AP top 25 poll: Texas is back, Sooners sink in Week 8 college football rankings

There were some notable updates to the AP top 25 college football rankings coming out of an Upset Saturday that saw plenty of rethinking around the 10 best teams in the country.

Where things stand in the new AP top 25 college football rankings coming out of a big Saturday and looking ahead to Week 8. | Jerome Miron-Imagn Images

Let’s take a look at the updated AP top 25 college football rankings coming out of an active and consequential Saturday and looking ahead to the Week 8 games.

Eight ranked teams lost over the weekend, including a pair of top 10 blue bloods in consequential upsets that forced AP top 25 voters to rethink some things at the top of the poll.

Ohio State predictably kept its position at No. 1 this week, and regained eight of the first-place votes it lost a week ago, although Indiana came away with three of those votes after its big win at Oregon.

That was enough to move the Hoosiers into the No. 3 position formerly occupied by the Ducks, and cements them as a legitimate College Football Playoff contender again entering the second half of the season.

Texas re-entered the top 25 this week following its marquee victory against Oklahoma after AP voters dumped the Longhorns following their loss at Florida a week ago, and the Sooners were among those teams that dropped the most places after their first loss of the year.

Four other previously unranked teams took advantage of the chaos this week: Nebraska, Cincinnati, Utah, and USC also earned enough votes to overcome the Week 7 losers and break into the poll.

Where do things stand in the updated AP top 25 college football rankings as we look ahead to an active slate of Week 8 games?

Let’s take a look at the teams that moved up, slid down, and stayed put in this week, according to the AP voters.

AP top 25 college football rankings for Week 8

First-place votes in parentheses

1. Ohio State (50)
2. Miami (13)
3. Indiana (3)
4. Texas A&M
5. Ole Miss
6. Alabama
7. Texas Tech
8. Oregon
9. Georgia
10. LSU
11. Tennessee
12. Georgia Tech
13. Notre Dame
14. Oklahoma
15. BYU
16. Missouri
17. Vanderbilt
18. Virginia
19. USF
20. USC
21. Texas
22. Memphis
23. Utah
24. Cincinnati
25. Nebraska

How did we do? Our prediction for the AP top 25 poll

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Other teams receiving votes

These teams received votes from AP pollsters, but not enough of them to qualify for the top 25 football rankings this week

Illinois 113, Michigan 73, Washington 36, UNLV 30, Navy 11, Mississippi State 8, Tulane 2, San Diego State 2.

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AP top 25 biggest movers

Indiana (Up 4). Predictably, the Hoosiers catapulted into the top-three of this week’s rankings on the back of a signature upset victory at Oregon, a place where no visitor had won since 2022, and proving definitively that this is a playoff-worthy football team.

Oregon (Down 5). A modest drop for the Ducks after the loss to the Hoosiers, and it’s gut-check time for an offense that failed to gel heading into the second half of the season with playoff selectors skeptical now of this team’s best win, amid Penn State’s collapse.

Texas (Was unranked). Arch Manning looked better and the Longhorns’ defense looked great in an emotional win over sixth-ranked Oklahoma that brings this preseason No. 1 team back into the rankings after AP voters dropped them entirely after last week’s loss to Florida.

Oklahoma (Down 8). A costly first defeat of the season for the Sooners, whose offense failed to generate much of anything in the Red River Shootout, a bad omen for the future as this team embarks on arguably college football’s toughest remaining schedule.

USC (Was unranked). Back in the rankings are the Trojans, coming off a big win over then-ranked Michigan and finally playing some consistent defense in the process, and at just the right time heading into a road date at Notre Dame this coming weekend.

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