Champs fall out of poll
LSU unranked for 1st time since Nov. 2017; Irish move up to No. 4
LSU is out of the Associated Press poll for the first time since 2017 and is the first defending national champion to drop from the rankings in nine years.
No. 1 Clemson, No. 2 Alabama and No. 3 Georgia held steady at the top of the rankings Sunday, setting up a top-three matchup Saturday, when the Crimson Tide host the Bulldogs.
Clemson received 59 first-place votes. Alabama got two and Georgia one. Notre Dame moved up to No. 4, and North Carolina is No. 5.
LSU dropped out from No. 17 after falling to 1-2 with a 45- 41 loss at previously winless Missouri. The Tigers had been ranked in 43 consecutive polls, the seventh-longest active streak in the nation. They were last unranked Nov. 5, 2017.
The last defending national champion to be unranked was Auburn in 2011. After Cam Newton’s departure, the Tigers spent much of that season outside the Top 25, finishing 8-5 and unranked.
Poll points
This is the second consecutive week that a traditional power has fallen from the rankings, with LSU following Oklahoma.
The Sooners remained unranked, even after beating Texas in four overtimes. The Longhorns dropped out of the Top 25 for the first time this season with their second straight loss, but that’s hardly big news at this point. Texas has not had a season in which it was ranked from start to finish since 2009.
The last time both Oklahoma and LSU were unranked was also the last time before this season the Sooners were out of the polls: Sept. 25, 2016. That was a oneweek departure for Oklahoma, which went on to win the Big 12 after starting 1-2.
The last time Oklahoma went two consecutive Top 25s without being ranked was the final two polls of the 2014 season, when the Sooners finished 8-5 and lost their final two games.
They’re in
† No. 22 Kansas State is ranked for the first time this season. The Wildcats made a few brief appearances in the Top 25 last year.
† No. 25 USC is the latest of the teams still waiting to start their season to re- enter the Top 25. The Trojans were ranked in the preseason, then became ineli
gible when the season started and the Pac-12 was looking at trying to play in the winter/spring. When the conference decided to return in November, its teams became eligible to be ranked again.
They’re up
† No. 11 Texas A&M jumped 10 spots after beating No. 10 Florida in a thriller at College Station. The Gators slipped six spots.
They’re down
† No. 13 Miami dropped six spots after losing for the first time this season. The Hurricanes
received a serious dose of reality, losing 42-17 at Clemson.
Conference call
A week after having four top-10 teams for the first time, the ACC reached another milestone with three top-five teams. North Carolina has its best ranking since November 1997, the height of coach Mack Brown’s first stint there.
Related: The Big Ten is two weeks away from playing, and there are still 10 voters who are waiting for No. 6 Ohio State and other teams to start playing before ranking them.