Tomorrow's Top 25 Today: Oregon jumps Ole Miss to join top five of updated college football rankings

While many teams were off or faced lower-tier nonconference competition in Week 13, those that did log quality wins benefited from more attention and should see positive impacts when the AP Top 25 poll updates on Sunday. We are not expecting to see the top of the college football rankings have too many dramatic changes, but even within the top 10 there are opportunities for movement coming out of the weekend's results. 

Oregon is a team that could see a positive benefit from being at the center of the college football world in Week 13, outlasting USC for a 42-27 win that both bolsters the Ducks' resume and maintains their status as one of the top one-loss teams in the country. The curiosity in terms of the voters is whether the victory will be enough to first break the tie with Texas Tech for No. 6 and then challenge Ole Miss for No. 5 as the highest-ranked team behind Georgia. Since both the Rebels and the Red Raiders were off in Week 13 while Oregon logged one of its best wins of the season, the potential for some shuffling provides intrigue going into Sunday. 

Oklahoma, similarly, played in one of the biggest games of the day and could see some upward movement after the home win against Missouri, though it's possible the Sooners are already tapped out as the top two-loss team in the rankings according to the AP poll. 

Bowl projections: Notre Dame, Oregon flex for College Football Playoff committee, Miami stays on bubble

Brad Crawford

Of course, the spotlight of Week 13 can cut the other way for teams as well. Voters will have to wrestle with where to place Georgia Tech; a team that started 8-0 is now 9-2 after losing two of its last three behind woeful defensive performances. There's also consideration for how voters will address the rest of the end of the ballot, where choices between two-loss and three-loss power conference teams go head-to-head with some of the brightest stars from the Group of Five. 

Here's how we project the new AP Top 25 poll to look after Week 13: 

1. Ohio State (Last week — 1): The Buckeyes defense held an opponent to 10 points or less for the ninth time this season, and the offense relied on its depth down two stars in a 42-9 win. Even with leading receivers Jeremiah Smith and Carnell Tate out of the lineup, Ohio State still out-gained Rutgers 430-to-147 and relied on a balanced attack that included 110 rushing yards and two scores from freshman running back Bo Jackson. 

2. Indiana (2): The Hoosiers were off in Week 13 and will be back in action next week to close the regular season against Purdue. 

3. Texas A&M (3): We are not projecting any change in votes for Texas A&M after cruising to a 48-0 win against FCS Samford, which fell to 1-11 on the season with the defeat.  

4. Georgia (4): The Bulldogs improved to 25-1 in home nonconference games under Kirby Smart with a 35-3 win against Charlotte. It was a day for the team's youth movement, with backups getting plenty of reps after Georgia established an early edge in the final home game of the regular season.  

5. Oregon (6): Saturday was an important day for Oregon's resume, as beating USC gives the Ducks a new "best win" while they improve to 10-1 on the season. Given their talent and pedigree, it's not hard to argue for Oregon as one of the best teams in the country, but the 2025 schedule has provided only a few opportunities to log wins that would sway voters making tough decisions inside the top 10. Now they have another one with USC, and that should close the narrow gap with Ole Miss to crash the top five.   

6. Ole Miss (5): The Rebels were off in Week 13, but we are projecting that a surge of support for the Ducks bumps Ole Miss out of the top five. Only 32 voting points separated the two teams last week (1,331-to-1,299), so it shouldn't take much shuffling to see Oregon slide ahead. 

7. Texas Tech (6): The Red Raiders were off in Week 13 and will be back in action next week to close the regular season at West Virginia. 

8. Oklahoma (8): It's full Al Davis "just win, baby" mode in Norman, where the scorecard doesn't have pictures and victories by any margin count towards Oklahoma's goal of reaching the College Football Playoff. Voters, however, might have been looking for more aesthetics from a hard-fought win against Missouri, and the 17-6 victory should strengthen the Sooners' status as a top-10 team more than propel a jump up in the rankings. 

9. Notre Dame (9): It's possible that Notre Dame gets a bump from the sticker shock of hanging 70 points on the board against a power conference opponent. But our projection is that voters won't be looking to knock Oklahoma or Texas Tech down to make room for a Fighting Irish team that met expectations by winning big as a 33-point favorite. 

10. Alabama (10): No major rankings changes are expected after the Crimson Tide beat FCS Eastern Illinois 56-0 to improve to 9-2 on the year.  

11. BYU (11): We are projecting the Cougars will hold their position just outside the top 10 after emerging 10-1 following a tough road win at Cincinnati. 

12. Vanderbilt (12): The Commodores let Diego Pavia loose and he answered the call against Kentucky, setting a new school record with 484 passing yards and scoring six total touchdowns (five passing, one rushing) in a 45-17 win against Kentucky. The win closed out the first undefeated home schedule (7-0) since 1982 and sets up a shot at the first-ever 10-win season going into next week's finale at Tennessee. 

13. Miami (14): You can call it "style points" if you want, but Mario Cristobal is calling it an "aggressive" mindset as Miami was throwing touchdown passes on fourth down late in a 34-17 win against Virginia Tech. Carson Beck certainly showed his best form, throwing for 320 yards and four touchdowns on 27-of-32 passing, and the Hurricanes played well enough to have voters reconsidering their order of two-loss teams outside the top 10.  

14. Utah (13): While a Utah fan emerges from Week 13 enthused that the Utes overcame multiple double-digit deficits to beat Kansas State 51-47, an AP voter might pause to evaluate why the afternoon was so difficult for a team that entered as the afternoon heavily favored at home. Utah's defense had few answers for Kansas State, so we're projecting the close call produces a slight shuffle in the mid-teens.  

15. Texas (17): Arch Manning having a six-touchdown day in a 52-37 win against Arkansas sets the perfect stage for Texas heading into rivalry week against Texas A&M. The Longhorns will remain the highest-ranked three-loss team in the rankings, but this week they are relying on other team's losses to move up. Next week, against the Aggies, comes the opportunity for a big jump closer to the top 10.   

16. Michigan (18): Top running backs Justice Haynes and Jordan Marshall were out, but Bryson Kuzdzal was ready for the opportunity to produce and help Michigan roll to a 45-20 win at Maryland. Michigan did not punt once and converted 12 of 14 third downs in an impressive showing against the Terps' defense. 

17. Virginia (19): The Wahoos were off in Week 13 and will be back in action to close the regular season against rival Virginia Tech next Saturday.  

18. USC (16): We are not projecting USC to fall too far in the rankings even after losing by 15 points at Oregon. The Trojans are now 8-3 but still have the win against Michigan and no real bad losses on the resume (Oregon, Notre Dame, Illinois). That's a very similar profile to Tennessee, which is the target for where we think USC will wind up. 

19. Tennessee (20): The long losing streak to Florida in The Swamp has been snapped, and Tennessee has now set itself up to finish ranked for the fourth straight season under Josh Heupel. The Vols finish the regular season at Vanderbilt and then will have the bowl game, and sitting here now at 8-3 it seems likely at least one of those wins should be good enough for AP voters to have Tennessee on their end-of-season ballots.  

20. James Madison (21): Things got extremely dicey for the Dukes with Washington State in town, but some clutch plays, including Wayne Knight's 58-yard go-ahead touchdown run in the fourth quarter, helped JMU remain a one-loss team as the College Football Playoff spotlight continues to heat up. The Dukes are 10-1 and have already clinched a spot in the Sun Belt title game, but they remain in a race to finish as one of the five highest-ranked conference champions in the eyes of the selection committee.  

21. North Texas (22): The Mean Green handled their business on the road, rolling up 56 points in a 32-point win at Rice to improve to 10-1 overall and keep their inside track on making the American title game.  

22. Georgia Tech (15): Though Georgia Tech is still just a two-loss team, the fact that both losses have come in the last three games really drives home the spiraling nature of this season. AP voters who are prone to recency bias could drop Georgia Tech off their ballots entirely, while others who bought stock into the team that started 8-0 will be less likely to be so dramatic. Because the best win on the resume is Wake Forest, the placement for this 9-2 group is wildly unpredictable.  

23. Tulane (24): Having to settle for field goals five times meant that the 37-13 final against Temple might have been even more lopsided than the score suggests. The Green Wave bottled up Temple's offense and Jake Retzlaff had three total touchdowns (two passing, one rushing) to move Tulane to 9-2 overall and one win away from clinching a spot in the American Athletic Conference title game.   

24. SMU (NR): The Mustangs were 28th last week in voting points before dominating Louisville on Saturday afternoon, and now sit at 8-3 overall following the 38-6 win. While we are projecting a return to the AP Top 25 poll, what's most important for SMU was how this victory moved the Mustangs one step closer to the ACC Championship Game and a possible return to the College Football Playoff  

25. Pitt (NR): The Panthers were No. 23 in the AP Top 25 poll prior to losing to Notre Dame last week, so even though they were further down in "Others receiving votes" it should not be hard to see them return to voters' ballots after beating Georgia Tech.  

Projected to drop out: No. 23 Missouri, No. 25 Houston