The “Pony Express” is back!
Oregon held onto its No. 1 ranking Sunday in the latest edition of The Associated Press’s Top 25 college football poll, doing so unanimously for the first time. And what makes this spot even more critical for the Ducks is it will boost their stock for when the College Football Playoff selection committee drops their first rankings of the campaign Tuesday.
Georgia stayed at No. 2 while Ohio State, Miami and Texas were each bumped up one spot to No. 3, No. 4 and No. 5, respectively. Penn State, on the other hand, moved down to No. 6 after suffering defeat by the Buckeyes. (RELATED: Nick Saban Dressing Up As Penn State’s Nittany Lion Mascot Might Be The Best Thing You See Today)
In terms of notable movement, Indiana saw their ranking improve five spots in the latest poll, being placed at No. 8, the highest Hoosiers rank since being ranked seventh for the 2020 season.
The breakout team of the poll appears to be Southern Methodist University (SMU), with the Mustangs shooting up to No. 13 from No. 20 after clobbering Pittsburgh, 48-25. The seven-spot promotion is the biggest increase of the entire Top 25. On top of that, the No. 3 ranking is SMU’s highest since 1985, prior to the program being shut down in ’87 over the “death penalty.” The punishment came from violations that are pretty much legal in today’s NIL era, which explains why the Mustangs came back into relevance so quickly — that oil money is pumpin’!
Here is the Top 25 in its entirety:
POLL ALERT: Oregon, Georgia, Ohio State, Miami and Texas top AP Top 25 ahead of first CFP rankings, unbeaten Indiana into top 10.
Full poll: https://t.co/7dTTUiSC1j pic.twitter.com/PIeopaPWDg
— AP Top 25 (@AP_Top25) November 3, 2024
And, yes, I’m happy my Hurricanes are No. 4: no complaints from me this time.
This article was originally published at dailycaller.com
