BYU, Texas A&M move up in AP Top 25 after respective wins over Arizona, ASU

The Arizona Wildcats and Arizona State Sun Devils missed out on potential upsets over ranked teams on Saturday, and the winning teams stepped up in The Associated Press Top 25 college football poll as a result.

BYU, which knocked off Arizona 28-17, moved up four spots to No. 11 to be the highest-ranked Big 12 team (Texas Tech remained at No. 13).

Texas A&M, which beat ASU 48-20 after nabbing three takeaways in consecutive fourth-quarter possessions, hopped up one spot to No. 9.

AP Top 25 gets a new team at the top

The unprecedented comeback by Texas to knock off Ohio State moved the Longhorns to No. 1 and pushed the Buckeyes out of the top five for the first time in two seasons.

Oregon, meanwhile, plummeted 15 spots to No. 21, its lowest ranking in four years, after its 39-31 road loss to an Oklahoma State team that had lost 21 straight against Football Bowl Subdivision opponents.

Michigan, which fell out of the Top 25 after needing an extra second and second-chance Hail Mary try to beat Western Michigan a week ago, returned to the poll at No. 19 following its 17-10 win over No. 11 Oklahoma. The Sooners dropped 13 spots to No. 24.

Texas’ comeback from 20 points down in the fourth quarter to win 24-23 was the largest fourth-quarter rally ever for a win against an AP No. 1 team, according to Sportradar, and avenged a season-opening loss to the Buckeyes a year ago that knocked the Longhorns out of the No. 1 spot.

Texas received 56 first-place votes from the voting panel of writers and broadcasters and holds down the No. 1 spot in the regular season for the first time since Oct. 13, 2024.

No. 2 Georgia and No. 3 Notre Dame held their places, Indiana moved up one spot to No. 4 and Miami was bumped up two to No. 5. Ohio State, LSU, Mississippi, Texas A&M and Alabama rounded out the top 10.

Five teams besides Texas received at least one first-place vote. Miami got four, Georgia and Indiana three apiece and Notre Dame and LSU one each.

Ohio State had been No. 1 in 17 of the previous 20 polls since winning the 2024 national championship. The Buckeyes held the top spot in every regular-season poll last year, slipping to No. 3 after losing to Indiana in the Big Ten championship game and ending at No. 5.

They were back to No. 1 in the preseason poll and stayed there until the loss at Texas dropped them to lowest ranking since they were No. 6 entering the 2024 College Football Playoff. Ohio State is 1-3 in its last four games, though each loss came to a top 10 team.

Oregon’s fall is the biggest surprise of the season to date. The Ducks came in with a cast of returning stars and a transfer class that raised the program’s hopes of winning its first national championship. But they struggled to beat Boise State at home in the opener and then allowed 554 yards and generated just 281 in their first loss to an unranked opponent since 2021.

The Southeastern Conference has nine ranked teams, including the top two and six of the top 10, and the Big Ten has seven. The Big 12 and Atlantic Coast conferences have four each.

Full AP Top 25

Others receiving votes: Washington 172, Florida 83, Boise State 57, Oklahoma State 36, Western Michigan 35, Tulsa 18, Mississippi State 17, South Carolina 15, Virginia Tech 11, UCLA 9, James Madison 6, Arizona 5, North Dakota State 3, Pitt 1, Kansas State 1

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