Mississippi St. remains atop AP poll

New York, NY (SportsNetwork.com) – Mississippi State slightly increased its lead over Florida State for the No. 1 overall spot in the final Associated Press Top 25 released prior to the debut of the College Football Playoff rankings.

The Bulldogs overcame a challenge from Kentucky to record a 45-31 road win on Saturday, which garnered Mississippi State three additional first-place votes for a total of 46.

Florida State, which was idle this past weekend, received 14 first-place votes and 1,453 points for a second consecutive week. Ole Miss, which was listed atop three ballots in the previous poll, slipped from third to seventh following Saturday’s 10-7 loss at LSU.

The Rebels’ tumble moved Alabama, Auburn, Oregon and Notre Dame each up one place to round out the top six. Michigan State, Georgia and TCU, which set a Big 12 record for points in an 82-27 blowout of Texas Tech on Saturday, continued to occupy spots 8-10.

Auburn will travel to Mississippi this Saturday in the marquee matchup of next week’s schedule.

The next five positions are held by Kansas State, Baylor, Ohio State, Arizona and Arizona State, with the Wildcats and Sun Devils flipping places. LSU’s victory over Ole Miss made the Tigers the biggest climbers in this week’s rankings, vaulting from 24th to 16th.

The remainder of the Top 25 consists of Nebraska, Utah, Oklahoma, West Virginia, East Carolina, Clemson, Marshall, Duke and UCLA. Duke is the lone new entry and replaces Southern California, which dropped out from 20th after falling to Utah on Saturday.

There are three other matchups involving ranked teams slated for this coming weekend in addition to the Auburn-Ole Miss clash. TCU will travel to West Virginia, Arizona visits UCLA and Arizona State hosts Utah.

The College Football Playoff Selection Committee will unveil its first rankings Tuesday night and release a weekly poll up until the selection of the four semifinalists on December 7.

Categorized in: NCAA Football