Notre Dame climbs into top 10; Tide remains No. 1

Notre Dame cracked the top 10 of The Associated Press college football poll for the first time this season, coming in at No. 9, and Michigan fell out of the rankings for the first time in two years.

A week after a rash of upsets gave the poll a shakeup, the first eight teams in the Top 25 released Sunday were unchanged. Alabama remains a unanimous No. 1 in the media poll, with 61 first-place votes. Penn State is No. 2 and Georgia, which was idle, is No. 3.

Undefeated TCU and Wisconsin round out the top five.

Notre Dame jumped four spots after beating Southern California 49-14 on Saturday night in South Bend, Indiana.

Michigan played in the weekend’s other big game and lost to Penn State 42-13. The Wolverines (5-2) had been 19th.

It hasn’t been that long since Notre Dame was ranked in the top 10. The Irish spent most of the 2015 season there and were 10th to start 2016. Then, they stumbled to 4-8 last year.

The Fighting Irish have slowly made their way up the rankings this season, jumping in briefly, falling out and then climbing steadily from 22 to 21 to 16 to 13. This is the 32nd time in coach Brian Kelly’s seven-plus seasons that Notre Dame has appeared in the top 10 of the AP poll.

In 13 seasons under previous coaches Bob Davie, Tyrone Willingham and Charlie Weis, the Irish were in the top 10 32 times.

This is the 98th time Alabama is ranked No. 1, tying Notre Dame at No. 3 on the all-time list. The Crimson Tide are idle next week, so there’s 99, and play No. 23 LSU on Nov. 4. Ohio State has the record with 105 times at No. 1, followed by Oklahoma with 101.

Alabama can tie the Buckeyes basically by winning out.