Skip to main content

College football rankings: USC moves up to No. 8 in AP Top 25 Poll

The Trojans move up one spot after improving to 8-1

USC was frustrated with its defensive performance in Saturday's 41-35 win over Cal - but the college football poll voters didn't seem to notice.

The Trojans moved up to No. 8 in the country in the latest AP Top 25 Poll, released Sunday.

USC racked up over 500 yards of offense against Cal, and Caleb Williams accounted for five touchdowns. But the Trojans were gashed by the Bears, especially through the air. Cal quarterback Jack Plummer passed for 406 yards and three touchdowns.

“We're 10 weeks into the season, which you know, as soon as I say that, I want to vomit. Some of the issues … I don’t know if some of these things we can fix in 48 hours, 72 hours,” USC defensive coordinator Alex Grinch said. “You know we had 11 months to do a lot of things around here, and we've got five days to get it right for next week, so we all have a sense of urgency in everything we do.”

The Pac-12 still has three teams ranked in the top 10, with Oregon moving up two spots to No. 6 and UCLA moving up one spot to No. 9. Utah dropped one spot to No. 13 and Washington moved into the rankings at No. 24.

Here's the complete AP Top 25 Poll, with first-place votes in parentheses:

AP Top 25 poll

Nov. 6, 2022

  1. Georgia (62)
  2. Ohio State (1)
  3. Michigan
  4. TCU
  5. Tennessee
  6. Oregon
  7. LSU
  8. USC
  9. UCLA
  10. Alabama
  11. Ole Miss
  12. Clemson
  13. Utah
  14. Penn State
  15. North Carolina
  16. Tulane
  17. NC State
  18. Texas
  19. Liberty
  20. Notre Dame
  21. Illinois
  22. UCF
  23. Kansas State
  24. Washington
  25. Florida State

Others receiving votes: Cincinnati (74), Kentucky (61), Coastal Carolina (46), Wake Forest (34), Oklahoma State (21), Baylor (19), Kansas (10), Mississippi State (8), South Carolina (6), Troy (5), UTSA (5), Louisville (3), Oregon State (3), San Jose State (1),