{"id":398583,"date":"2025-11-23T06:43:15","date_gmt":"2025-11-23T06:43:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/398583\/"},"modified":"2025-11-23T06:43:15","modified_gmt":"2025-11-23T06:43:15","slug":"what-to-expect-in-the-ap-top-25-college-football-poll","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/398583\/","title":{"rendered":"What to expect in the AP Top 25 college football poll"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Eight of the top 10 teams in <a class=\"Link AnClick-LinkEnhancement\" data-gtm-enhancement-style=\"LinkEnhancementA\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/ap-top-25-college-football-poll\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">the AP Top 25 poll<\/a> either had the day off or were given the gift of a late-season cupcake game in Week 13. No. 6 Oregon and No. 8 Oklahoma were exceptions, with ranked conference matchups against Southern California and Missouri.<\/p>\n<p>The Ducks and Sooners both maintained positioning for at-large College Football Playoff bids. Oregon beat No. 16 USC 42-27 in the teams\u2019 first meeting as members of the Big Ten. Oklahoma improved to 9-2 with a 17-6 win over No. 23 Missouri.<\/p>\n<p>Oregon is tied with Texas Tech at No. 6 in the AP poll and is No. 7 in the CFP rankings. Oklahoma ranks No. 8 in both.<\/p>\n<p>Chaos unfolded in the Atlantic Coast Conference as No. 15 Georgia Tech was upset at home by Pittsburgh on Saturday night. The Yellow Jackets\u2019 chances of making the conference championship plummeted, while SMU\u2019s odds increased with a win over Louisville. No. 19 Virginia also has a good chance to make the ACC title game. <\/p>\n<p>Holding steady<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 <a class=\"Link AnClick-LinkEnhancement\" data-gtm-enhancement-style=\"LinkEnhancementA\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/missouri-oklahoma-score-90069c3cae3c972cbd75ea7797ab08c3\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Oklahoma<\/a> took care of business, knocking off Missouri and inching closer to an at-large CFP bid. John Mateer threw for 173 yards and two touchdowns. Oklahoma\u2019s defense had two interceptions of Missouri\u2019s Beau Pribula, who was playing for the first time since dislocating his ankle in late October, and held standout running back Ahmad Hardy to 57 rushing yards.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Among the Week 13 <a class=\"Link AnClick-LinkEnhancement\" data-gtm-enhancement-style=\"LinkEnhancementA\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/ncaa-sec-football-46e639312a184e2fed51f66ed5c04702\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">cupcakes<\/a>, No. 3 Texas A&amp;M defeated Samford <a class=\"Link AnClick-LinkEnhancement\" data-gtm-enhancement-style=\"LinkEnhancementA\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/texas-am-aggies-samford-score-55897ce1b7e58603c739fe4c09e277f0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">48-0<\/a> and No. 4 Georgia rolled past Charlotte <a class=\"Link AnClick-LinkEnhancement\" data-gtm-enhancement-style=\"LinkEnhancementA\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/charlotte-georgia-score-ce0e0c79d2802434f695a98b09064f73\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">35-3<\/a>. Both teams are still favorites for a first-round bye in the playoff, a position Georgia began occupying after last week\u2019s 35-10 rout of Texas.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 No. 1 Ohio State overcame a slow start and remained unbeaten with a <a class=\"Link AnClick-LinkEnhancement\" data-gtm-enhancement-style=\"LinkEnhancementA\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/rutgers-ohio-state-score-ed04979772016956a2832062f1450a07\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">42-9 victory<\/a> over Rutgers. The Buckeyes outscored the Scarlet Knights 28-6 in the second half.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Oregon <a class=\"Link AnClick-LinkEnhancement\" data-gtm-enhancement-style=\"LinkEnhancementA\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/usc-oregon-football-score-f3cc85d62b83e69589db4f7d504bd773\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">knocked off USC<\/a> 42-27. The Ducks pulled ahead with a pair of touchdowns before halftime and maintained their lead throughout the second half.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 No. 13 Utah narrowly dodged an upset loss to Kansas State, scoring two touchdowns in the final 2:47 to overcome a 47-37 deficit and sealing the deal with a late interception.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 No. 11 BYU beat Cincinnati 26-14 in the Big 12\u2019s game of the week. LJ Martin rushed for 222 yards and two touchdowns to carry the Cougars.<\/p>\n<p>Falling out of the picture<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 The slide continued for a Louisville team once thought to be on its way to the ACC championship game. The Cardinals lost their third straight, <a class=\"Link AnClick-LinkEnhancement\" data-gtm-enhancement-style=\"LinkEnhancementA\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/smu-louisville-score-jennings-ffa644cace148928e6fef8c111283e19\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">38-6<\/a> to an SMU team on the rise.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Missouri is at risk of falling out of the rankings after losing to Oklahoma, the Tigers\u2019 fourth defeat this season.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 USC\u2019s playoff chances plummeted after a loss to Oregon that was largely viewed as an elimination game. The <a class=\"Link AnClick-LinkEnhancement\" data-gtm-enhancement-style=\"LinkEnhancementA\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/big-ten-dddb955da5361f804be5ed68ea765af2\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Trojans<\/a> fell to 8-3 on the season and 6-2 in conference play.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 In a game where a win would\u2019ve clinched a spot in the ACC championship game, the worst-case scenario unfolded for Georgia Tech. The Yellow Jackets lost <a class=\"Link AnClick-LinkEnhancement\" data-gtm-enhancement-style=\"LinkEnhancementA\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/pittsburgh-georgia-tech-score-0cdf4d0fe35c300ff7dd5be880be3668\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">42-28<\/a> to Pitt.<\/p>\n<p>On the rise<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 No. 24 Tulane has three straight wins and a 9-2 record after beating Temple 37-13. Tulane is a strong contender for a CFP spot, earning the No. 12 seed in the most recent bracket as the highest-ranked Group of Five team.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 SMU\u2019s <a class=\"Link AnClick-LinkEnhancement\" data-gtm-enhancement-style=\"LinkEnhancementA\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/smu-louisville-score-jennings-ffa644cace148928e6fef8c111283e19\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">38-6 rout<\/a> of Louisville put the Mustangs one win away from their second ACC championship game appearance in two years.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Pitt\u2019s win against Georgia Tech strengthened its playoff chances, but a lot still needs to happen for the Panthers to make their first ACC title game since 2021. Pitt needs to beat Miami next week, along with a loss by either SMU or Virginia.<\/p>\n<p>___<\/p>\n<p>Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up <a class=\"Link AnClick-LinkEnhancement\" data-gtm-enhancement-style=\"LinkEnhancementA\" href=\"https:\/\/www.apnews.com\/newsletters\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">here<\/a> and <a class=\"Link AnClick-LinkEnhancement\" data-gtm-enhancement-style=\"LinkEnhancementA\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/ap-newsletters\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">here<\/a> (AP News mobile app). AP college football: <a class=\"Link AnClick-LinkEnhancement\" data-gtm-enhancement-style=\"LinkEnhancementA\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/ap-top-25-college-football-poll\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/ap-top-25-college-football-poll<\/a> and <a class=\"Link AnClick-LinkEnhancement\" data-gtm-enhancement-style=\"LinkEnhancementA\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/college-football\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/college-football<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Eight of the top 10 teams in the AP Top 25 poll either had the day off or&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":398584,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[1578,38058,1428,1369,1318,4353,23536,43111,48425,35607,8795,121349,8805,1317,1315,1316,5847,21286,212,9445,188842,188843,62,8799,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-398583","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-football","8":"tag-associated-press","9":"tag-atlantic-coast-conference","10":"tag-college-football","11":"tag-college-sports","12":"tag-football","13":"tag-georgia","14":"tag-georgia-tech-yellow-jackets","15":"tag-georgia-tech-yellow-jackets-football","16":"tag-john-mateer","17":"tag-kansas-state-wildcats","18":"tag-louisville-cardinals","19":"tag-missouri-state-bears","20":"tag-missouri-tigers","21":"tag-ncaa","22":"tag-ncaa-football","23":"tag-ncaafootball","24":"tag-oklahoma","25":"tag-oklahoma-sooners","26":"tag-oregon","27":"tag-oregon-ducks","28":"tag-southern-methodist-mustangs","29":"tag-southern-methodist-mustangs-football","30":"tag-sports","31":"tag-texas-tech-red-raiders","32":"tag-united-states","33":"tag-unitedstates","34":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/398583","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=398583"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/398583\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/398584"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=398583"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=398583"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=398583"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}