You may be surprised at whose expense this comes.
It’s hard to make headway in the AP Poll when nobody above you loses, but Kansas State did just that after their dominating 31-7 win over Arizona, sliding up a spot in this week’s poll to the #13 position.
The surprise is how they got there.
The Cats, who last week lagged 32 points behind Oklahoma State, surged past the Cowboys and have a cushion of 94 points — despite Oklahoma State drilling Tulsa 45-10 in a game which they never lost control of the proceedings.
Some of K-State’s move was a result of Utah struggling to beat Utah State; the Utes dropped 92 points off last week’s total. Some of it was also separation from teams below them, as Oklahoma shed 23 points after Tulane fought into the fourth quarter and LSU lost a bit of support after barely escaping South Carolina. Michigan drained about 50 points as well after failing to dominate Arkansas State at home.
This week’s villains remain the same as last week’s, with Koki Riley of the (Baton Rouge) Advocate and Tom Murphy of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette stubbornly disrespecting the Cats by placing them at 18th, although that was a three-spot move up from both of their Week 3 ballots. Our hero this week is David Jablonski of the Dayton Daily News, who has K-State ranked 9th.
Oklahoma has the widest ballot variance, with voters placing them anywhere from #5 to #24.
There’s one fewer Big 12 team in the top 25 this week, and that was entirely K-State’s fault; Arizona dropped out of the poll, but still managed 15 points. Utah remains a spot ahead of the Cats at #12, and Iowa State moved up a spot to #20. UCF, Arizona State, and BYU also received votes.
The big news nationally, however, is that Georgia has been toppled from the top spot after their incredibly stupid game at Kentucky last night, a 13-12 win in which they trailed for most of the game. Texas, on the heels of their utter destruction of UTSA behind backup Arch Manning after starter Quinn Ewers was injured, moves into the driver’s seat with 35 first place votes. Georgia picked up 23, and Ohio State garnered the remaining five, as their five brave champions are refusing to yield to anyone. Alabama and Ole Miss remain at #4 and #5.
Tennessee and Missouri swapped places after the Tigers had to fight to get past Boston College, and Miami moved up two spots as they traded places with Penn State. Oregon remains between the two at #9.
USC remains ahead of the Utah/K-State/Oklahoma State/Oklahoma clique. #16 LSU and #19 Louisville remained unchanged as well; between them, Notre Dame and Michigan traded places after the Irish took out their frustrations on Purdue in a 66-7 rout. As noted, Iowa State closes out the top 20.
Like the Cyclones, Clemson and Nebraska each moved up a spot to fill the void left by Arizona. Northern Illinois moved up two places as Boston College was cleared out of their path, and Illinois and Texas A&M entered the rankings at #24 and #25.
The first team out this week is Memphis, who didn’t quite get enough of a boost from sending Florida State to 0-3 to crack the top 25, coming just five points shy of catching A&M. They’re followed by Boise State, Syracuse, and UNLV, with Boston College landing fairly softly in the #30 spot. Washington State, Arizona, Iowa, Indiana, and California fill the 31-35 positions, followed by Liberty, Toledo, and UCF. South Carolina, North Carolina, and Arizona State each earned three points; BYU snagged two, and Pitt brings up the rear with one.