Alabama moved up just one spot off a historic SEC win to just outside the top five ahead of a huge game against Georgia at home next weekend.
Alabama moved from No. 7 to No. 6 in the poll after beating then-No. 16 Mississippi State 56-23. It was the most points a ranked home team had given up during a regulation game in SEC history. Alabama jumped undefeated Indiana which fell to No. 7. The loss dropped the Bulldogs one spot to No. 17.
Alabama gets No. 2 Georgia at Bryant-Denny Stadium on Saturday. The Crimson Tide have won the last two regular-season games against Georgia, although it lost the SEC Championship Game to the Bulldogs last year.
Other notable moves included Florida dropping from No. 8 to No. 16 after a 45-17 loss to Missouri. Conversely, the Tigers jumped up 11 spots to No. 14 from No. 25. Iowa dropped six spots to No. 20 after losing 31-14 to No. 6 Ohio State.
The lone new entry to the top 25 club is Pittsburgh after a 5-0 start and a win Friday night over Virginia Tech. Despite winning in overtime over South Carolina, Kentucky fell out of the top 25.
Texas remained the No. 1 team receiving 61 of the 70 first-place votes during a bye week. The Longhorns get Oklahoma in the Red River Rivalry next week. Georgia (6), Miami (2) and Indiana (1) were the other teams to receive at least one first-place vote.
Week 5 AP Top 25 poll
- Texas (61)
- Georgia (6)
- Notre Dame
- Miami (2)
- Ohio State
- Alabama
- Indiana (1)
- BYU
- Ole Miss
- LSU
- Texas Tech
- Utah
- Oregon
- Missouri
- Tennessee
- Florida
- Mississippi State
- Oklahoma State
- USC
- Iowa
- UCLA
- Houston
- Boise State
- SMU
- Pittsburgh
Others receiving votes:
Kentucky 160, Wake Forest 142, Wisconsin 88, Duke 83, Northwestern 59, Nebraska 48, Minnesota 19, Arizona 19, James Madison 12, North Dakota State 7
Surprise Bama doesn't sneak into top 5
After dominating Mississippi State, I expected to see Alabama in the top five and had to hurriedly rewrite the lead to my story when it wasn't. It's a bit surprising that the Tide hasn't found its way into the top five yet. Texas being above Alabama makes sense. The Longhorns, after all, have two of the best wins of the season over Ohio State and Tennessee.
But Notre Dame struggled with a not-great North Carolina team before finally pulling away. The Fighting Irish have zero top-25 wins. Why is Notre Dame automatically ranked above a fellow undefeated team with better wins?
You can easily make arguments over Ohio State (undefeated versus one-loss) and Miami (weak schedule), too. There's admittedly not a huge difference between being No. 6 and No. 5. But given the resume, Alabama should be in the top 5.
The Big 12's two-bid odds
The Big 12 is in a good position to land multiple teams in the playoff through five weeks with three teams ranked in the top 15. BYU leads the way at No. 8 with No. 11 Texas Tech and No. 12 Utah not far behind. All are undefeated and all have a path to the College Football Playoff. Utah and BYU play each other on Nov. 7 while Texas Tech doesn't play either in the regular season.
Interestingly, Utah has the best playoff odds (58.1 percent) out of the three, according to CBS Sports' projections. Texas Tech has a 40.8 percent chance to make it while BYU is only 23.8 percent. The CBS Sports projections are the inverse of how AP poll voters voted in Week 5.
