Shortly after the release of the weekly USA TODAY poll, this week’s Associated Press Top 25 poll was revealed on Sunday afternoon.
There are striking similarities between the Coaches Poll and the AP Top 25. For starters, the Alabama Crimson Tide are the overwhelming choice to be the No. 1 team in the country. The Crimson Tide, 4-0 on the year, received 50 first-place votes out of a possible 61. The other 11 votes were handed out to Ohio State, Louisville and Michigan who are all ranked 2-4 in this week’s poll. The Top 5 is rounded out by Clemson and like the Coaches Poll, it will be intriguing to see how the Top 5 looks a week from now with the Cardinals and Tigers colliding in an anticipated Top 5 encounter in the ACC.
Spots 6-10 are occupied by Houston, Stanford, Wisconsin, the Texas A&M Aggies and Washington. A&M garnered lots of respect this week after a 45-24 victory over the Arkansas Razorbacks at AT&T Stadium in Arlington on Saturday night. The Aggies bumped up one spot following their win after being ranked 10th last week.
Tennessee was able to make a three-spot climb up to No. 11 in the polls after their win over Florida at home. Elsewhere, Ole Miss jumped up seven spots in the wake of their 45-14 blowout victory over the Georgia Bulldogs, who dropped all the way to 25th after being ranked No. 12 last week. Arkansas and Florida round out the SEC’s presence in the AP Top 25 as the Hogs and Gators find themselves at No. 20 and 23 respectively.
In total, seven teams from the SEC are in the AP Top 25 this week. This number matches up with the amount of teams in the USA TODAY poll as well.