Where College Football Top 25 Rankings Stand Entering October

A month of football has finally provided enough evidence to separate August expectations from September results. These college football top 25 rankings show where the field stands entering October, based on who each team beat, where it won, and how it handled its toughest test.

The AP Top 25 released Sept. 27 kept Texas at No. 1 with 62 first-place votes, followed by Georgia and Notre Dame. Florida made the biggest move, climbing 13 spots to No. 8 after a 52-28 win over Ole Miss. It was the poll’s biggest one-week jump since LSU rose 14 places in 2018. The order starts with that national picture, then puts more weight on resume and head-to-head results.

The ranking weighs four things, roughly in this order.

• Wins over teams that are holding up now. A victory over a preseason darling carries less weight if that opponent has since fallen apart.
• Venue and difficulty. Surviving Neyland Stadium or Kroger Field carries more weight than a home rout of an overmatched opponent.
• Losses, judged by the opponent, the venue, and the margin.
• Head-to-head results, which settle a close call when two teams have comparable resumes.

Together, those factors produce the current order below, with each team’s AP ranking listed for comparison.

RV = receiving votes. Dropped from the AP Top 25: SMU (No. 21).

Texas Stays No. 1 as Georgia Builds Its Case

Texas keeps the top spot because its resume includes two wins over current AP top-20 teams. The Longhorns erased a 20-point fourth-quarter deficit to beat Ohio State 24-23 in Austin, then won 20-17 at Tennessee in their first road game. Ohio State is now No. 5 in the AP poll, while Tennessee is No. 17.

The offense still leaves room for doubt. Texas has scored 24, 30 and 20 points across its last three games, while Bill Connelly’s SP+ ratings grade the Longhorns’ offense 16th nationally. The defense supplied the answer in Knoxville, recording 10 sacks and holding Tennessee to 70 rushing yards on 44 carries.

Georgia has the stronger case on the eye test, and SP+ ranks the Bulldogs first nationally, 1.4 points ahead of Ohio State. Georgia beat Oklahoma 41-13 after forcing four turnovers and held the Sooners to 65 rushing yards on 35 carries. Oklahoma fell to 2-2, and Georgia’s next ranked opponent comes Oct. 10 at Alabama. For now, Texas’s two current top-20 wins are enough to keep the Longhorns first here.

Ohio State stays third because its only loss came by one point on the road against Texas. The Buckeyes led 23-3 entering the fourth quarter before missing a 45-yard field goal that could have restored a two-score lead. Speaking after the Sept. 12 loss in Austin, Ohio State coach Ryan Day said, “I felt, you know, we had them on the ropes and didn’t finish.” Three quarters of control against Texas still carries more weight here than several unbeaten resumes behind the Buckeyes.

Where These College Football Top 25 Rankings Differ From AP

Alabama climbs to No. 4 behind three Power 4 wins. The Crimson Tide trailed Kentucky 17-13 at halftime in Lexington, then scored 32 unanswered points after the break in a 45-17 win. Kentucky followed by winning 31-21 at Texas A&M and now sits at No. 24 in the AP poll. Alabama has since added a 50-36 win over Florida State and a 49-18 rout of South Carolina.

Mississippi State makes the biggest jump, moving from No. 16 in the AP poll to No. 7 here. Jeff Lebby’s team won 38-13 at Minnesota, beat South Carolina 41-34 on the road and then scored 14 unanswered fourth-quarter points to beat Missouri 31-24. Kamario Taylor threw for 360 yards and three touchdowns against the Tigers. The win also gave Mississippi State its first home victory in a Top 25 matchup since 2014.

Florida lands at No. 6, two spots above its AP ranking. The Gators ran for 302 yards against Ole Miss and have scored at least 40 points in each of their first four games for the first time since 2001. The defense has been easier to reach, allowing 67 points in SEC wins over Auburn and Ole Miss. Notre Dame stays one spot ahead because its 41-13 opening win over Wisconsin looks better after the Badgers rallied to win at Penn State.

The biggest gaps do not stop there.

• Kentucky rises five spots to No. 19. The Wildcats won 31-21 at Texas A&M one week after losing to Alabama.
• Miami falls four spots to No. 8. Darian Mensah has completed 94 of 106 passes for 1,211 yards, 14 touchdowns, and no interceptions, but Stanford, Florida A&M, Wake Forest, and Central Michigan are all outside the current AP Top 25.
• BYU drops four spots to No. 14. The Cougars are 3-0, but Utah Tech, Arizona and Colorado State are all outside the current AP Top 25.
• SMU drops out entirely. The Mustangs’ 41-31 loss at Louisville is harder to overlook now that Louisville has fallen out of the AP Top 25. Duke, 4-0 with a road win at Illinois, takes the final open spot.

Indiana slides to No. 9 for the same reason. The defending national champions opened against North Texas, Howard and Western Kentucky, then needed Lee Beebe Jr.’s 70-yard fourth-quarter run to hold off Northwestern 29-23 as a three-touchdown favorite. The schedule will test this placement quickly. Indiana hosts Ohio State on Oct. 17, while Miami visits Clemson this weekend. Until then, neither has a win strong enough to match the resumes above.

Head-to-Head Results Shape the Back Half

Oklahoma State sits at No. 16, one spot above Oregon, because the Cowboys beat the Ducks 39-31 in Stillwater as 23.5-point underdogs and outgained them 554-281. Oregon coach Dan Lanning did not soften it afterward. “The score was closer than it really was because it wasn’t close in a lot of ways,” Lanning said after the Sept. 12 loss. His own assessment makes the head-to-head result difficult to dismiss.

Oregon owns the stronger overall resume, with a home win over Boise State and a 41-27 win at USC. After Dante Moore left with a concussion in Los Angeles, Dylan Raiola kept the offense moving with 289 passing yards and two touchdowns. Oklahoma State’s 24-10 loss at Tulsa keeps the Cowboys from climbing higher, but their win over Oregon settles this comparison on the field.

The same rule puts Ole Miss at No. 10 and LSU at No. 11 because the Rebels beat the Tigers 32-24 in Oxford. LSU has been more convincing since, outgaining Texas A&M 506-197 in a 35-6 win, while Florida ran for 302 yards against Ole Miss. A rematch could look different. The only one that counts here ended with Ole Miss ahead.

Florida offers one last reminder of how quickly September changed the board. The Gators began outside the AP preseason Top 25 and are now No. 6 here after outscoring Ole Miss 21-7 in the fourth quarter. Speaking after the Sept. 26 win in Gainesville, first-year coach Jon Sumrall put the climb in plain terms. “I didn’t come here for us to be average,” he said. The next ranking gets an immediate test Saturday, when Alabama visits Mississippi State, Ohio State goes to Iowa, and Florida travels to Missouri.