Three teams above the Cats lost and plummeted, but two got huge boosts to leapfrog the good guys.
Only four teams in the preseason top 25 suffered losses in the season’s opening two weekends (although those four teams managed to lose five games), leaving little room for real upward movement in this week’s AP Poll — except for two bluebloods who got unreasonable boosts this week.
For their part, Kansas State moved up one spot to #17 after their 41-6 win over Tennessee-Martin on Saturday night. It was an 81-point increase from the preseason poll, which would be roughly equal to 1.25 places in the rankings. Also of direct interest to the Wildcats is that next week’s game will be against a team which isn’t ranked, but is receiving votes; Tulane earned four points, tied for 38th with North Carolina.
The five Big 12 teams ranked last week remain so. Utah moved up a spot to #11, as did Oklahoma State to #16 and Arizona to #20. Kansas took a larger leap, gaining three spots to land at #19. Iowa State (32 points, #29), West Virginia (2 points, tied #42), and inexplicably Colorado (1 point, tied #45) also received votes. The culprit for Colorado was once again Mike Hill of FOX Sports LA, who is clearly a huge Deion fan or something.
Speaking of culprits: this week’s villain isn’t really much of a villain, because all 62 voters have K-State in their top 20. But a villain we must declare, and so this week’s clown hat goes to Adam Cole of the Opelika-Auburn News, who gave K-State its lowest ranking at #20. All we have to say to this is Roll Tide.
This week’s good guys are numerous. Five voters had the Wildcats at #12 on their ballot: Action Network’s Brett McMurphy, Kirk Kenney of the San Diego Union-Tribune, Koki Riley of the (Baton Rouge) Advocate, Sports on Earth’s Matt Brown, and… wait, what? Henry Greenstein of the Lawrence Journal-World?!
Wonders never cease.
Georgia and Ohio State remain in the top two spots this week, but the next three teams moved up as Oregon fell to #7 following a lackluster 24-14 win over Idaho. Texas and Alabama moved up a spot each to #3 and #4, while Notre Dame’s win over Texas A&M moved them up two spots to #5 (while dropping the Aggies out of the poll to #26).
Ole Miss hung in at #6 as the Irish leapt past them; Penn State also held steady at #8. Missouri moved up two spots to #9, while Michigan slipped a notch to #10. The vacancy there, of course, belonged to Florida State, which went from #10 to not a single point after humiliating themselves on consecutive weeks. Needless to say, this was the biggest plunge in this week’s rankings. Florida State is in dead last place in the ACC now, and will remain there until at least September 21.
As a result of the Seminoles’ despair, everyone else in the poll moved up at least one spot unless they lost, so we’ll only note larger movements from this point forward. Behind Utah, Miami jumped seven spots to #12, and USC rose a whopping ten places to #13 after beating LSU, the largest rise in the poll this week. Tennessee and Oklahoma slid up to $14 and #15.
Breaking up the Big 12 party in the high teens is LSU, which slid down five spots to #18. Iowa was the main beneficiary of the few losses which occurred, moving up four spots to #21, while the 22-24 planks were taken up by previously unranked Louisville, North Carolina State, and Georgia Tech. Closing out the top 25 is Clemson, who fell 11 spots after getting blasted by Georgia.
In the also-receiving votes category, Texas A&M fell from 20th to First Team Out. They’re followed by Boston College and Boise State ahead of the Cyclones, then Memphis and Nebraska with 27 points each. SMU, Washington, and Liberty are next; tied with eight points each are Vanderbilt, Wisconsin and Auburn. Tulane and North Carolina picked up four points, UTSA and Appalachian State three, Kentucky, West Virginia, and Arkansas two, and UNLV and Colorado one each.