Florida State drops out of AP Top 25 after 0-2 start; Texas climbs to No. 3 behind Georgia and Ohio State

Florida State dropped out The Associated Press Poll on College Football on tuesday after starting the season 0-2, and thus becomes only the third team to drop from the pre-season top 10 to zero in the first regular season poll since the rankings were expanded to 25 in 1989.

Georgia remained at number 1, receiving 57 first-place votes after the season started with a blowout of then-No. 14 Clemson. The Tigers remained in 25th place.

Ohio State is No. 2 with five first-place votes. No. 3 Texas and No. 4 Alabama each rose one spot, putting three Southeastern Conference teams in the top four, along with Georgia.

No. 5 Notre Dame rose two spots after starting the season with a victory at then No. 20 Texas A&M, who fell out of the rankings.

Florida State was the big disappointment of the early season. The reigning Atlantic Coast Conference champions lost a Week 0 game in Dublin, Ireland, to ACC rival Georgia Tech and then lost another competition match Monday night at home against Boston College.

No other preseason Top 25 team this year lost to an unranked opponent to open the season, with Florida State doing so twice as a double-digit favorite.

The other preseason top 10 teams that have dropped out of the Top 25 after Week 1 entirely over the past 35 years were Michigan in 2007, after losing to No. 5-seeded Appalachian State, and Clemson in 2008. The Tigers were ranked No. 9 but opened with a blowout loss to Alabama and dropped out of the rankings.

Mississippi remained at No. 6. Oregon dropped four spots to No. 7 after a narrow win over Idaho. Penn State remained at No. 8. Missouri rose two spots to No. 9, giving the SEC five teams in the top 10. Michigan dropped one spot to No. 10.

Georgia Tech’s 2-0 start lifts the Yellowjackets to No. 23 for the first time since 2015.

Polling points

Because Florida State started the season a week earlier than the rest of the country, they are among an exclusive club of teams that started their season 0-2, with every loss coming in the top 10.

Notre Dame last did so in 2022, when the Fighting Irish opened the season ranked No. 5, lost to No. 2 Ohio State in their season opener, then were defeated at home by Marshall the following week while ranked No. 8. The Irish finished 9-4.

Ohio State opened the 1986 season ranked ninth and lost two straight games to ranked opponents, No. 5 Alabama and No. 17 Washington. The Buckeyes were ranked No. 10 when they played the Huskies. Ohio State finished 10-3.

The 1967 Texas and 1952 TCU teams also started 0-2, while being ranked in the top 10 in both games.

Florida State is only the second-best team to lose twice before the first regular-season poll was released, behind Kentucky in 1951. The Wildcats went from No. 6 to No. 17 while going 1-2 to start the season, losing to No. 11 Texas and Mississippi.

Florida State has the weekend off before resuming its schedule with home games against Memphis and new ACC member California, followed by a trip to SMU, followed by a home game against Clemson.

“You have a football team that no one ever expected to get to where we are and be disappointed, fail, but I believe in what this team can do,” coach Mike Norvell said after the BC loss. “I believe in what this team can do.”

Going up

The big climbers in the Top 25 are Miami and Southern California.

The Hurricanes rose seven spots to No. 12 after beating Florida at The Swamp and have their best ranking since reaching the top 10 in late 2020.

No. 13 USC rose 10 places after beating LSU with a late touchdown Sunday night in Las Vegas. The loss dropped LSU to No. 18.

The Trojans started last season ranked No. 6 but finished unranked after a disappointing 8-5 season led by 2022 Heisman Trophy winner Caleb Williams.

In and out

The only other team to move up in the rankings this week, along with Georgia Tech, was fellow ACC school Louisville. The Cardinals were among the top unranked voters in the preseason and are now ranked No. 22.

Conference call

Despite Florida State and Clemson starting the season 0-3, the ACC has one more team in the rankings this week than last time:

SEC – 8 (Nos. 1, 3, 4, 6, 9, 14, 16, 18).

Big Ten – 6 (Nos. 2, 7, 8, 10, 13, 21).

ACC — 5 (Nos. 12, 22, 23, 24, 25).

Big 12 — 5 (Nos. 11, 16, 17, 19, 20).

Independent — 1 (no. 5).

Ranked vs. Ranked

No. 3 Texas vs. No. 10 Michigan. The first regular-season meeting ever is a top-10 matchup in the Big House.

No. 14 Tennessee vs. No. 24 NC State in Charlotte, North Carolina. Interesting SEC-ACC ranked matchup.