Notre Dame moved back into the top 10 of the AP Top 25 college football poll on Sunday, landing at No. 10 after rebounding from its 0-2 start with six straight victories.
For the third straight week, the Big Ten has the top two teams with No. 1 Ohio State (8-0) and No. 2 Indiana (9-0). The Buckeyes received 54 first-place votes and the Hoosiers got 11.
No. 3 Texas A&M also received a first-place vote.
No. 4 Alabama, No. 5 Georgia, No. 6 Oregon and No. 7 Ole Miss also held their places after either winning or having the week off.
The back half of last week’s top 10 was not so fortunate.
Georgia Tech, Vanderbilt and Miami all losing Saturday opened up room for the Fighting Irish, who started the season ranked No. 6, dropped to ninth after losing their opener by three at Miami and then had the rare distinction of being a ranked 0-2 team after losing by one to Texas A&M in Week 3.
The Irish fell to No. 24 but have been steadily climbing back up the rankings since. Notre Dame’s sixth straight victory came Saturday at Boston College, a sloppy 25-10 win that was never really in doubt.
Miami, which has lost two of its past three as a double-digit favorite in the ACC, fell eight places to No. 18.
Georgia Tech’s first loss of the season dropped it eight spots to No. 16. The Yellow Jackets were throttled at NC State on Saturday.
Vanderbilt went from No. 9 to 15 after losing at Texas. The Commodores’ streak of eight straight poll appearances has now doubled its previous best of four in 2008.
Preseason No. 1 Texas (7-2), which fell all the way out of the rankings after losing at Florida during the first weekend of October, continues its climb back, jumping to No. 13.
No. 8 BYU climbed two spots and Big 12 rival Texas Tech moved up four places to No. 9 to set up a top-10 matchup on Saturday against the Cougars.
No. 12 Virginia achieved its highest ranking since the Cavaliers reached No. 6 in 2004 under coach Al Groh.
AP Top 25 after Week 10
RankTeamRalph’s voteRecordPrev
1
1
8-0
1
2
3
9-0
2
3
2
8-0
3
4
4
7-1
4
5
5
7-1
5
6
7
7-1
6
7
6
8-1
7
8
9
8-0
10
9
8
8-1
13
10
11
6-2
12
11
13
7-2
18
12
20
8-1
15
13
12
7-2
20
14
14
7-1
16
15
15
7-2
9
16
18
8-1
8
17
17
7-2
24
18
10
6-2
10
19
21
6-2
19
20
16
6-2
23
21
19
7-2
21
22
24
8-1
25
23
NR
6-3
14
24
22
6-2
NR
25
NR
7-2
17
NR
23
6-2
NR
NR
25
6-2
NR
Others receiving votes: Iowa 71, James Madison 53, Pittsburgh 35, San Diego State 30, North Texas 27, South Florida 23, SMU 7, Houston 6, Illinois 4, LSU 4, Arizona State 4
Also considered by Ralph: Pitt, Cincinnati, James Madison
How I voted
On Tuesday, the College Football Playoff selection committee will release its rankings and remind us that every week the 13-person panel starts with a blank sheet of paper.
It’s the committee’s way of saying: What we did last week doesn’t bind us to certain decisions this week.
I felt that way this week in particular. I didn’t blow up my ballot. The top part is mostly the same as it has been, but Miami’s second loss, Georgia Tech’s first, a sneaky Texas resurgence and whatever the heck keeps happening with Virginia prompted a reset.
Similarly to the beginning of the season, once I reached No. 10, everybody felt overrated.
These head-to-head results are becoming increasingly vexing.
Unlike the consensus, I gave Miami the nod over Notre Dame, despite the fact that the Hurricanes have lost two of three and the Fighting Irish have been running wild since falling to 0-2. That might not last much longer.
Texas has been a relative afterthought since losing to Florida, but now the Longhorns have victories against Oklahoma and Vanderbilt. They also come within a hair of losing on the road to both Kentucky and Mississippi State. But you know what they call almost-losses? Wins.
There are enough actual losses to not get too caught up in almost-losses.
So, yeah, Texas is now a top-15 team again on my ballot, ahead of Oklahoma and Vanderbilt. Let’s see how this works out.
You might point out that Louisville and by extension Virginia are getting the short shrift from me this week. The Cardinals (7-1) beat Miami and are four spots behind the Hurricanes with only one loss.
Virginia (8-1) beat Louisville and is down at 20 on my ballot. We touched on Virginia last week and how the Cavaliers have become the toughest team to rank because in reality they are probably not even a top-30 team — but they just keep winning.
A late pick six at Cal on Saturday at least meant UVA’s latest close game was ultimately decided by two scores. Virginia’s past five games have been decided by 24 points.
I have also had a tumultuous relationship with Utah this season, which is my first as a voter after a long run on the side of running the Top 25 at the AP. I think I need to trust my instincts. I had Utah ranked in the preseason, but probably overreacted to both its early-season losses to Texas Tech and BYU and left the Utes off for several weeks.
Meanwhile, the computer ratings were signaling loud and clear that the Utes were good. After they throttled Cincinnati on Saturday night, I’m fully back in on Utah, placing it 17th on my ballot.
If anything, what I have learned this season is that many of the big moves we make early in the season, when people are demanding that you just rank results, turn out to be overreactions. (Shoutout to top-five LSU and Miami.)
And while preseason projections can most definitely lead you astray — hello, Penn State and Clemson — running away from them makes for worse evaluations in the first half of the season.
In and out
Houston’s surprising run to the Top 25 lasted one week. The Cougars (6-2) followed up a road victory against Arizona State by getting upset at home by West Virginia and fell out of the poll.
Moving into the rankings for the first time this season was Washington at No. 24. The Huskies (6-2) are ranked for the first time since reaching the national championship game after the 2023 season and finishing No. 2 behind Michigan.
Next week
Iowa is the first team out of the poll as it gets set to host No. 6 Oregon, and it’s just the third time out of 20 that both teams aren’t ranked for LSU vs. Alabama. There are, however, two matchups of Top 25 teams in Week 11:
No. 8 BYU at No. 9 Texas Tech. It’s the Cougars’ first trip to Lubbock since 1940. It’s also Texas Tech’s first top-10 matchup since 2008 and BYU’s first … ever.
No. 3 Texas A&M at No. 19 Missouri. The Aggies are 3-2 against the Tigers since both joined the SEC from the Big 12 in 2012.