oregon tops Georgia at No. 1, Alabama drops, Vanderbilt replaces Michigan

Texas climbed to No. 1 in the AP Top 25 College Football Poll on Sunday for the first time since 2012 after losing to Georgia this season to become the nation's third-ranked team. No. 15 Alabama dropped to its lowest ranking in 14 years after losing to Tennessee.

The Ducks, who shut out Purdue on Friday, received 59 first-place votes to move from No. 2 to the top spot, and Georgia jumped three spots to No. 2 after a win at Texas. Georgia received two first-place votes and the Longhorns dropped to No. 5. No. 3 Penn State and No. 4 Ohio State hold their spots after being inactive, and No. 6 Miami, No. 7 Tennessee, No. 8 LSU, No. 9 Clemson and No. 10 Iowa State round out the top 10.

The Volunteers moved up four spots after defeating Alabama, and the Crimson Tide dropped eight spots. Alabama was last ranked this low in 2010, when it fell to 17th after losing to eventual national champion Auburn and Cam Newton in its regular-season finale. The Crimson Tide finished that season 10-3 and No. 10 in the nation, their lowest final ranking in the Nick Saban era since his first team was unranked in 2007.

No. 25 Vanderbilt enters the rankings for the first time since 2013, and defending national champion Michigan is unranked for the first time in three years. With Indiana moving to No. 13 after its blowout win over Nebraska, it's the first AP poll since Nov. 15, 1937 to feature both the Commodores and the Hoosiers.

Others receiving votes: Washington State 46, Syracuse 15, UNLV 5, Duke 2, South Carolina 1, Nebraska 1, Liberty 1

No. 1 changes hands again

Oregon is the fourth team to be ranked No. 1 this season, the most No. 1s in a season since 2014.

Georgia started the season as No. 1 but bounced out of the top spot in mid-September and was replaced by Texas after the Longhorns won at Michigan and the Bulldogs struggled against Kentucky. Alabama took over the No. 1 spot for a week by beating Georgia, but then it lost to Vanderbilt and returned the top spot to Texas. That lasted two weeks.

Georgia's 15-point victory Saturday night in Austin was the largest margin of victory against a team ranked No. 1 in the AP poll in the regular season since Oklahoma beat Nebraska 31-14 in 2000 — and the largest on the road since Naughter beat Pitt 31-16 in 1982. did

Now, Oregon is the first team in the Big Ten to be ranked No. 1 in the regular season since Ohio State in 2015. Michigan wasn't ranked No. 1 until after the conference championship games last season. The Ducks previously spent a total of eight weeks as the nation's No. 1 team, including one week in 2012 and seven in 2010.— Ralph Russo, National College Football Writer

inside and outside

Vanderbilt was ranked at the end of the 2013 season under coach James Franklin. The Commodores had the second-longest active AP Poll drought among power conference teams behind Rutgers, which had not been ranked since November 2012.

Vanderbilt (5-2) has won three straight games and will host Texas in the program's first game since Oct. 18, 2008, when the No. 22 Commodores lost to No. 10 Georgia. Two weeks ago, No. 19 Vandy defeated No. 13 Auburn in its last ranked matchup at home. The last two times Vanderbilt's rankings both came in the final poll of the season (2012 and 2013).

Vandy essentially replaced Michigan in the rankings this week. The Wolverines are the only team to drop out after falling to 4-3 with Saturday's loss at Illinois and are unranked for the first time since the first regular-season poll of the 2021 season. It was Illinois' first win in a ranked vs. ranked matchup at home since 1991 against Ohio State.

According to the College Poll Archives, the Wolverines' streak of 54 consecutive weeks was the fourth-longest active streak in the nation behind Alabama, Ohio State and Georgia. The last defending national champ to finish unranked was 2020 LSU, which went 5-5 in that pandemic-shortened season. – Rousseau

Oregon is a clear No. 1, Alabama is a mystery and Indiana is underrated

• I was one of six voters who ranked Oregon No. 1 last week after their win over Ohio State, making the Ducks an easy choice on my ballot after the Texas loss. The rest of my top five is fairly easy, with Georgia moving back to No. 2 — it now owns a 15-point road win over a team ranked No. 15 and what turned out to be a toss-up Alabama — followed by Ohio State, Penn State and Miami, which These three places were fixed on my ballot. I voted Texas No. 6. On the one hand, the loss to Georgia is forgivable, but the struggles of Michigan and Oklahoma are also making it easier to poke holes in the Longhorns' resume.

• How far should Alabama fall? This was the most difficult question during voting this week. I dropped the Crimson Tide to No. 17; They have a pair of losses to Vanderbilt and Tennessee, but also have a win over Georgia that boosted from Saturday's result in Austin. There is no perfect answer, especially because you can Make a case for Alabama to fall behind Vanderbilt based on head-to-head results and identical records. But a win over Georgia — and Vandy's loss to Georgia State — is enough to create separation.

• Everything from No. 7 through No. 17 is stacked, because the margins are so small between one-loss Power 4 teams and undefeated teams like Indiana, Iowa State, BYU and Pitt. Very random to come. With that being said, I think Indiana deserves higher than its No. 13 ranking. It's true that the Hoosiers have played a weak schedule, but they got validation by beating Nebraska 56-7 — their biggest Big Ten win since 1945 — and winning by at least two touchdowns each week. They're No. 1 in scoring and No. 7 in points allowed, and even though an injury to quarterback Curtis Rourke creates uncertainty, they've earned a top-10 spot at No. 8 on my ballot. — Matt Brown, college sports managing editor and AP Top 25 voter

What's next in week 8?

While Texas doesn't have a top-five headliner like Georgia, next Saturday will feature five matchups of ranked teams:

No. 20 Illinois at No. 1 Oregon. The last time the Ducks played a game as the nation's No. 1 team was on Nov. 17, 2012, when they lost to No. 14 Stanford in overtime.

No. 12 Notre Dame vs. No. 24 Navy (at East Rutherford, NJ) The 97th meeting will be between the two teams ranked just 11th. The last was in 2019, when No. 16 Notre Dame defeated the 21st-ranked Midshipmen 52-20.

No. 21 Missouri at No. 15 Alabama. The Tide's streak of consecutive appearances in the AP Poll is now 270, second best to Nebraska's 348 from 1981-2002. Could one more loss end it?

No. 5 Texas at No. 25 Vanderbilt. The first meeting since 1928, eight years before the AP poll began.

No. 8 LSU at No. 14 Texas A&M. Odds: Every game between the Tigers and Aggies since 2017 has featured a ranked team. Both were ranked when they last played in 2016. – Rousseau

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(Dillon Gabriel photo: Justin Casterline/Getty Images)