Penn State rises to No. 7 in the AP college football rankings

Penn State climbed two spots to No. 7 in the Associated Press college football poll after a 21-7 victory over Illinois on Saturday at Beaver Stadium. The Nittany Lions improved to 4-0 behind the 1-2 rushing punch of Nick Singleton and Kaytron Allen.

Next up for Penn State is a Big Ten home game against UCLA on Saturday at noon.

Alabama returned to No. 1 in the AP poll for the first time in two years Sunday following its dizzying victory over Georgia, making this 16 of 17 seasons the Crimson Tide has held the top spot at some point.

UNLV, unbeaten through four games for the first time in its Division I history, cracked the rankings for the first time ever just days after losing its starting quarterback over an NIL dispute. The Rebels are tied for No. 25 with Texas A&M.

Alabama received 40 of 63 first-place votes and leapfrogged three teams to take over No. 1 from Texas, which tussled with Mississippi State deep into the second half as a five-touchdown favorite and slipped to No. 2. The Longhorns got 19 first-place votes, well off last week’s 44.

Ohio State remained No. 3 with four first-place votes. Tennessee, which had an open date, moved up a spot to No. 4. Georgia, whose only three losses since 2021 have come to Alabama, dropped to No. 5.

Oregon, Penn State, Miami, Missouri and Michigan rounded out the top 10.

Mississippi and Utah took the biggest falls. The Rebels, upset by Kentucky at home, dropped from No. 6 to No. 12. The Utes, who lost to Arizona at home, went from No. 10 to No. 18.

Alabama, which is No. 1 for the first time under coach Kalen DeBoer, has posted back-to-back impressive wins with Heisman Trophy front-runner Jalen Milroe and freshman phenom receiver Ryan Williams leading the way.

The Tide won, 42-10, on the road against Wisconsin two weeks ago and prevailed, 41-34, against Georgia on Saturday night after squandering a 28-point first-half lead.

The Tide hadn’t been No. 1 since Oct. 2, 2022. They memorably held the spot for just one week after needing a late goal-line stand to beat an unranked Texas A&M at home, with Milroe subbing for injured 2021 Heisman winner Bryce Young that night.

The Tide are No. 1 for the 141st time, most of any team since the AP rankings began in 1936, and for the 105th time since 2009 when Nick Saban won the first of his six national championships at ‘Bama.

The SEC holds four of the top five spots for the fourth straight week, an ongoing first in the AP poll. The only other time in the 88-year history of the poll that a conference had four of the top five teams was the SEC on Oct. 19, 2014 (No. 1 Mississippi State, No. 3 Mississippi, No. 4 Alabama and No. 5 Auburn). That lasted a week.

The SEC holds nine spots in the Top 25, one off its own record for number of ranked teams from one conference.

The Big Ten has four teams in the top 10 for the first time since October 2021 and seven in the Top 25.

UNLV was one of the feel-good stories of the season even before Matthew Sluka announced he would sit out the rest of the season, contending he was cheated out of a $100,000 name, image and likeness payment.

The Rebels, with Hajj-Malik Williams starring as the new quarterback, beat Fresno State 59-14 on Saturday. Now the Rebels sit 4-0 for the first time since 1976, when they were Division II, and they will look to knock off a third power-conference opponent when they visit Syracuse this week.

Also entering the rankings is Indiana at No. 23. The Hoosiers, who are 5-0 for the first time since 1967, hadn’t been ranked since they were No. 17 in the 2021 preseason poll.

Oklahoma State dropped out. The Cowboys, who were No. 20, have lost two straight against ranked opponents, most recently getting blown out at Kansas State.