Tomorrow’s Top 25 Today: Penn State, Texas flirting with exit from college football rankings

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A chaotic Saturday afternoon in college football has provided a massive shakeup in the rankings, as two top-10 teams both fell and the AP Top 25 voters must wrestle with how to rank a pair squads it considered among the best in the country heading into the season. 

Texas started the 2025 season as the No. 1 team in the country, according to the AP voters, with Penn State close on its heels at No. 2. Now, both teams face potential elimination from the rankings after each taking their second loss of the season here in Week 6 — both falling to unranked teams. 

It’s become its own bit of history, as this is just the second-ever season in AP poll history (since 1936) that the preseason top two teams have both lost at least two of their first five games. The only other instance, according to CBS Sports Research, was in 1964 when No. 1 Ole Miss started 3-2 and No. 2 Oklahoma started 2-3. 

This is the biggest heat check for preseason rankings in the modern era, and it has created a mess for voters who have to decide what to do with both of these presumed contenders. Neither Penn State nor Texas has a win against a power conference opponent, yet both have one-score losses to teams that currently reside in top two of the rankings. But those “quality losses” — Texas’ 14-7 loss at Ohio State and Penn State’s 30-24 double-overtime defeat at the hands of Oregon — can only count for so much after both teams went on the road in Week 6 and lost to unranked opponents. 

Bowl projections: Miami moves to top seed in College Football Playoff bracket as Penn State, Texas exit

Brad Crawford

Ultimately, the biases of each individual voter will determine the rankings fate of these two blue bloods who have failed to live up to preseason hype. Voters who still lean on a power ratings or power rankings mentality will keep these talented groups around, albeit in much lower positions than they held coming into the weekend. But others who lean more on resume will reward some of the surprise teams who have spent the first half of the season stacking four or five wins, even if the oddsmakers would make that group an underdog against either the Nittany Lions or Longhorns. 

That wasn’t the only chaos of the day. In total, we saw five ranked teams lose and three of them were to unranked teams. So, with all that in mind, here’s how we project the new AP Top 25 to look on Sunday after Week 6.

1. Ohio State (Last week — 1): Once again, the Buckeyes defense pitched a bit of a masterpiece, and after allowing a field goal on the first drive, totally shut down Minnesota. 

2. Oregon (2): The Ducks were off in Week 6 and will be back in action next Saturday in a top 10 matchup against Indiana, a game you can see on CBS. 

3. Miami (3): Look for Miami to make big cut into the first-place vote collection of both Ohio State and Oregon after thumping Florida State in Tallahassee. There’s going to be a big push from pundits for Miami as the new No. 1, but history shows AP voters are a bit more sluggish to bump established teams like Ohio State and Oregon from top spots when they’ve done little to suggest they’re unfit for the honor.  

4. Ole Miss (4): The Rebels were off in Week 6 and will be back in action next week against Washington State. 

5. Oklahoma (5): The big news out of Norman on Saturday was not Oklahoma’s 44-0 win in general but of a specific appreciation for Michael Hawkins Jr. stepping in for John Mateer with a four-touchdown showing. All eyes will be on Mateer’s status for next week’s game against Texas, but if the Sooners quarterback can’t go, Hawkins has a good foundation to build on in his first start under new offensive coordinator Ben Arbuckle.  

6. Texas A&M (6): Mike Elko was right about how this Texas A&M defense deserves more credit, and the way the Aggies have kept their first two SEC opponents bottled up points to a strength that this group can ride into conference title contention. 

7. Indiana (8): The Hoosiers were off in Week 6 and will be back in action next week at Oregon. 

8. Alabama (10): After being tied at halftime and very much in a dogfight with Vanderbilt, Alabama kicked up a notch in the second half with key scores and stops that sparked a 16-point win. The season-opening loss at Florida State will carry less weight with AP voters after each additional SEC win, especially if they look as impressive as Saturday’s victory against the previously undefeated Commodores. 

9. Texas Tech (11): The class of the Big 12 lived up to the hype, going on the road to Houston and handling business with a double-digit win. 

10. Georgia (12): The Bulldogs bounced back from last week’s tough loss to Alabama with a 35-14 win against Kentucky. 

11. LSU (13): The Tigers were off in Week 6 and will back in action next week at home against South Carolina. 

12. Tennessee (15): The Vols were off in Week 6 and will be back in action next week against Arkansas. 

13. Georgia Tech (17): The Yellow Jackets were off in Week 6 and will be back in action next week against Virginia Tech. 

14. Missouri (19): The Tigers were off in Week 6 and will be back in action next week against Alabama. 

15. Michigan (20): After starting a bit slow out of the gate, Michigan hit some explosive plays in the second half and puled away for a comfortable 24-10 win against Wisconsin. 

16. Notre Dame (21): For one of the first times in a few weeks, the Notre Dame offense wasn’t pouring on the points, but luckily the defense stepped up with one its best performances of the year. The Fighting Irish picked off Boise State quarterback Maddux Madsen four times and held the Broncos to just one touchdown in a 28-7 win to improve to 3-2.  

17. Illinois (22): The Fighting Illini kicked the offense into high gear against a Purdue team that was plucky early but ultimately could not trade paint with Luke Altmyer and the Illinois passing attack. At 5-1 with the only loss coming to top-10 Indiana, Illinois is inside the top 25 though still needing quality wins to make a serious move up in the rankings. 

18. BYU (23): Now at 5-0 following a win against West Virginia on Friday night, we are projecting a slight move up in the rankings for the Cougars as voters begin to give bonuses to teams that have made it this far into the season without a loss. BYU’s best win is probably a close road victory at Colorado, so there’s a ceiling to how high the team can climb on voters’ ballots but that zero in the loss column means more the deeper we get into October. 

19. Vanderbilt (16): There is no expectation that Vanderbilt will fall out of the rankings after losing at Alabama, but there will be a slight adjustment now that the Commodores are no longer undefeated. Alabama’s stock is on the rise so, the rankings punishment will be limited, but at the same time there’s not obvious quality wins to help slot Vanderbilt among one-loss teams. 

20. Virginia (24): The ACC title race got very interesting in Week 6, not only from the result in Tallahassee but also because Virginia just went into Louisville came out with a double-overtime win against the Cardinals. The Wahoos are 5-1 overall heading into their off week but 3-0 in conference play because the lone loss, 35-31 at NC State, was not a conference game. With wins over Florida State and Louisville, the toughest challenges on the conference schedule are behind them, setting the stage for some real expectations over the second half of the season.    

21. Arizona State (25): The Sun Devils were off in Week 6 and will be back in action next week at Utah.  

22. South Florida (NR): Voters had the Bulls as the first team outside the top 25 last week, and while blasting Charlotte doesn’t spark a big move up the resume for USF as a one-loss team, it looks much better after the results of Week 6. USF has a win over Florida, which just beat Texas, and its only loss is at Miami, which just beat Florida State. 

23. Penn State (7): James Franklin admitted after the game that Penn State did not handle last week’s double-overtime loss to Oregon well, and it showed with how the Nittany Lions started against UCLA. The previously winless Bruins went wire-to-wire and continued to score on a very good Penn State defense throughout the afternoon. Top 10 teams losing on the road in conference play isn’t crazy, but it is when that underdog enters the matchup with an 0-4 record.  

24. Texas (9): If we compare Texas to the idealized version of the Longhorns that was assumed coming into the year, this is a massive disappointment. But compared to other teams in this range, there is an argument that Texas hasn’t been that far off the mark. The Longhorns have lost a pair of one-score games on the road in The Horseshoe and the The Swamp. In a vacuum that’s not disgraceful, it’s just not befitting for a team this talented.  

25. Memphis (NR): The Tigers are the only 6-0 team in the country. They’ve got a win against Arkansas and though other teams had more voting points last week that feat of six wins in the first six weeks of the season could grab the attention of voters trying to make sense of the end of their ballots. 

Projected to drop out: No. 14 Iowa State, No. 18 Florida State

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