Week 10 didn’t just shuffle the deck in the AP Top 25 - it cracked it open.
With six matchups involving teams in the first College Football Playoff rankings, the weekend offered a clean look at who belongs where in the sport’s crowded middle and who’s starting to separate from the pack. By the time the dust settled, Alabama had climbed, Ole Miss had tumbled, and a few teams in the middle of the poll had given enough evidence to hold their ground.
My AP Top 25 poll after Week 10
Georgia, 2. Utah, 3.
Notre Dame, 4. Alabama, 5.
Miami, 6. Texas, 7.
Tennessee, 8. UCLA, 9.
Indiana, 10. Texas Tech, 11.
BYU, 12. Wake Forest, 13.
Houston, 14. South Carolina, 15.
Ole Miss, 16. Kentucky, 17.
LSU, 18. Arizona, 19.
Oregon, 20. Iowa, 21.
Southern Cal, 22. Boise State, 23.
Louisville, 24. Missouri, 25.
Ohio State
Newcomers: Oregon and Louisville
The Holy War gave BYU a real shot to make a statement, even with Bear Bachmeier throwing four interceptions. The Cougars still lost by only eight on the road to the No. 2 team in my poll, and that mattered.
Utah earned the win, but BYU showed enough on the field to stay put. Later in the day, Notre Dame’s win over Miami gave the Cougars another boost to their résumé.
Utah, meanwhile, kept its spot at No. 2 by stacking another top-15 win and staying unbeaten. BYU may be out of the College Football Playoff picture now, but Saturday still showed it’s a good team.
Notre Dame’s win over Miami changed the shape of the top of the poll, but not enough to push the Irish all the way into the top two. The game came with home-field advantage for Notre Dame, and the temperature around kickoff was 40 degrees. Miami also played without star wide receiver Malachi Toney.
Even so, the Irish earned plenty of credit. A win over a legitimate top-five team was exactly what Marcus Freeman’s group needed after the BYU loss, which had already shaken confidence in the team’s quality. That doubt only deepened as BYU lost to UCF and then barely got past Arizona State last week.
Miami stayed at No. 5 for me because I still couldn’t get past the Hurricanes’ weak schedule to this point. But the second-half performance against Notre Dame showed they belong in the top five. Their win over Wake Forest by two scores in September also remains part of a résumé that doesn’t have many other standout victories.
The SEC delivered its own set of answers, starting with Alabama and LSU. LSU’s loss told the same story as a lot of the Tigers’ season: they’re not getting it done against quality opponents.
They’re 0-3 against ranked teams, and that’s a major problem in a league where so many contenders are stacking top-25 wins. LSU has handled weaker opponents and looks good in the numbers, but the Tigers keep coming up short when the competition rises.
Alabama, on the other hand, strengthened its case in a big way. The Crimson Tide are close to a playoff lock, and they can make a real argument for No.
- Their only losses have come against top-10 teams - Tennessee on the road and No.
1 Georgia - and they’ve now beaten three top-20 opponents, with Kentucky, South Carolina and LSU all falling to them, two of those wins coming away from home.
Notre Dame’s win over Miami and the overall way the Irish have played on both sides of the ball were enough to place them just ahead of Alabama in my rankings, though I wouldn’t be shocked if I look back on that choice in a month or two and wonder if I had it backwards.
Kentucky’s trip to Tennessee was never likely to go smoothly, even if I’ve been lower on the Wildcats than most. Their season has already been living on the edge. Two-point conversions had been the difference between one loss and three before this week, and when you combine that with an unconvincing win over Oklahoma and an SEC schedule that included Vanderbilt and Texas A&M, the record had been doing a little more talking than the team itself.
Still, I didn’t move Kentucky down after the 34-6 loss. Tennessee is excellent, especially at home, and I couldn’t justify putting Arizona or Oregon ahead of the Wildcats when Kentucky owns more top-20 wins - two - than those two teams combined. Arizona still hasn’t beaten a ranked opponent, and Oregon’s ranked wins come with a loss to Illinois and a near miss against Nebraska, which just fired offensive coordinator Dana Holgorsen.
Georgia’s 42-7 rout of Ole Miss didn’t leave much room for debate. The Bulldogs backed up the eye test on the scoreboard and now have a top-five win over Alabama, a dominant top-20 win over Ole Miss, and only one blemish that doesn’t fit the rest of the profile: the strange loss to Auburn, the same Auburn team that needed a field goal in the final minute to beat Arkansas this week.
Ole Miss took the biggest hit of the week, falling from No. 5 to No. 15.
Some will think that’s still too generous after such an ugly loss, but the Rebels have beaten LSU and Missouri, and they haven’t leaned on flimsy margins or luck to build their résumé. The SEC’s depth this season has been brutal, and that makes me more willing than ever to keep three-loss SEC teams in the teens this late in the year.
Ohio State also took a major step backward after losing to Oregon. The Buckeyes are out of the CFP race and nearly out of my poll as well. The defense has started to slip, and the offense hasn’t looked the same without quarterback Julian Sayin.
It’s tough to give Ohio State much credit for the wins over Iowa and Indiana because Sayin was healthy in those October games. What the Buckeyes look like now is much closer to the group that has dropped games to USC and Oregon over the last couple of weeks.
Louisville worked its way back into the rankings after a dominant win over Georgia Tech. The victory itself didn’t do much for the Cardinals, but the full body of work still fits inside the top 25. Their three losses have come by a combined nine points, including two against top-20 teams, and they also own a win over SMU, the last team out of the poll this week.
In Other News...
LSU Just Suffered Another Alabama Gut Punch At Home
Another Alabama visit to Tiger Stadium ended the same way LSU fans have seen far too often, with the Crimson Tide leaving Baton Rouge with control of the rivalry and the Tigers left to sort through the damage. Alabama won 31-13, extending its recent success in Death Valley and adding another frustrating chapter to a series that has tilted heavily in the Tides favor on LSUs home field.
The numbers told part of the story, since LSU actually outgained Alabama in total yards, but the Tigers could not turn that edge into points when it mattered. Missed fourth-down chances and a missed field goal left LSU empty on too many promising drives, and coach Lane Kiffin said the focus now has to shift to moving forward after a loss that felt all too familiar. [Read more 🡒]
LSU Could Get A Huge Boost For Alabama At The Perfect Time
LSU comes out of its bye week with a chance to reset for one of the biggest games on its calendar, and the timing could hardly be better. Tiger Stadium will host Alabama in a Week 10 SEC matchup, and the Tigers are expected to get tight end Trey'Dez Green back from injury just as the offense needs another reliable piece for a game with major playoff implications.
LSU's defense has built its reputation on getting after the quarterback, and that pass rush will be pointed at Alabama's Keelon Russell, who has already been sacked 22 times this season. With both teams coming in off a break and the stakes rising for their postseason hopes, the return of Green adds another layer to a matchup that could swing the direction of the SEC race. [Read more 🡒]
LSU Playoff Hopes Took A Brutal Hit For One Frustrating Reason
LSUs playoff path took a major blow in Saturdays loss to Alabama, a game that looked competitive in stretches but ended with the Tigers on the wrong side of a 31-13 final. The frustration was obvious because the offense actually moved the ball well, piling up more than 450 yards and controlling time of possession, yet the production never translated into the kind of points that keep a postseason case alive.
The problem came in the red zone, where LSU kept leaving points behind with missed field goals and turnovers, while Alabama made the most of its chances. Keelon Russell was efficient for the Crimson Tide, going 17 of 24 for 206 yards and three touchdowns, and LSU never found enough balance on the ground to keep pressure off its offense. For a team trying to stay in the playoff conversation, it was the kind of loss that stings twice: once on the scoreboard, and again because the underlying numbers still left room for what could have been. [Read more 🡒]