ATHENS, Ga. – Winning in Tuscaloosa gave Georgia the result its unbeaten start had been missing. A day after the Bulldogs beat Alabama on the road, Associated Press voters put them at the top of college football, while Texas paid for its rivalry loss with a fall out of the top five.
Georgia received 66 of 70 first-place votes in the October 11 AP Top 25 and moved from No. 2 to No. 1. Texas dropped six places to seventh after losing to Oklahoma, and Oregon left the rankings for the first time in four years after its second defeat in the past month, according to the AP report carried by ESPN.
The most revealing comparison sits below the top five. Alabama remained sixth with 1,372 ballot points despite losing to Georgia. Texas finished seventh with 1,371. One point separates the two teams, a narrow difference hidden by the much larger headline movement of the former No. 1.
Georgia’s 20-17 win over Alabama brought a different kind of evidence from its previous five victories. The Bulldogs had held second place for five consecutive polls while winning comfortably. This time they beat a highly ranked opponent away from home and stayed undefeated at 6-0.
AP reported that the victory was Georgia’s first in Tuscaloosa since 2014. The Bulldogs returned to the top of the poll for the first time since September 8, 2024. A late end-zone play that appeared to involve missed pass interference remained part of the game’s controversy, but the final result supplied the voters’ new starting point.
According to AP’s published poll totals, Georgia collected 1,745 points. A first-place vote is worth 25 points, with each succeeding position worth one fewer down to a point for 25th. The Bulldogs therefore finished only five points short of the maximum available from 70 ballots.
Notre Dame rose to second at 6-0 with 1,630 points and one first-place vote. Miami stood third with 1,594 points and two first-place votes, followed by Ohio State at fourth and Indiana at fifth. Indiana received the remaining first-place vote, meaning Georgia’s lead was overwhelming but not unanimous.
The distinction matters. First-place votes measure who voters consider best; total points also account for where every other ballot places a team. Notre Dame finished ahead of Miami in the overall ranking even though Miami received more votes for the top spot. There is no contradiction in those outcomes.
For the Texas Longhorns, the new ranking interrupts a season in which they had already beaten Ohio State. Their record is now 4-1, and the poll places them behind an Alabama team whose only loss came against the new No. 1. The published totals establish the margin, not a single shared explanation for every voter’s judgment.
Oklahoma’s win did not put the Sooners into the Top 25. They received 44 points among the teams outside the rankings. That gives the rivalry result an unusual consequence: it removed Texas from the summit without producing a ranked place for the team that beat it.
BYU stayed in the top ten at eighth, with Ole Miss ninth and Texas Tech tenth. Utah and UCLA followed at 11th and 12th. AP’s table lists BYU, Texas Tech, Utah and UCLA at 5-0, leaving several unbeaten teams below the leading group despite their clean records.
The next section of the rankings runs from Missouri at 13th through Tennessee, Kentucky and Mississippi State to Iowa at 17th. Oklahoma State is 18th, USC 19th and Houston 20th. Wake Forest, LSU, Boise State, SMU and Northwestern complete the poll in that order.
Those placements give Oregon’s absence a precise boundary. Northwestern holds the final ranked position with 112 points. Oregon received 86, below Wisconsin’s 92 among the teams outside the Top 25. Dropping out means falling below that weekly cutoff, not receiving no support at all.
The AP Top 25 has also moved away from its preseason picture. Georgia now leads a top five that includes Notre Dame and Miami alongside Ohio State and Indiana. Sunday’s ballot is a fresh ordering based on the season to date, not a promise that those positions will survive the next round of games.
Counting the teams in AP’s published list puts nine Southeastern Conference programs in the rankings, including four in the top ten. Georgia, Alabama, Texas and Ole Miss lead that group. Missouri, Tennessee, Kentucky, Mississippi State and LSU fill out the conference’s ranked contingent.
That count follows the published team list rather than an inconsistent conference summary in the supplied report. AP’s official table also lists Miami at 5-0, whereas ESPN’s accompanying table shows 6-0. The rankings and ballot points here follow AP’s published totals.
Georgia entered the year carrying expectations reflected in the SEC preseason media poll. Sunday’s vote gives those expectations a national ranking to match. Its lead is broad; the margin separating Alabama and Texas is not. The same poll contains both a clear choice at the top and a nearly indistinguishable pair directly below the top five.
