Boise State didn’t move in the latest Associated Press Top 25, but the Broncos are still hanging around the edge of the national conversation.
After a 38-31 road win at Fresno State on Saturday night, Boise State held steady at No. 23 in the Week 6 poll. That came one week after the Broncos dipped a spot despite a 37-18 home win over Utah State on Oct. 3.
The margin in the AP voting was small but telling. Boise State picked up 268 points, three fewer than it had the previous week. That total placed the Broncos just behind LSU, which had 274 points, and well ahead of SMU at 142.
For now, Boise State remains the highest-ranked team from a Group of Six conference - the Pac-12, American, Mountain West, Sun Belt, Conference USA and Mid-American Conferences. Under the latest 12-team College Football Playoff qualification model, the highest-ranked G6 team in the CFP Committee’s rankings earns a guaranteed spot. Those committee rankings won’t start coming out until early November, but the AP poll still offers a clear snapshot of where Boise State stands.
The closest G6 challenger is James Madison. The Sun Belt program received 29 votes in the AP poll and would land at No. 31 if the rankings stretched beyond 25 teams.
Boise State also cracked the USA Today Coaches’ Poll for the first time this season. The Broncos came in at No. 24 with 205 points, sandwiched between Wake Forest at No. 23 with 229 points and Oregon at No. 25 with 200 points.
That Oregon result is worth watching from Boise State’s perspective. The Ducks beat the Broncos 34-27 in Week 1, but they have since dropped games to Oklahoma State and UCLA, and that slide appears to be part of the broader math around where Boise State sits in the polls.
James Madison is the nearest unranked G6 team in the Coaches’ Poll as well, with 33 points.
Georgia remained No. 1 in the AP poll, followed by Notre Dame, Miami, Ohio State and Indiana. Alabama, Texas, BYU, Ole Miss and Texas Tech rounded out the top 10.
The full AP Top 25 for Week 4, with point totals in parentheses, was: Georgia (1,745, 66 first-place votes), Notre Dame (1,630, 1 first-place vote), Miami (1,594, 2 first-place votes), Ohio State (1,508), Indiana (1,461, 1 first-place vote), Alabama (1,372), Texas (1,371), BYU (1,237), Ole Miss (1,135), Texas Tech (1,132), Utah (1,073), UCLA (951), Missouri (882), Tennessee (706), Kentucky (655), Mississippi State (650), Iowa (621), Oklahoma State (604), USC (505), Houston (380), Wake Forest (326), LSU (274), Boise State (268), SMU (142), Northwestern (112).
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