Houston’s lock on a New Year’s Six both is no longer a certainty thanks to last week’s 46-40 loss to Navy. Houston, which dropped from No. 6 to No. 13 in this week’s AP Poll, is still the highest-ranked Group of Five team, but it won’t be in play for a New Year’s Six bowl unless it’s able to win its conference, which seems like a bit of a longshot right now. Boise State is nipping at the Cougars’ heels at No. 15 and remains undefeated in the Mountain West.
At the top, not much changed in this week’s AP Poll as all the teams in last week’s top five won their contests convincingly and stayed in their same spots.
Alabama was once again No. 1 followed by Ohio State, Clemson, Michigan and Washington. Texas A&M, which was No. 8 last week, leaped over No. 7 Louisville, which was idle, and claimed the No. 6 spot, which had previously been held by Houston. The Cougars lost 46-40 to Navy, in what was one of the more stunning upsets of the young season.
Wisconsin moved up three spots despite being idle while Tennessee, which lost to Texas A&M in overtime, stayed at No. 9, and Nebraska moved into the top 10 for the first time this season.
The Big Ten has four AP Top 10 teams for the first time since 1960.
Perhaps the biggest surge of the week was that of Florida State, which moved from No. 23 to No. 14 thanks to its win against then-No. 10 Miami. The Hurricanes dropped to No. 16.
Here’s this week’s AP Poll in its entirety:
- Alabama
- Ohio State
- Clemson
- Michigan
- Washington
- Texas A&M
- Louisville
- Wisconsin
- Tennessee
- Nebraska
- Baylor
- Ole Miss
- Houston
- Florida State
- Boise State
- Miami
- Virginia Tech
- Florida
- Oklahoma
- West Virginia
- Utah
- Arkansas
- Auburn
- Western Michigan
- Navy
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Graham Watson is the editor of Dr. Saturday on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email her at dr.saturday@ymail.com or follow her on Twitter! Follow @YahooDrSaturday
