Alabama leads locked-in top 8 for 4th week
UTEP suspends activities; Vandy fires coach Mason
Alabama is the unanimous No. 1 again in The Associated Press college football poll as the top eight teams in the rankings held steady for the fourth week in a row.
The Crimson Tide got 62 first-place votes for the second consecutive week and are followed by No. 2 Notre Dame, No. 3 Ohio State and No. 4 Clemson.
Southeastern Conference teams Texas A&M and Florida are fifth and sixth, respectively. Unbeaten Cincinnati is seventh and undefeated BYU is eighth.
The changes in the poll came after that, with Miami inching up to No. 9 and Indiana returning to the top 10.
Oregon’s first loss of the season knocked the Ducks out of the top 10, dropping them 12 spots to No. 21.
POLL POINTS: The Crimson Tide have now been ranked for 209 consecutive AP polls, matching Florida’s run from 1990-2002 under Steve Spurrier for the third-longest streak in the history of the rankings.
Florida State is second at 211 straight poll appearances from 1989-2001. With two games against losing teams left on Alabama’s schedule, the Tide are likely to catch Bobby Bowden’s Seminoles before the SEC championship game on Dec. 19.
The record for longest streak of poll appearances is still way in the distance for Alabama. Nebraska appeared in 348 straight AP rankings from 1981-2002.
IN-N-OUT: Texas, Auburn and North Carolina dropped out of the rankings after each lost for the third time this season. All three started the season ranked and at some point spent time in the top 10.
The replacements were two teams returning to the poll and one making its season debut:
No. 23 Washington is ranked for the first time this season after it improved to 3-0 with a 21-point comeback against Utah on Saturday night.
No. 24 Iowa was also 24th in the preseason. The Hawkeyes disappeared from the rankings along with the rest of the Big Ten when it did not look as if the conference would play in the fall. When the Big Ten returned, Iowa didn’t quite make the cut among voters, but four victories in a row have the Hawkeyes back where they started.
No. 25 Liberty is back. RANKED vs. RANKED: No. 10 Indiana at No. 18 Wisconsin. The Badgers have already have had three games canceled, virtually eliminating them from the Big Ten West race. Meanwhile, Indiana could be in line to take the East if Ohio State can’t make the conference’s minimum games requirement.
No. 25 Liberty at No. 14 Coastal Carolina. Who had Flames-Chanticleers as a matchup of ranked teams when the game was scheduled in August?
MINERS: UTEP suspended football activities Sunday and called off another game after “multiple members” of the football team tested positive for COVID-19.
The Miners won’t play host to Southern Miss as scheduled Friday after scrapping this weekend’s game at Rice because of the positive tests.
It’s the third straight UTEP game to be called off, starting with UAB on Nov. 20 because of coronavirus issues in the UAB program. UTEP had moved the UAB game 300 miles east of El Paso to Midland, Texas, because of a significant increase of coronavirus cases in the far West Texas city.
“During our recent COVID testing, multiple members of our football team tested positive for the virus,” athletic director Jim Senter said. “We will make a determination on the remainder of the season once we have received the results of our next regularly scheduled test.”
UTEP hasn’t indicated plans to reschedule any of the three games, saying the only remaining scheduled regular-season game was Dec. 12 at home against North Texas.
The Miners last played Nov. 14 at UTSA, losing 52-21 for a third straight defeat that dropped them to 3-4.
VANDY FIRES COACH: Vanderbilt fired coach Derek Mason on Sunday after losing the first eight games of his seventh season, and offensive coordinator Todd Fitch will serve as the interim coach.
“While this was a difficult decision, I know this change is necessary,” athletic director Candice Lee said in a statement. “We wish Derek and his entire family the best.”
Mason posted a statement on Twitter thanking Nashville and Vanderbilt for embracing his family. He said he was grateful to be Vanderbilt’s coach the past seven years.
“I am confident that our current student-athletes and their families are in good hands with Chancellor (Daniel) Diermeier and Director of Athletics Candice Lee and will continue to rise to today’s challenges with integrity and character,” Mason wrote.
Hired in 2014 as Vanderbilt’s 28th coach, Mason replaced James Franklin when he left for Penn State. Mason came to Vanderbilt after being associate head coach and defensive coordinator at Stanford. He became the first Vanderbilt coach since the 1920s to beat in-state rival Tennessee three straight seasons. He guided the Commodores to a bowl twice in three seasons, the last clinched with a 38-13 rout of Tennessee in November 2018. Athletic director Malcolm Turner, who was on the job for barely a year, gave Mason a contract extension within his first month on the job in February 2019.
Turner gave Mason his support again late during the 2019 season, but Turner resigned in February. Lee was named the interim athletic director before Vanderbilt took off the interim title in May.