Alabama moves to No. 4 in AP poll; Mississippi State still No. 1

Alabama moved to No. 4 after its rout of Texas A&M in the latest Associated Press poll released on Sunday. Mississippi State, meanwhile, remains No. 1 as four

Alabama moved to No. 4 after its rout of Texas A&M in the latest Associated Press poll released on Sunday. Mississippi State, meanwhile, remains No. 1 as four SEC West teams make up the AP's top five.

The latest AP poll is as follows:

1. Mississippi State (43)

2. Florida State (14)

3. Ole Miss (3)

4. Alabama

5. Auburn

6. Oregon

7. Notre Dame

8. Michigan State

9. Georgia

10. TCU

11. Kansas State

12. Baylor

13. Ohio State

14. Arizona State

15. Arizona

16. Nebraska

17. Oklahoma

18. East Carolina

19. Utah

20. USC

21. Clemson

22. West Virginia

23. Marshall

24. LSU

25. UCLA

Here are three thoughts on the latest poll:

• The SEC became the first conference to place four teams in the AP's top five in the poll's history. Mississippi State (No. 1), Ole Miss (No. 3), Alabama (No. 4) and Auburn (No. 5) joined ACC power Florida State (No. 2) among the AP's top five teams. Perhaps even more impressively, all four of those SEC teams hail from the SEC West. The latest rankings set up an epic day of college football on Nov. 29, the final Saturday of the regular season. That's when Auburn travels to Alabama and Mississippi State visits Ole Miss.

• Baylor plummeted from No. 4 to No. 12 after its 41-27 loss at West Virginia. Suddenly TCU (No. 9) is the Big 12's highest-ranked team, even though the Bears beat the Horned Frogs two weeks ago.

• Speaking of West Virginia, the Mountaineers climbed into the AP poll at No. 22. Coach Dana Holgorsen's crew surpassed its win total from last season with win number six on Saturday, the program's first victory over at top-five team since beating No. 3 Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl following the 2007 season.