Alabama Football Unanimously Remains No 1 in AP Top 25 as Top 7; Buffalo deserves the first ranking

Alabama was number 1 for the fifth straight week on Sunday, increasing its series of consecutive polls to 210, the third-longest in The Associated Press college football poll history.

The Crimson Tide was the unanimous number 1 for the third straight week, and the top seven teams remained unchanged for the fifth straight week.

Notre Dame was number 2, followed by Ohio State, Clemson and Texas A&M to round out the top 5. No. 6 Florida and No. 7 Cincinnati also held their seats.

Alabama’s campaign series has passed Florida’s run of 209 under Steve Spurrier from 1990 to 2002. Next up is Florida State’s strip of 211 during the Bobby Bowden era from 1989 to 2001. The record belongs to Nebraska with 348 from 1981 to 2002.

BYU was the only top 10 team to lose and fell into a thriller in Coastal Carolina on Saturday. The Cougars fell six places to 14th and the Chanticleers three places to 11th.

POLLING POINTS

Ranked # 24 Buffalo is ranked for the first time in school history and breaks into the top 25 this week without playing a loss. The Bulls canceled their game in Ohio on Friday en route to Athens because the Bobcats had COVID-19 problems.

Buffalo is the first MAC team to be included in the leaderboard this season. This means that every FBS league has at least one ranking list in this season, which has been changed by the pandemic.

The Bulls have been an FBS school at the MAC since 1999 and only had two non-losing seasons before Lance Leipold took over as coach in 2015. Leipold, who built a Division III powerhouse in Wisconsin-Whitewater, is in Buffalo in the middle of his fourth straight season of .500 or better.

IN AND OUT

While the top seven teams stayed on hold, the back half of Buffalo and the Colorado Buffaloes got mixed up.

Marshall, Oklahoma State, Oregon, and Washington all dropped out.

Oklahoma State’s third loss of the season knocked the Cowboys off the rankings for the first time this season.

Marshall dropped all the way from 15th after being knocked out by Rice at home on Saturday in one of the season’s most surprising surprises.

The Ducks and Huskies exits left the Pac-12 with two ranked teams: USC No. 16, due to play against Washington State on Sunday evening in a game that was delayed due to COVID-19 issues, and Colorado No. 21.

Under the coach of the first year, Karl Dorrell, the Buffaloes (4-0) are rated for the first time since a two-week stint in 2018. They started 5-0 that season but ended with a seven-game losing streak and a change of coach.

No. 20 North Carolina and No. 23 Texas returned to the top 25.

CONFERENCE CALL

Big Ten: 5 (No. 3, 8, 15, 19, 25)
SEC: 4 (No. 1, 5, 6, 12)
ACC: 4 (No. 2, 4, 9, 20)
Big 12: 3 (No. 10, 13, 23)
Americans: 2 (No. 7, 18)
Pac-12: 2 (No. 16, 21)
Sun belt: 2 (No. 11, 17)
MAC: 1 (No. 24)
Independent: 2 (No. 14, 22)

RANKING RANKING

• # 7 Cincinnati at # 18 Tulsa. A rematch for December 19 in the championship game of the American Athletic Conference has already been secured, with only the location of the game to be determined.

• No. 25 Wisconsin at No. 19 Iowa. The Heartland Trophy is coming up.

• # 20 North Carolina at # 9 Miami. Interesting matchup between the third and fourth best teams of the ACC.