The top three teams in the latest AP Top 25 poll remained unchanged, but 21 of the teams moved in the latest rankings.
The Week 3 edition of the AP College Football Top 25 rankings hit the press on Sunday, although this week’s changes are far less drastic than what we saw after a major shake-up in Week 2.
The top three remained unchanged from last week, as No. 1 Texas topped the voting with 58 first place votes (up from 56 last week). No. 2 Georgia again received three first-place votes, the same number the Bulldogs received in Week 3, despite a convincing 45-17 thrashing of SEC foe Arkansas on the road.
Notre Dame didn’t receive a single first-place vote, but still received the necessary total votes to keep the No. 3 ranking the Fighting Irish have held since Week 1.
Tallying The Votes
Also receiving first-place votes were No. 4 Ole Miss (4), No. 5 Indiana (3), and No. 6 Miami (1). BYU continued its steady rise up the rankings, entering the top 10 for the first time this season at No. 9 after downing Colorado State 41-23 on Saturday. No. 10 LSU only fell three spots to No. 10 after the Tigers’ 32-24 loss to LSU on the road. No. 23 Texas A&M woke up to a harsher reality after its 31-21 upset loss to Kentucky, dropping 14 spots from No. 9 a week ago after a disastrous performance.
The biggest riser this week among teams that were already ranked in last week’s poll is Louisville, who rose seven spots from No. 23 to No. 16 after outlasting an explosive SMU team at home. No. 21 Florida and No. 24 Mississippi State are the only new entrants into the Top 25, this week, the latter of which we predicted in last week’s takeaways.
What will we be right and wrong about this week? Time will only tell.
Five Takeaways From The Week 3 AP Top 25 Poll Release
🚨 NEW AP TOP 25!
The top 3 remains unchanged but Ole Miss moved into the top 5 after taking down LSU. Texas A&M falls 14 spots to No. 23 after losing to Kentucky. Louisville's win over SMU moves the Cardinals up 7 spots.
Did the voters get it right this week? pic.twitter.com/VWwzf6YR4k
— teamfb (@teamfbseven) September 20, 2026
Voters Are Far Too Loyal To Preseason Rankings
This is a problem that has historically plagued the concept of preseason rankings, and it’s been even more prevalent so far this season because of the results we’ve gotten across the board. Each year, I become a bit more convinced that not only are the preseason rankings pointless, but that they very well may be detrimental.
I’ve said in the past that this is the least in-tune crop of AP Top 25 Poll voters in the sport’s history, but the stubbornness that keeps many of those folks from ever admitting their initial assessment of a team was wrong until that team suffers a devastating and season-altering loss is a disservice to the sport and a misunderstanding of what it means to be a voter.
Georgia And Miami Are The Best Teams In The Country
Perhaps the most prevalent example of the voter hivemind in this week’s edition of the rankings is the fact that No. 2 Georgia and No. 6 Miami got a combined five first-place votes despite both schools being head and shoulders above the rest of the country from a performance standpoint this season. Voters are seemingly married to the idea that because current No. 1 Texas knocked what very well may have been an overrated Ohio State team off that initial throne in Week 2, the Longhorns inherently deserve that honor until it’s taken from them in a loss.
I’m here to tell you that’s nonsense. Texas didn’t look anything close to the No. 1 team in the country in the Longhorns 30-6 slog of a win over a limping UTSA program, and it certainly didn’t look like the best team in the country for the first 45 minutes of the Ohio State game.
Georgia ended up getting no-love for a 28-point dogging of a conference opponent on the road and Miami was penalized a spot for beating a conference foe by 13 points in a game where its Heisman candidate quarterback Darian Mensah didn’t throw a single incompletion in 20 attempts. Riddle me that one.
Darian Mensah just made ACC history while keeping No. 5 Miami unbeaten
30/34, 220 PYDS, 3 PTD, 0 INT vs. Wake Forest
He completed his first 24 passes, setting ACC records for consecutive completions and consecutive completions to start a game. https://t.co/Kea9kaKGCt pic.twitter.com/rNbYkSH3JL
— Football Performances (@NFLPerformances) September 19, 2026
Florida Has Rapid Riser Potential
Jon Sumrall’s new-look Florida Gators pushed their way into the AP Top 25 this week with a big time win over Auburn on the road, and according to Vegas, the Gators are somehow favored to beat No. 4 Ole Miss at The Swamp this week. It makes sense in a way.
Ole Miss is coming off arguably the biggest regular-season win in modern program history, and we’ve seen plenty of teams have a letdown performance the week after such a high.
Florida HC Jon Sumrall reacts to being told the Gators are favored against Ole Miss:
"There's a lot of good drugs out there, huh?" pic.twitter.com/lbzzjqtMPG
— Underdog CFB (@UnderdogCFB) September 21, 2026
Florida is also the perfect example of a team that’s just far better than what the preseason rankings suggested, and frankly it shouldn’t have taken a win in one the nation’s most hostile environments for the Gators to get the respect of merely having a number next to their name.
One certainty? That respect will come in droves if emerging Heisman candidate RB Jadan Baugh and his team can knock off Trinidad Chambliss and the Rebels on Sunday. In fact, the hype would almost certainly make them next week’s biggest riser.
A New No. 1 Can Emerge Next Week
Current No. 1 Texas is also faced with one of its toughest road tasks of the season, as the Longhorns are set to head to Knoxville’s Neyland Stadium for a date with No. 14 Tennessee that has great potential to go in the opposite of the Horns’ desired direction. Texas coach Steve Sarkisian has already called Neyland Stadium the loudest in the country in a pre-Week 4 media availability, and dynamic quarterback Faizon Brandon has the potential to cause some trouble for the visitors.
Steve Sarkisian on Neyland Stadium:
“We are going into what I would probably consider the loudest stadium in the country.”
Texas visits Neyland Stadium for the first time ever this Saturday for a Top-15 showdown with Tennessee.
📹: Longhorn Network pic.twitter.com/GQf1f6PB1a
— Rylee Robinson (@ryleerobinsontv) September 21, 2026
It’s certainly not outside the realm of possibilities that Tennessee pulls off the upset as 5.5 point underdogs. In that case, that opens the door for No. 2 Georgia to move into the top spot with a win over an Oklahoma team that seemingly has little to no potential to score against the Bulldogs. As an added bonus, you have to imagine a Tennessee win would push the Volunteers into the top 10 next week.
Washington Receiving 107 Vote Is Inexplicable
One of the few good statements the AP Poll voters have made so far this season, albeit a week too late, was (briefly) expelling Washington from the Top 25 after the Huskies discouraging 16-14 win over a Utah State team that got dog-walked by mid-level FCS foe Idaho State a week before that.
The Huskies got back on track with a dominant 48-17 win on Saturday, but it came against an Eastern Washington team that’s going to finish at or near the bottom of the Big Sky Conference this season. That’s in the FCS. We’re talking about a win against a mid-level low major in which the Huskies didn’t even cover the 42.5 point spread. In fact, the Huskies haven’t come within less than 10 points of covering a spread all season.
And yet, enough of the 69 AP Top 25 Poll voters (26) decided this performance was enough to try and sneak these clowns in Seattle back into the Top 25. Meanwhile, West Virginia knocked off a ranked foe in Virginia to move to 3-0 on the season and the Mountaineers only got 93 points. Remember what I said about voters refusing to back off their initial opinions about a team? That same mindset also prevents them from buying into teams like West Virginia while it is on the upswing but hasn’t yet fully arrived.
