Following another impressive win against Ole Miss, the Alabama Crimson Tide has been voted as a unanimous No. 1 in the latest Associated Press college poll released Monday.
Alabama has been ranked number one all year, but this is the first time the team received all 60 first place votes in the poll. The team beat Ole Miss 33-14 for to improve to 2-0 in the Southeastern Conference.
The team trailed for a small amount of time, down 7-6 in the first half, but was able to pull it together to rout the Rebels.
"It was a hard-fought win for us," Alabama coach Nick Saban said to the Associated Press. "I think people probably don't give Ole Miss enough credit. They played hard. They were physical. Their offense is difficult to defend."
After landing at No. 2 two weeks ago, the LSU Tigers fell again this week to No. 4 after a close win against the Towson Tigers 38-22 at home.
LSU had a sloppy day, turning over the ball three times and only converting five of 12 third down conversions. The Tigers are still undefeated at 5-0, but have had two close wins in the past two weeks, including a 12-10 win on Sept. 22 against Auburn.
"If we don't turn the ball over or throw the ball on the ground and we protect our quarterback ... this thing looks like it's supposed to," head coach Les Miles said. "I must not well have prepared them."
The Oregon Ducks maintained their No. 2 ranking after a big win over Washington State 51-26. The team rushed for a total of 300 yards, including 195 from Kenjon Barner, who also had three touchdowns. Oregon is one of the most explosive teams in the country and currently ranks fourth in scoring and sixth in rushing.
Florida State took advantage of LSU's weak win to take the No. 3 spot in the poll. The Seminoles defeated South Florida on the road 30-17 behind quarterback EJ Manuel, who threw for 242 yards and a touchdown.
Georgia sits at No. 5, while South Carolina is right behind at No. 6. The two teams will play this week, guaranteeing that at least one will fall out of the top-10 in next week's rankings.
Stanford, who was ranked No. 8 last week, was the only team in the top-10 to lose after falling 17-13 to Washington in Seattle. The team fell to No. 18 for the biggest drop of the weekend.
Florida sits at No. 10 and will face No. 4 LSU on Saturday. The Gators had a bye this week and moved up one spot from the last ranking.
West Virginia continued to move up in the polls, rising to No. 8 after defeating No. 25 Baylor in a wild game 70-63. Quarterback Geno Smith had nearly 700 yards passing and threw for eight touchdowns.
"Statistically, it's my best game ever," Smith said. "But I think it's more about the team, and I think it just lets us know that we're going to have to battle it out every week against some really tough teams in the Big 12.
The teams combined for 133 points and over 1,500 yards of offense.
Washington entered the rankings at No. 23 after defeating Stanford and Northwestern came in at No. 24 after improving to 5-0 by winning 44-29 against Indiana. According to ESPN, it's the first time Northwestern has been ranked since 2008.
Teams that fell out of the rankings after losses include Boise State, Michigan State and Baylor.
Next week's slate of games features a range of matchups and conference battles, including No. 4 LSU visiting No. 10 Florida at the Swamp, No. 5 Georgia visiting No. 6 South Carolina and No. 8 West Virginia taking on No. 11 Texas.
No. 2 Oregon will host the 3-1 Washington Huskies on Saturday night and No. 9 Notre Dame will host historical rival Miami in Chicago. Other notable matchups include No. 12 Ohio State and No. 21 Nebraska as well as No. 15 TCU taking on Iowa State.
The games could shake up the top-10 rankings apart from Alabama, who has a bye week and should remain number one.
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