Historic College Football Powerhouse Plummets in New AP Top 25 Rankings

The 2026 college football season has been ripe with upsets and chaos that has rearranged the AP top 25 rankings and thrown some confusion into the conversation of who belongs, and who doesn’t belong, in the playoff field.

This past Saturday may have produced one of the most consequential changes among the short list of teams that were thought to be national championship material.

A blue-blood program that debuted as the preseason No. 1 team and came into the weekend among the title favorites suddenly finds itself outside the top 10 for the first time in years.

A Costly Quarterback Transition

Historic College Football Powerhouse Plummets in New AP Top 25 Rankings — USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect

So long, Ohio State? After dropping a surprise 30-18 decision at unranked USC over the weekend, the Buckeyes fell from the commanding No. 2 ranking all the way to No. 11.

That was good for the single-largest drop of any team in the AP rankings this week, plummeting nine spots. What’s worse is that the fall stemmed from an issue that this team almost certainly isn’t fixing from one week to the next.

True freshman Luke Fahey was expected to make some mistakes filling in for the injured Heisman hopeful quarterback Julian Sayin, and he certainly did. Mistimed passes, getting flushed from the pocket, ill-advised short runs. You name it, Fahey did it.

The Buckeyes never led and struggled to sustain consistent drives against a Trojans defense that forced them into field goals. The inexperience under center, combined with 11 penalties and early defensive breakdowns, proved decisive in USC’s favor.

Playoff Margin Shrinks Ahead of Oregon

The consequences arrive immediately. Ohio State hosts Oregon this coming Saturday in a game that now carries far greater urgency.

Oregon’s own season had spiraled out of control, losing three games heading into last weekend, but it pulled out a spirited comeback to beat ranked Northwestern at home. That suddenly gives the reeling Ducks some confidence going into Columbus.

A second straight loss and a third L on the year would drop the Buckeyes even further in the rankings and leave them with basically no margin for error in the College Football Playoff race.

At 6-2 with a young quarterback still finding his footing, every remaining November contest has become must-win territory if Ohio State hopes to reclaim respect in the selection committee room.

Injuries to key players are taken into consideration by the College Football Playoff selectors, especially those that have a direct effect on a team’s performance.

Biggest Riser and Broader Poll Shake-Up

Concurrent with the Buckeyes seeing the biggest drop of the week, the other team on that field saw the biggest positive movement.

USC went from being unranked in the poll to improving 13 spots to the No. 18 position entering November, giving a huge shot in the arm to Lincoln Riley’s embattled tenure.

Missouri also climbed four places to No. 19, the biggest upward move among already ranked teams. UCLA also surged into the top-five for the first time in a quarter century.

Miami remained No. 1, followed by Georgia, Utah, Notre Dame, and UCLA.

A Narrow Path Forward

Ohio State still controls its destiny to a degree, but the path has narrowed sharply.

The combination of an inexperienced quarterback, a tough remaining schedule, and a sudden rankings freefall has transformed what once looked like a smooth march toward the playoff into a high-stakes recovery mission.

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