AP top 25 poll: Three most underrated teams in Week 10

There was very little shake-up in the top 10 of the new AP poll this week, with the top six spots remaining unchanged, Ole Miss and Georgia Tech swapping places at 7-8, Vanderbilt and Miami doing the same at 9-10, and BYU tying for 10th in voting.

The bottom of the top 25 was more chaotic and where we have the most critiques this week.

These are the most underrated teams in the AP top 25 poll for Week 10.

Cincinnati

The Bearcats moved up four spots to No. 17 after a 41-20 win over Baylor to improve to 7-1, but that's not high enough.

Cincinnati has as much momentum as any team in the country with seven straight wins, and unlike its run to the College Football Playoff in 2021, it's now doing it as a Power Four program in the Big 12.

Since a season-opening 20-17 loss to Nebraska, the Bearcats have really only played one close game (a 37-34 win at Kansas) while looking pretty dominant most other weeks. They have notable wins over Iowa State (which was unbeaten and ranked at the time) and Baylor, though the lack of a true signature win may be what is holding Cincinnati back in the rankings.

Really, though, the case could be made that the Bearcats should be ranked ahead of No. 15 Virginia, which is tricky because Virginia can't be behind No. 16 Louisville after beating it head-to-head and each having only one loss, and Louisville probably deserves to be ahead of Cincinnati.

Leaving that aside and looking strictly at the two teams, Virginia's early win over Florida State doesn't quite resonate as much now that the Seminoles have a losing record. For that matter, Louisville is the only power conference team with a winning record that the Cavaliers have beaten. And they only narrowly got past mediocre Washington State (22-20) and hapless North Carolina (17-16 in overtime) the last two weeks.

Cincinnati could also be ranked higher than No. 14 Tennessee, which has two losses and no notable wins -- Mississippi State, Arkansas, and Kentucky are a combined 0-13 in SEC play, non-conference foe Syracuse has a losing record, and East Tennessee State and UAB round out the list. The most compelling things the Vols have done all season were take Georgia to overtime in a loss.

Cincinnati still has to play No. 24 Utah this week and No. 10 BYU later in November, so it will have its chances to prove if it's better than the No. 17 team in the country. But with a standout junior quarterback in Brendan Sorsby (1,843 passing yards, 20 TDs, 1 INT; 425 rushing yards and 7 TDs), the Bearcats may be the biggest threat to Texas Tech in the Big 12.

Vanderbilt

The best story in college football (along with Georgia Tech), Vanderbilt moved up one spot to No. 9 after its 17-10 win over then-No. 15 Missouri. That's two straight ranked wins (LSU last week) for the Commodores and three top-25 wins overall this season (South Carolina was No. 11 when the teams played in Week 3.

This is Vandy's highest ranking since 1937, but the case can be made it should be one spot higher, over those aforementioned Yellow Jackets.

Georgia Tech is 8-0 and having a historic season in its own right, but that didn't keep it from being ranked behind four one-loss teams (Alabama, Georgia, Oregon and Ole Miss) for the same reason it should also be behind Vanderbilt.

The Yellow Jackets' best wins are over 3-4 Clemson and 4-3 Duke. That's not to take anything away from how good this Georgia Tech team is, led by dynamic dual-threat QB Haynes King.

But Vanderbilt has knocked off LSU and Missouri in consecutive weeks and took its lone loss on the road at Alabama, which is now No. 4 in the rankings.

We're picking nits here, sure, but that's the whole point after all.

Memphis

The Tigers are back in the rankings at No. 25 after a come-from-behind 34-31 win over then-No. 18 South Florida.

Memphis is 7-1, and while its lone loss at UAB was a bad one, it was a 31-24 game during which the Tigers lost starting quarterback Brendon Lewis to injury.

They showed how much of a difference Lewis makes Saturday as he passed for 307 yards and 2 TDs in the win over South Florida -- a team that had beaten Boise State and Florida when both were ranked early in the season and blown out every other opponent, including a 63-36 road win over North Texas, which is now 7-1.

Memphis moved into the driver's seat for a potential CFP berth if it can finish strong and win the AAC championship game. The Tigers also have a notable non-conference win over SEC foe Arkansas.

A reasonable case can be made to slot the Tigers ahead of No. 22 Houston, No. 23 USC and No. 24 Utah.

Houston is 7-1 as well, and its only notable win came this week against Arizona State, as the Cougars jumped into the rankings for the first time all season. Their loss came by 24 points to Texas Tech.

USC has lopsided win over Michigan to its credit, but it lost to Notre Dame and Illinois.

And Utah is 6-2 with losses to Texas Tech and BYU in its biggest games. Its only notable win came against Arizona State when the Sun Devils were without starting quarterback Sam Leavitt.