Iowa pulls rank on Penn St.
Iowa is gearing up for its biggest home game since the 1980s, Cincinnati has its highest ranking in 12 years and Clemson is on the outside looking in at the Associated Press college football poll for the first time since 2014.
Alabama and Georgia are the only constants during this topsy-turvy season, holding down the top two spots for the fifth straight week. Alabama received 53 of a possible 62 first-place votes Sunday, with Georgia picking up the rest.
After them, the movement up and down and in and out of the Top 25 was about what would be expected after a week in which nine ranked teams lost, including four in the top 10.
Through the first five weeks of the season, 34 ranked teams have lost, the most in poll history.
Iowa leapfrogged Penn State to take the No. 3 spot after its 51-14 road win over previously unbeaten Maryland. The Hawkeyes have their highest ranking since 2015. Penn State beat Indiana 24-0 at home and remained No. 4.
The Penn State-Iowa clash Saturday is the Big Ten’s game of the year — so far. It will be the highest-ranked matchup in Iowa City since 1985, when the No. 1 Hawkeyes beat No. 2 Michigan 12-10 on a field goal as time ran out for what then-Iowa coach Hayden Fry called the biggest win in program history.
No. 5 Cincinnati, coming off a 24-13 road win over Notre Dame, has its best ranking since Brian Kelly’s 2009 Bearcats were No. 4 in the first week of November.
Oklahoma, Ohio State, Oregon, Michigan and BYU round out the top 10.
Clemson’s 19-13 home win over previously unbeaten Boston College didn’t impress voters enough to keep the Tigers in the Top 25. Thus ends their streak of 107 consecutive weeks in the rankings. The last time the Tigers were unranked was the week of Oct. 5, 2014.
They are one spot out of the Top 25, 15 points behind San Diego State.
Man arrested in Utah player’s death
Police arrested a man early Sunday in connection with the shooting death of Utah sophomore cornerback Aaron Lowe.
Homicide detectives with the Salt Lake City Police Department located Buk M. Buk, 22, in Draper and booked him on charges of aggravated murder, attempted murder and felony discharge of a firearm. Online jail records do not indicate if he has an attorney who can speak on his behalf.
Salt Lake City Police Chief Mike Brown said the shooting was not a targeted attack on the university, its athletic department or Lowe, nor was it gang-related.
Lowe, 21, was shot at a house party just after midnight Sept. 26 after other, uninvited guests were asked to leave, police said. A 20-year-old woman also was shot and critically injured at the party, which was thrown hours after the Utes beat Washington State.