Orange, Cavaliers end two of P5’s longest droughts

No. 22 Syracuse and No. 23 Virginia broke long runs of being unranked and were among a record seven teams to move into The Associated Press college football poll after a seasonhigh 11 ranked teams lost this weekend.

The top of the ranking was mostly unchanged. No. 1 Alabama, No. 4 LSU and No. 5 Michigan were idle and unchanged . No. 2 Clemson and No. 3 Notre Dame won easily.

The College Football Playoff selection committee releases its first ranking of the season on Tuesday.

The back end of the AP Top 25 was overhauled after nine of the 11 teams ranked Nos. 1525 lost. Seven teams going from unranked to ranked is the most since the AP poll expanded to 25 in 1989. Eleven ranked teams overall losing is the most since the weekend of Nov. 26, 2016. And eight ranked teams losing to unranked teams is also a record for the Top 25 era.

Syracuse is ranked for the first time since 2001 and Virginia is in for the first time since 2011.

With those teams now ranked, here are the current longest droughts in the AP Top 25 for Power 5 teams: Indiana (1994), Purdue (2007), Wake Forest (2008), Kansas (2009), Illinois (2011), Rutgers (2012)

The other teams making their season debut in the Top 25 came from outside the Power Five conferences: No. 17 Houston is in for the first time since 2016.

No. 18 Utah State is ranked for the first time since the final 2016 poll, when the Aggies finished 16th. No. 20 Fresno State was ranked briefly last season.

Reentering the rankings were No. 21 Mississippi State and No. 24 Boston College.