AP Top 25 poll: Texas leaps toward top 10,Tennessee sinks in Week 11 college football rankings

Texas is rising quickly after a big SEC win over Vanderbilt

By Austin Nivison

Nov 2, 2025 at 2:16 pm ET • 1 min read

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Chaos is inevitable in the college football, and that was the case again in Week 10. With a number of College Football Playoff hopefuls going down this week, that has shaken up the Week 11 AP Top 25 poll.

Texas started Saturday afternoon in need of a big win, and it got one by taking down No. 9 Vanderbilt in Austin. Arch Manning had a massive day with 328 passing yards and three touchdowns, and he led the Longhorns to a 34-10 lead to start the fourth quarter. Things did get little hairy with the Commodores scoring 21 consecutive points down the stretch, but the Texas managed to hold on. That resulted helped the Horns fly all the way up to No. 13 in this week's poll.

Other playoff contenders were not as fortunate as Texas. Miami suffered an inexplicable overtime loss to an SMU team that just lost to Wake Forest the week before. That knocked the Hurricanes down to No. 18, and their playoff chances are now on life support. The same can be said for Tennessee, which hosted Oklahoma for its "Dark Mode" game, but it was lights out for the Vols. Oklahoma pulled out a 33-27 win, and those two teams flip-flopped in the rankings. The Sooners are back up to No. 11 while the Vols are barely hanging around at No. 23.

Elsewhere, previously undefeated Georgia Tech tumbled from No. 8 to No. 16 after losing to NC State, and previously No. 22 Houston got rolled by a West Virginia team that entered the weekend winless in Big 12 play.

Below is the full AP Top 25 for Week 11. First-place votes are in parentheses.