AP Top 25 preview: Penn State could drop out of Top 25 after loss to UCLA. Texas teetering, too

Audio By Carbonatix

Not a good day for a couple blue bloods, especially Penn State.

The No. 7 Nittany Lions went to the West Coast a week after their crushing home loss to Oregon and got beat again, this time by a woebegone UCLA in what to date is the upset of the year in college football.

Penn State didn't build up much equity with its light nonconference schedule, and the 42-37 loss to the Bruins could leave it on the outside looking in when The Associated Press Top 25 is released Sunday.

No. 9 Texas' 29-21 loss to Florida could knock the Longhorns out of the rankings as well.

A week after three top-five teams lost, the three that played Saturday won. Ohio State rolled past Minnesota 42-3 and is on track to be No. 1 for the sixth straight week. No. 3 Miami, up 28-3 entering the fourth quarter, held off No. 18 Florida State 28-22 and No. 5 Oklahoma routed Kent State 44-0.

No. 10 Alabama has an opportunity to jump at least two spots because of the losses by Penn State and Texas. The Crimson Tide pulled away from No. 16 Vanderbilt 30-14.

No. 11 Texas Tech beat Houston 35-11 in a battle of unbeatens and should receive its highest ranking since 2013, when it reached No. 10, and possibly since it was No. 8 at the end of the 2008 regular season.

No. 12 Georgia, a 35-14 winner against Kentucky, also is poised to return to the top 10.

No. 20 Michigan took care of business for a 24-10 win against Wisconsin and should move up a little.

All depending on what the voters decide, but Penn State could tie 1959 Oklahoma for the second-biggest drop out of the rankings, not counting preseason polls or the 2020 pandemic season. The Nittany Lions would fall 19 spots, just as the Sooners did when they went from No. 2 to out of the Top 20 after losing their opener to Northwestern. The biggest drop all time was by 2007 Michigan, which dropped 21 spots from No. 5 to out of the rankings for losing its opener to Appalachian State.

Texas came into the season as the preseason No. 1 team and then lost its opener at Ohio State. Wins over San Jose State, UTEP and Sam Houston probably aren't enough to keep a free fall from happening after the loss to Florida.

No. 14 Iowa State couldn’t dig itself out of a 24-point hole late in the second quarter and lost 38-30 at Cincinnati.

No. 22 Illinois's 43-27 win at Purdue put its abysmal loss to Indiana farther back in the rear-view mirror and sets the stage for Ohio State's visit to Champaign next week.

It will be interesting to see how the voters treat Vanderbilt, which still was within six points of Alabama in the middle of the fourth quarter.

No. 21 Notre Dame, which beat Boise State 28-7, probably merits a move up after holding Arkansas and the Broncos to a combined 20 points.

South Florida, out of the Top 25 the last three polls, was the first team outside the Top 25 last week and could re-enter. The Bulls rushed for a season-high 407 yards and finished with 631 total in a 54-26 rout of Charlotte.

Cincinnati has won four straight since its loss to Nebraska in the opener and outmuscled Iowa State while picking up yards in big chunks.

Memphis can make a case for a ranking. The Tigers hammered Tulsa 45-7 and are 6-0 for the first time since 2015.

___

Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here and here (AP News mobile app). AP college football: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-football-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-football