Though there were a handful of upsets on Saturday but since most of those didn’t occur in the top 10, the bulk of the places near the top remained unchanged heading into Week 4.
In fact the only change was No. 11 Michigan and No. 10 Utah flipping places after the Wolverines had the weekend off ahead of their matchup against No. 13 Wisconsin. The Badgers were actually tied at that ranking with co-No. 13 Penn State as changes were few and far between from No. 14 on up.
One pleasant surprise was the continued ascent of UCF, which moved into the top 15 following the Knights destruction of a Stanford team ranked in the top 25 just two weeks ago.
Speaking of the Pac-12, the conference really dominated the AP Poll’s back half. No. 16 Oregon, No. 19 Washington State and No. 22 Washington were joined by No. 23 California and No. 24 Arizona State. The six schools from the league tied the SEC for most by one league -- though it just meant a little bit more for the latter with No. 17 Texas A&M being the lowest ranked of that bunch.
TCU also debuted in the poll at No. 25 while Michigan State, USC and Maryland dropped out.
The full AP Top 25 heading into Week 4:
- Clemson
- Alabama
- Georgia
- LSU
- Oklahoma
- Ohio State
- Notre Dame
- Auburn
- Florida
- Utah
- Michigan
- Texas
- Penn State/Wisconsin
15. UCF
16. Oregon
17. Texas A&M
18. Iowa
19. Washington State
20. Boise State
21. Virginia
22. Washington
23. California
24. Arizona State
25. TCU