Alabama returned to No. 1 in the Associated Press college football poll on Sunday for the first time in two years dizzying victory over Georgia, In this 16th of 17 seasons, the Crimson Tide has held the top spot at some point.

UNLV, undefeated in four games for the first time in its Division I history, cracked the rankings for the first time ever just days later lost its starting quarterback due to a NIL dispute. The Rebels are tied with Texas A&M for 25th place.

Alabama received 40 of 63 first-place votes and passed three teams to take No. 1 from Texas, which battled into the second half with Mississippi State as a five-touchdown favorite and slipped to No. 2. The Longhorns received 19 first-place votes, well below last week’s 44.

Ohio State remained No. 3 with four first-place votes. Tennessee, which had an open appointment, moved up one spot to No. 4. Georgia, whose only three losses since 2021 came at Alabama, fell to No. 5.

Oregon, Penn State, Miami, Missouri and Michigan rounded out the top 10.

Mississippi and Utah suffered the most severe falls. The rebels, upset with Kentucky at home, fell from No. 6 to No. 12. The Utes, the lost to Arizona at home, rose from No. 10 to No. 18.

Alabama, a No. 1 seed for the first time under coach Kalen DeBoer, has rattled off two impressive wins in a row, led by Heisman Trophy front-runner Jalen Milroe and freshman phenom receiver Ryan Williams.

The Tide beat Wisconsin 42-10 on the road two weeks ago and topped Georgia 41-34 on Saturday night after blowing a 28-point lead in the first half.

The Tide hasn’t been ranked No. 1 since Oct. 2, 2022. They memorably held the spot for just a week after needing a late goal-line stand to beat unranked Texas A&M at home , with Milroe subbing in for injured 2021 Heisman winner Bryce Young that evening.

The Tide are No. 1 for the 141st time, the most of any team since the AP rankings began in 1936, and the 105th time since 2009, when Nick Saban won the first of his six national championships at ‘Bama.

Survey points

The SEC holds four of the top five spots for the fourth straight year, a continued high in the AP poll. The only other time in the poll’s 88-year history that a conference had four of the top five teams was the SEC on October 19, 2014 (No. 1 Mississippi State, No. 3 Mississippi, No. 4 Alabama and No. 5 Auburn). That took a week.

The SEC holds nine spots in the top 25, a new record for the number of ranked teams in a conference.

The Big Ten has four teams in the top 10 and seven in the top 25 for the first time since October 2021.

In and out

UNLV was already one of the feel-good stories of the season Matthew Sluka announced he would sit out the remainder of the seasonand claimed he was scammed out of a $100,000 payment for names, images and likenesses.

The Rebels with Hajj-Malik Williams as their new quarterback, defeated Fresno State 59-14 on Saturday. Now the Rebels are 4-0 for the first time since 1976, when they were Division II, and they will try to eliminate a third power conference opponent when they visit Syracuse this week.

Also included in the rankings was Indiana at No. 23. The Hoosiers, who are 5-0 for the first time since 1967, have not been ranked since they were ranked No. 17 in the 2021 preseason poll.

Oklahoma State dropped out. The Cowboys, ranked 20th, have lost two straight to ranked opponents, most recently falling at Kansas State.

Conference call

SEC – 9 (Nos. 1, 2, 4, 5, 9, 12, 13, 19, T-25).

Big Ten – 7 (Nos. 3, 6, 7, 10, 11, 23, 24).

Big 12 – 4 (Nos. 16, 17, 18, 20).

ACC – 3 (Nos. 8, 15, 22).

Mountain West – 2 (No. 21, T-25).

Independent – ​​1 (No. 14).

Rank vs. rank

-NO. 9 Missouri at No. 25 Texas A&M. The Tigers were given a week off to recover from their double-overtime scare against Vanderbilt and will visit College Station for the first time since 2014. Since joining the SEC in 2012, the teams have split four matchups.

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