Clemson easily held off Alabama on Sunday to retain the No. 1 spot in The Associated Press college football poll, extending its longest run atop the poll to seven weeks.
The Crimson Tide ran away from Georgia on Saturday night to make the case to be No. 1, but it wasn’t enough to topple the Tigers.
Clemson defended its turf with a historic blowout against Georgia Tech. The 66-point rout was the largest ever in an Atlantic Coast Conference football game. Clemson received 54 first-place votes out of 62 from the panel of sports writers and broadcasters.
The Crimson Tide got the remaining eight first-place votes. Notre Dame moved up to a season-high No. 3, No. 4 Georgia dropped one spot and Ohio State moved up to No. 5 a week before the Big Ten starts playing.
Clemson has been No. 1 since the preseason. The Tigers have been top-ranked 23 times in school history but never more than five times in a season before this year.
North Carolina took a big fall, dropping nine spots to No. 14 after losing at Florida State.
Oklahoma State is No. 6, with Texas A&M, Penn State, Cincinnati and Florida rounding out the top 10.
No. 22 Marshall moved back into the rankings. The unbeaten Thundering Herd were ranked in September, got bumped by the return of Big Ten and Pac-12 teams but have played their way back in.
No. 23 North Carolina State is ranked for the first time since 2018.
Notre Dame only scored 12 points in its bizarre 12-7 win over Louisville on Saturday. But, hey, a win is a win, and that was enough for college football coaches to put the Fighting Irish at No. 3 in this week's Coaches Poll, released Sunday. That's one spot above Georgia, which lost to Alabama 41-24 and fell from No. 3 last week to No. 4 this week.
Notre Dame is 4-0 and will look to make a run at No. 1 Clemson during its only year in the ACC as a full-time member. The Tigers, off a 73-7 shellacking of Georgia Tech stayed atop the coaches poll while Alabama garnered eight first-place votes at No. 2. Ohio State, which will start its season in Week 8, rounds out the top five.
North Carolina fell seven spots to No. 13 after its comeback against Florida State fell short while there were some new faces towards the bottom of the rankings. Coastal Carolina, Marshall each entered the newest rankings. Auburn, Tennessee, and Louisiana all dropped out after losses this week.
