Sooners drop out after loss in Ames

Oklahoma dropped out of The Associated Press college football poll for the first time since September 2016 and No. 24 Iowa State jumped back into the Top 25 after a day of upsets.

There largely was stability at the top of the rankings Sunday after No. 1 Clemson, No. 2 Alabama, No. 3 Georgia and No. 4 Florida all won big, though the Bulldogs and Gators switched spots. Clemson received 52 first-place votes and Alabama got eight from the panel of sports writers and broadcasters.

Notre Dame was idle and held at No. 5, while No. 6 Ohio State received two first-place votes despite no Big Ten Conference games scheduled until late October.

Overall, though, five teams dropped out of the Top 25 after eight ranked teams lost Saturday, six to unranked opponents.

The Sooners were involved in one of those upsets, losing in Ames, Iowa, for the first time since 1960. Oklahoma’s first two-game, regular-season losing streak in 21 years snapped its string of 64 consecutive poll appearances.

That was the fourth-longest active streak in the country behind Alabama, Ohio State (not including the polls in which it was not eligible) and Clemson.

The Sooners will head into their Red River rivalry game against Texas on Saturday as an unranked team for the first time since 2005.

The 22nd-ranked Longhorns managed to hold on to a spot in the rankings, falling 13 spots after losing at home to TCU.

Alabama’s streak of poll appearances reached 201, the fourth longest of all time behind Nebraska’s record 348 (1981-2002), Florida State’s 211 (1989-2001) and Florida’s 209 (1990-2002).

Ohio State’s streak is up to 134, but it now comes with a caveat. The Buckeyes were ineligible to be ranked in the first two regular-season polls of this season because the Big Ten had postponed its football season. When the Big Ten (and other conferences) reversed course and decided to play, those teams became eligible again and the Buckeyes were back.

Central Florida took the biggest fall among the five teams to drop out of the rankings, going from 11th to unranked and snapping a streak of 33 straight appearances.

Mississippi State followed up its upset of LSU by losing to Arkansas at home. The Bulldogs dropped from No. 16 to others receiving votes.

Pitt stumbled at home to North Carolina State and dropped out, as did Memphis, which lost to SMU.