College Football 2019: Week 6 AP Top 25 winners, losers

Losers

Loser: California (No. 15 to Unranked)

In one fell swoop, California went from a top-15 team to sitting outside the AP Top 25 in the land of Others Receiving Votes. That all happened in tandem with Arizona State’s rise, as the Sun Devils came to Memorial Stadium and dealt the Golden Bears their first loss of the year. As the last remaining undefeated team in the Pac-12, Cal suddenly dropped out of the rankings just in time for their Week 6 showdown against No. 13 Oregon.

Loser: Kansas State (No. 24 to Unranked)

Kansas State is clinging to the barest of holds on a spot in the AP Top 25, with one point keeping them on the far edge of the Others Receiving Votes. It wasn’t so much that the Wildcats lost their first game of the year against Oklahoma State as how it happened. Chris Klieman’s team needed a late surge in the fourth quarter, when the Cowboys already had the game out of reach, just to pull within 13 points at the final margin.

Loser: Texas A&M (No. 23 to No. 25)

Several other teams had bigger drops, but Texas A&M had a demoralizing fall to a tie for the last spot in the AP Top 25 after barely beating Arkansas 31-27 in Arlington on Saturday. The only two losses the Aggies have suffered so far this year were against top-10 Clemson and Auburn. But . it isn’t so much the losses but the struggle in victory that gave AP voters pause this weekend.

With several teams charging up the poll in the past few weeks, Jimbo Fisher’s crew needs to find a way to turn things around in SEC play if they want to remain ranked.