Wisconsin fell on a last-second field goal against Illinois. Here is how everything will line up in college football’s AP Top 25 when the dust settles.
The College Football Playoff selection committee says that the AP Top 25 and the Coaches Poll do not impact their decisions. But it is inevitable that the committee’s first list of the season in early November will resemble in many ways the hierarchy as decided by the assembled media from around the country. That makes these last few weeks of October all the more critical for teams hoping to reach the final four.
As we get deeper and deeper into the season, upsets will continue to shake things up in the AP Top 25. Once more teams start to drop out of the ranks of the unbeaten, the picture will start to sort itself out further as the contenders move on and the pretenders drop out.
The biggest loss of the week was undoubtedly Wisconsin’s upset defeat in Champaign against Illinois, as the Fighting Illini gained their first win over a top-10 team since 2007 on a last-second field goal. But there were other defeats that will also shake up the Top 25 this week.
Take Arizona State’s defeat at Utah. Normally, the AP voters are inclined to be lenient when road underdogs lose a matchup featuring Top 25 teams against one another. But the Sun Devils lost in such terrible fashion that they might very well fall out of the poll altogether. They are projected to remain in — just barely, and in a tie at the bottom with a team returning to the Top 25 after a resounding victory.
How will everything look on Sunday when the AP Top 25 releases its newest set of rankings ahead of Week 9 action on the last weekend of October? Keep reading to see where everyone lands.