College football rankings: Top 25 teams moving up, down in Rivalry Week

These college football teams are moving up, and sliding down, the top 25 rankings as we move into a hugely consequential Rivalry Week to cap off the 2024 regular season.

What college football teams will be on the move in the new Top 25 rankings heading into Rivalry Week. / Randy Sartin-Imagn Images

It was a Chaos Saturday across college football this past weekend, with some prove-it matchups in the SEC, Big Ten, and particularly the Big 12 that will force some big decisions from AP top 25 voters when they cast their ballots for the new rankings heading into Rivalry Week.

Much of that chaos took place in the SEC, where three top-15 ranked conference teams lost on the road, and a Big Ten playoff hopeful suffered its first defeat, a series of results that will once again create plenty of change when the College Football Playoff reveals its new bracket, too.

What teams will be on the move in the AP top 25 college football rankings this week? 

Let’s take a shot at predicting who’s moving up, and who’s going down, in the polls heading into Rivalry Week.

Rankings reflect AP top 25 poll

Moving down: Alabama

Last week’s ranking: No. 7

It’s not often you see an Alabama team so thoroughly manhandled and beaten in the trenches, but Oklahoma’s defense did that and more in a stunning 24-3 upset victory over the Crimson Tide.

Bama’s star dual-threat quarterback Jalen Milroe was held to just 7 rushing yards, didn’t throw a touchdown, and had 3 interceptions, including one that was returned for a touchdown.

OU ran for 260 yards and 2 touchdowns while the Sooners held the Tide to just 70 yards on the ground and a meager 2.3 yard per carry average.

Simply put, it was one of Alabama’s worst efforts in years, the team’s worst deficit since the 2018 national title game, its 3 points the fewest in a game since 2004, and the loss was the worst against an unranked team since 1998.

A performance like that can’t help but raise more questions about Alabama’s physicality and team preparedness under Kalen DeBoer’s leadership, and to some more unwelcome comparisons to Nick Saban.

And in the short term, it should result in a drop out of the top 10 in this week’s AP rankings, effective elimination from the SEC Championship Game this year, and potentially out of the College Football Playoff bracket, as well.

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Moving up: Arizona State

Last week’s ranking: No. 21

Two weeks ago, the Sun Devils were unranked. This week, they could be in the top 15 of the polls after playing themselves into contention for the Big 12 Championship Game.

And a month ago, Arizona State was 5-2, but since then has won four straight games, culminating in a statement win against BYU that puts this team in pole position in the Big 12 standings with one regular season game remaining, against rival Arizona.

The close game was capped off by a weird last minute that saw scores of ASU fans storm the field thinking the game was over, but officials put one second back on the clock, forcing everyone off the field to allow BYU one more chance to win the game.

But that Hail Mary fell incomplete, putting the Sun Devils on the cusp of the College Football Playoff discussion, and due for a nice jump in this week’s rankings.

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Moving down: Ole Miss

Last week’s ranking: No. 9

Ole Miss had no margin for error coming into this weekend, ranking No. 9 in the College Football Playoff bracket projection and with its back against the wall needing to avoid a costly third loss.

But after 60 minutes in The Swamp, the Rebels became Florida’s second-straight ranked victim in a signature upset that will once again re-write the playoff bracket coming into Rivalry Week.

Despite coming in as the nation’s second-ranked passing offense, Ole Miss struggled with dropped passes, including on three would-be touchdowns had they been caught, and failed to come away with points on three drives in scoring position.

And then, quarterback Jaxson Dart was intercepted twice, ending both attempts to tie the game with time running out in the fourth quarter.

Instead, time appears to have run out on the Rebels’ College Football Playoff chances, a heartbreaking conclusion to a season that had such high hopes after recovering from a 1-2 start in SEC play that included a statement victory against Georgia.

AP top 25 voters will drop Ole Miss, but perhaps not outside the top-15 as losses by BYU, Texas A&M, and Colorado could prevent too precipitous a fall, but the selection committee will punish this team more severely and push it outside the top dozen for good.

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Moving down: Indiana

Last week’s ranking: No. 5

No one can deny what the Hoosiers have done this season, marching out to their first-ever 10-0 record behind one of the nation’s most productive scoring offenses.

But the knock against Indiana, including in the selection committee room, was the competition it put up all those points against, the 106th ranked strength of schedule coming into this week.

A game at perennial Big Ten bully Ohio State was supposed to be the ideal proving ground for the Hoosiers, but after a 38-15 loss in the Horseshoe, those hopes fell flat.

Indiana’s offense, good for almost 44 points per game this season, had no answers in the face of Ohio State’s ferocious pass rush after taking an early 7-0 lead.

Kurtis Rourke had just 68 passing yards and no touchdowns while the Hoosiers finished with only 151 total yards and averaged just 2.5 yards per play in the loss.

That could be enough for AP top 25 voters to drop Indiana out of the top-10, but, more consequentially, might put Indiana’s College Football Playoff chances in peril.

The committee might drop the Hoosiers out of the top-dozen altogether, given the nature of the loss and the lack of any other major criteria in its favor.

But they could be saved by virtue of some marquee losses by SEC hopefuls Alabama and Ole Miss and by former Big 12 leader BYU, as those defeats could leave Indiana some breathing room.

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Who else could move?

- Colorado should drop a few spots after a tough loss at Kansas that makes the Big 12 title picture a little more confusing than it was coming in.

- Likewise for BYU, whose undefeated season came to a brutal end after dropping two straight games, most recently at Arizona State and losing its lofty position atop the Big 12.

- SMU could take advantage of losses by Ole Miss and BYU and move up the rankings after clinching a spot in the ACC Championship Game.

- Army will likely fall out of the rankings after getting shellacked by Notre Dame at Yankee Stadium, proving those other 9 wins don’t really compare to when you play major competition.

- Conversely, we should see Notre Dame move to the No. 5 position after Indiana’s loss.

- Georgia and Tennessee should inch upwards in the poll after Alabama’s loss, especially as the Bulldogs clinched a spot in the SEC Championship Game against the Texas-Texas A&M winner.

- Ohio State won’t move despite a statement win over undefeated Indiana, given it’s No. 2 in this week’s rankings and that it has a loss against current No. 1 Oregon.

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More ... When the AP top 25 rankings come out

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