At the top of the AP Top 25, the picture is still more art than science. Texas sat out and should keep No. 1, but the real argument starts just below the Longhorns, where Alabama and Georgia are separated less by certainty than by the mood of the voters.
Alabama’s push for No. 2 is built on résumé, and the latest road win only strengthens it. The Tide went into No.
16 Mississippi State and handled business 56-23, and with Kentucky now in the rankings, Alabama also owns a second road win over a ranked opponent after beating the Wildcats 45-17 in Week Two. Georgia, by contrast, still hasn’t faced a ranked team, and its 38-14 home win over Vanderbilt does not carry the same weight as Alabama’s work away from home.
That said, Georgia gets the chance to settle the argument directly. The Bulldogs travel to Alabama for a 7:30 p.m. kickoff Saturday, with ranking supremacy on the line for now.
Miami kept rolling with a 41-13 win at Clemson, a game the Tigers treated like a stand to protect home pride. Ohio State also strengthened its case as the best one-loss team in the country, winning 31-14 at No.
14 Iowa. The Buckeyes’ only loss remains that 24-23 road defeat at No.
1 Texas in Week Two.
Notre Dame is likely headed down after having more trouble than a top-five team should before finishing off North Carolina, 37-26. Indiana stayed unbeaten at 5-0 by going on the road and beating Rutgers 47-15, a cleaner result than the Hoosiers’ narrow escape against Northwestern a week earlier.
Then there’s the mess in the middle of the SEC, where one-loss teams Ole Miss, LSU, Missouri, Florida and Mississippi State are all tangled together. Missouri’s 45-17 rout of No. 8 Florida blew up the usual chain of logic: Missouri beat Florida, Florida beat Ole Miss, Ole Miss beat LSU, but Missouri also lost to Mississippi State, and Mississippi State got thumped at home by Alabama.
At this point, the top of the poll is a beauty contest. The AP voters will sort through the arguments on Sunday, and plenty of teams have a case to be higher or lower.
The College Football Playoff Selection Committee, meanwhile, gets four more weeks of evidence before unveiling its first rankings on Nov. 3.
Here’s how Mike Griffith plans to vote, with late games still pending, and how he thinks the AP Top 25 should look:
- Texas (5-0) - Was idle
- Alabama (5-0) - Won at No. 16 Mississippi State, 56-23
- Georgia (5-0) - Beat Vanderbilt, 38-14
- Miami (5-0) - Won at Clemson, 41-13
- Ohio State (4-1) - Won at No. 14 Iowa, 31-14
- Notre Dame (5-0) - Won at North Carolina, 37-26
- Indiana (5-0) - Won at Rutgers, 47-15
- LSU (4-1) - Beat McNeese, 63-14
- Tennessee (4-1) - Beat Auburn, 24-14
- Utah (4-0) - Was idle
- Ole Miss (3-1) - Was idle
- Oregon (3-1) - Was idle
- Texas Tech (5-0) - Won at Colorado, 29-7
- Missouri (4-1) - Beat No. 8 Florida, 45-17
- Florida (4-1) - Lost at No. 25 Missouri, 45-17
- BYU (4-0) - Won at TCU, 17-10
- Boise State (4-1) - Beat Utah State, 37-18
- Mississippi State (4-1) - Lost to No. 7 Alabama, 56-23
- USC (5-1) - Beat Washington, 25-21
- Pitt (5-0) - Won at Virginia Tech, 35-33 (Friday)
- Houston (4-1) - Beat UCF, 27-17
- UCLA (4-0) - Was idle
- Iowa (4-1) - Lost to No. 5 Ohio State, 31-14
- Kentucky (4-1) - Won at South Carolina, 35-34
- SMU (4-1) - Beat Boston College, 25-16
In Other News...
Kirby Smart Seemed To Send A Message In Georgias Vanderbilt Win
Jared Curtis did not suit up in Vanderbilts recent meeting with Georgia after the quarterback, who had flipped his commitment from the Bulldogs to the Commodores last year, was injured. Georgia handled the game the way a team trying to stay in the thick of the national title race needed to, while Vanderbilt came away with its season outlook looking far less secure than the one in Athens.
Afterward, Curtis made his way toward Kirby Smart, setting up a moment that drew attention for what happened as much as what did not. Smarts body language suggested he was not eager to linger, and the interaction felt like the sort of understated sideline scene that can say plenty without anyone having to say much at all. [Read more 🡒]
Georgia Left Vanderbilt With Two Concerns Alabama Will Test
Georgia left Nashville with a win and a cleaner record, but not a clean bill of health on the details that usually travel with them into bigger games. The Bulldogs beat Vanderbilt 38-14 to move to 5-0, and Carson Beck turned in another efficient day by completing 25 of 32 passes for 295 yards and three touchdowns. Even so, the outing had the kind of uneven stretches Georgia cannot ignore when the schedule sharpens, especially with the ground game not finding much rhythm.
The defense also had its lapses, most notably on third downs, and Alabama is the sort of opponent that tends to expose those cracks quickly. Georgia did settle in after halftime and looked more like itself down the stretch, but next weekend brings a far sterner test of whether those second-half corrections can carry over. For a team that has mostly handled business through September, the trip to face Alabama now feels less like a checkpoint and more like a revealing exam. [Read more 🡒]
Kirby Smart Is Already Pressing Georgia On One Concern Before Alabama
Vanderbilt kept things interesting for a half before Georgia pulled away for a 38-14 win, scoring the final 17 points to close it out. Clark Lea had reasons to point to some progress on the Commodores side, especially in protection and the run game, while Kirby Smart came away talking about the kind of things he likes to see from his own team this time of year: conditioning, execution and the steadier finish that can matter when the schedule tightens.
Smarts focus now turns quickly to Alabama, and it sounds like he is already sharpening one concern before that matchup arrives. Even after a comfortable win, Georgia is still looking to clean up areas that can become costly against a better opponent, and Smart did not hide that there is more work to do before the next test. [Read more 🡒]