Florida State fell out of the Associated Press college football poll on Tuesday after starting the season 0-2, becoming the third team to go from the preseason top 10 to unranked in the first regular-season poll since the rankings expanded to 25 in 1989.
Georgia held on to the No. 1 spot, receiving 57 first-place votes after starting the season with a rout of then-No. 14 Clemson. The Tigers remained at No. 25.
Ohio State is No. 2 with five first-place votes. Texas, No. 3, and Alabama, No. 4, each moved up one spot, putting three Southeastern Conference teams in the top four along with Georgia.
No. 5 Notre Dame jumped two spots after opening the season with a win at then-No. 20 Texas A&M, which fell out of the rankings.
Florida State has been the biggest disappointment of the season. The reigning Atlantic Coast Conference champion dropped a Week 0 game in Dublin, Ireland, to ACC rival Georgia Tech, then dropped another league game Monday night at home to Boston College.
No other team in the preseason Top 25 lost to an unranked opponent in the season opener. Florida State did so twice as a double-digit favorite and did not receive a single vote from the AP polling panel.
In the past 35 years, the only other preseason Top 10 teams to fall out of the Top 25 after Week 1 were Michigan in 2007, after famously losing to No. 5 Appalachian State, and Clemson in 2008. The Tigers were No. 9 but opened with a blowout loss to Alabama and fell out of the rankings.
Mississippi remained at No. 6. Oregon dropped four spots to No. 7 after winning a close game with Idaho. Penn State remained at No. 8. Missouri moved up two spots to No. 9 to give the SEC five teams in the top 10. Michigan dropped one spot to No. 10.
Georgia Tech's 2-0 start moves the Yellowjackets into the 23rd spot for the first time since 2015.
Voting Points
Because Florida State started its season a week earlier than most of the country, it enters an exclusive club of teams that began their seasons 0-2 with each loss occurring while they were ranked in the top 10.
Notre Dame was the last to accomplish it in 2022, when the Fighting Irish began the season ranked No. 5, lost to No. 2 Ohio State in their opener and then were upset at home the following week by Marshall while ranked eighth. The Irish finished with a 9-4 record.
Ohio State opened the 1986 season ranked ninth and lost two straight games to ranked opponents Alabama (ranked 5th) and Washington (ranked 17th). The Buckeyes were ranked 10th when they played the Huskies. Ohio State finished the season with a 10-3 record.
The 1967 Texas team and 1952 TCU also started 0-2 while being ranked in the top 10 in both games.
Florida State is the second ranked team to lose twice before the first regular-season poll was released, joining Kentucky in 1951. The Wildcats moved from No. 6 to No. 17 with a 1-2 record to start the season, losing to Texas (No. 11) and at Mississippi.
Florida State will have a weekend off before resuming its schedule with home games against Memphis and new ACC member California before a trip to SMU followed by a home game against Clemson.
“We have a football team that nobody imagined would get to where it is now and we'd have disappointments and failures, but I believe in what this team can do,” coach Mike Norvell said after the loss to BC. “I believe in what this team can accomplish.”
Going up
The cities that rose the most in the Top 25 were Miami and Southern California.
The Hurricanes moved up seven spots to No. 12 after defeating Florida at The Swamp and have their highest ranking since entering the top 10 late in the 2020 season.
USC, ranked 13th, moved up 10 spots after beating LSU with a late touchdown on Sunday night in Las Vegas. The loss dropped LSU to No. 18.
The Trojans began last season ranked No. 6 but finished unranked after a disappointing 8-5 season under 2022 Heisman Trophy winner Caleb Williams.
Inside and outside
The only other team to move up the rankings this week, along with Georgia Tech, was fellow ACC school Louisville. The Cardinals were among the top unranked vote-getters in the preseason and now sit at No. 22.
Conference
Even though Florida State and Clemson started the season 0-3, the ACC has one more team in this week's rankings than last time:
SEC – 8 (Nos. 1, 3, 4, 6, 9, 14, 16, 18).
Ten big: 6 (nos. 2, 7, 8, 10, 13, 21).
ACC – 5 (nos. 12, 22, 23, 24, 25).
Big 12 – 5 (Numbers 11, 16, 17, 19, 20).
Independent – 1 (No. 5).
Ranked vs. ranked
No. 3 Texas vs. No. 10 Michigan. The first-ever regular-season matchup is between top-10 teams in the Big House.
No. 14 Tennessee vs. No. 24 NC State in Charlotte, N.C. An interesting ranked matchup between the SEC and ACC.
