Missouri Jumps 11 Spots and Florida Drops 8: The Week 6 AP Poll Shakeup
The top five of the AP Top 25 did not move. Everything behind it did.
Texas stayed No. 1 with 61 first-place votes and 1,737 points at 4-0, followed by Georgia, Notre Dame, Miami and Ohio State. Then Missouri climbed 11 spots and Florida fell eight, and the SEC middle rearranged itself in a single Saturday.
The Full Top 10
1. Texas (4-0), 2. Georgia (5-0), 3. Notre Dame (5-0), 4. Miami (5-0), 5. Ohio State (4-1), 6. Alabama (5-0), 7. Indiana (5-0), 8. BYU (4-0), 9. Ole Miss, 10. LSU.
Eleven through 25: Texas Tech, Utah, Oregon, Missouri, Tennessee, Florida, Mississippi State, Oklahoma State, USC, Iowa, UCLA, Houston, Boise State, SMU, Pittsburgh.
Missouri 45, Florida 17 Did All of This
Missouri went from 25th to 14th. Florida went from 8th to 16th and shed 581 poll points in a week, which is about as violent a single-week drop as the AP produces.
The Tigers put up 560 total yards. Quarterback Austin Simmons threw for 340 and two touchdowns. That is not a lucky upset, that is a team taking a ranked opponent apart.
Alabama moved up one to sixth after a 56-23 win at Mississippi State, which had entered that game undefeated. Ohio State beat Iowa 31-14 behind an 11-catch, 206-yard, two-touchdown day from Jeremiah Smith, and Iowa fell six spots to 20th. BYU climbed two to eighth.
Pitt Is In and Already in Trouble
Pittsburgh entered at No. 25 with 162 points after beating Virginia Tech 35-33 to go 5-0. Kentucky was the only team to drop out, and it did so despite winning and gaining votes, which happens when the teams below you win bigger.
The bad news for the Panthers is immediate. Quarterback Mason Heintschel tore his ACL and is out for the season. A 5-0 team that just made the poll and just lost its starting quarterback is not a playoff team, whatever the ranking says this week.
The SEC Logic Is Broken
Bleacher Report flagged it and it deserves repeating. Florida is ranked ahead of Mississippi State despite how the common opponents played out, and Ole Miss is ranked ahead of Florida despite losing to Florida.
Voters are ranking vibes and roster talent rather than results. That happens every October and it stops mattering in December when the committee takes over.
What Week 6 Decides
Georgia goes to Alabama. UCLA goes to Oregon. Three ranked teams lost in Week 5 and all three losses came against ranked opponents, so the poll is still mostly sorting itself honestly.
Also receiving votes: Kentucky, Wake Forest, Wisconsin, Duke, Northwestern, Nebraska, Minnesota, Arizona, James Madison and North Dakota State.
Texas at 4-0 with 61 first-place votes has a stranglehold on the top line. Georgia at Alabama is the game that could change that by Sunday.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
