AP Top 25: Ohio State extends No. 1 streak as Indiana stays ahead of Texas A&M

Ohio State ran its streak at No. 1 in the AP Top 25 to 11 straight weeks on Sunday, the second longest single-season run atop the college football poll in program history.

The Buckeyes (9-0) received 55 first-place votes to comfortably remain No. 1 after easily beating Purdue on Saturday. Big Ten rival Indiana stayed No. 2 and got six first-place votes after needing a two-minute drill scoring drive — and a gravity-defying touchdown catch — to avoid being upset at Penn State.

The entire top five was unchanged this week, after No. 3 Texas A&M, No. 4 Alabama and No. 5 Georgia all won by double digits. The Aggies received four first-place votes.

Ole Miss moved up a spot to No. 6, flip-flopping with No. 7 Oregon after the Ducks also needed a late scoring drive to win at Iowa on a field goal in the closing seconds.

No. 8 Texas Tech moved up a spot after beating BYU 29-7 in a top-10 matchup in the Big 12 on Saturday. The Cougars dropped four spots to No. 12 after suffering their first loss of the season.

No. 9 Notre Dame and Texas rounded out the top 10.

Defending national champion Ohio State is now up to 117 appearances all-time as No. 1, second only to Alabama’s 141. Oklahoma is third at 101.

The Buckeyes started this season ranked No. 3, beat preseason No. 1 Texas in its opener and have not been seriously challenged for the top spot since. The only season the Buckeyes spent more time as No. 1 was 2006, when they went 15 weeks, starting in the preseason and ending with a loss in the BCS national title game to Florida.

The second 10 had far more movement this week, after the two highest-ranked ACC teams were upset at home. Virginia’s first conference loss against Wake Forest dropped the Cavaliers eight spots from 12th to 20th. Louisville lost in overtime to Cal, sending the Cardinals from 14th to 19th.

Others receiving votes: Tulane 83, Missouri 59, North Texas 55, Iowa 54, Houston 43, SMU 8, Arizona State 7, San Diego State 5, Illinois 5, UNLV 2, Memphis 1

Also considered by Ralph: Tennessee, Illinois, Nebraska, Tulane, North Texas, Memphis, Houston

How I voted

This week’s ballot seemed to be one of the easier ones of the season, in large part because the top-ranked teams took care of business — though with varying degrees of difficulty. That means you, Indiana and Oregon.

Still, the answers to most of the questions are fairly self-explanatory at this point. The top three are clear in whatever order you like. I still have Texas A&M ahead of IU.

Then there are numbers four through eight, which again I would not quibble with in any particular order. The head-to-head results on the field between Alabama, Georgia and Ole Miss speak for themselves, though I moved Texas Tech and Oregon past the Rebels this week — unlike my fellow voters.

The next batch, nine through 15, continues to be tricky because of the opening-weekend result of the Notre Dame-Miami game. I’m still ranking Miami ahead of Notre Dame, which puts the Hurricanes — losers of two of their past four games — at No. 9.

I guess I could move both Miami and Notre Dame down behind Texas, Vanderbilt and Oklahoma. Again, the results on the field do a nice job of helping me sort through that threesome.

The problem is: I think Notre Dame is better than those teams. Of course, it’s close. If you want to shuffle the order, that’s fine. I’m sticking with my unconventional ballot.

With three weeks left in the season, I’ve resigned myself to the fact that it’ll work itself out on the field. Both Miami and Notre Dame have a streaking Pitt left on the schedule. That gives me hope either the consensus will come back to me or I’ll be more comfortable moving toward the consensus based on results.

Pat Forde of Sports Illustrated suggested on X Saturday night that the Top 25 be cut down to 20, and maybe he had a point.  It’s not so much that there aren’t teams deserving of those spots. More so, there are about a dozen teams that could reasonably slot into the bottom five.

I finally ranked Pitt after the Panthers just missed the cut last week. I also decided the time was right to rank James Madison. The Dukes (8-1) have no signature wins, but they are dominating the Sun Belt and we’re definitely at the point in the season when I’d rather reward a team like that than another P4 squad that has three losses.

In and out

Washington lasted a week in the rankings before getting upset at Wisconsin in the cold, rain and snow. You’d think Huskies would acclimate better to those conditions.

Memphis dropped out after losing at home to Tulane to make the American Conference race even more cluttered.

Missouri also tumbled out of the rankings after getting dominated at home by Texas A&M. The Tigers look like a very different team with freshman quarterback Matt Zollers now starting.

Moving in were No. 23 Pitt and No. 24 James Madison, each for the first time this season, and No. 25 USF is back in the poll.

Next week

No. 9 Notre Dame at No. 23 Pitt. This will be the 10th ranked matchup between the Irish and Panthers, but the first since 1991. Notre Dame is 6-3 in those games, dating back to 1936.

No. 11 Oklahoma at No. 4 Alabama. It’s only their eighth meeting all-time, and the first in the regular season with both teams ranked.

No. 10 Texas at No. 5 Georgia. The Bulldogs welcomed the Longhorns to the SEC last year with two losses, one in the regular season in Austin and the other in the conference title game.