The week four AP poll has the top four teams holding steady. The main reason is that most of them either didn’t play good teams or didn’t play at all. The SEC still managed to hold onto five of the top six spots in the poll. Even with quarterback Quinn Ewers out, Texas cruised to an easy 51 to three win over UL Monroe. Arch Manning did enough in his first start to keep the Longhorns in the top spot for another week.
SEC Holds Steady in the AP Poll
The Georgia Bulldogs and the Alabama Crimson Tide are still the second and fourth-ranked teams respectively in the country after each team had a bye week. Ohio State, ranked third, also had a bye so no chance for Alabama to move up. Those rankings will most likely change as Alabama and Georgia square off this coming weekend (9/28) in Tuscaloosa in one of the biggest games of the year.
Last week, the Tennessee Volunteers ranked sixth going into the SEC game of the week against Oklahoma. They thumped the Sooners 25 to 15 with an impressive defensive performance in a game that didn’t even feel as close as the score. With the big win, Tennessee jumped from sixth to fifth in the AP rankings. Oklahoma’s loss caused them to have a pretty significant drop of six spots from 15th to 21st.
Ole Miss, ranking fifth last week, blew out Georgia State 52 to 13 to stay undefeated. Even with their domination, the Rebels actually dropped a spot in the rankings to 6th. Tennessee’s decisive win was more impressive allowing the leap. Ole Miss will have a chance to help its cause a little more this week (9/28) against Kentucky.
Missouri escaped last week with a double overtime win over Vanderbilt 30 to 27. The Tigers also held on for a close win with Boston College the week before. The heavily favored Tigers barely beating Vanderbilt hurt their place in the rankings falling from seventh to eleventh. Missouri has a bye week before a top-25 matchup the following week against Texas A&M.
LSU was tied with UCLA at halftime in a battle that was closer than most expected. Then the Tigers outscored the Bruins 17 to nothing in the second half to win the game 34 to 17. That moved LSU up in the rankings from 16th to 14th with a very winnable game against South Alabama on the docket this weekend.
Texas A&M snuck into the AP rankings last week at the 25th spot. They were able to squeak out a win against Bowling Green 26 to 20. Even though that’s not an incredibly impressive win, the Aggies still jumped up a spot to 24th. A&M faces Arkansas and then has that top-25 matchup against Missouri over the next two weeks, so the Aggies are about to get tested.
The SEC kept all of its college football leading nine teams in the top 25. Two other teams received votes this week but couldn’t crack the list. South Carolina got seven votes after destroying Akron 50 to seven. Arkansas got three votes with the 24 to 14 win over Auburn. There were still other teams that received votes ahead of them. The Gamecocks are technically ranked 34th and the Razorbacks come in at 36th.
