AP Poll: Michigan jumps ahead of Ohio State, who falls out of top five
Michigan Wolverines briefly fell behind the Ohio State Buckeyes in the AP Poll, but Saturday’s rivalry win has U-M back ahead in this week’s rankings, rising back up to No. 2 in the country.
Ohio State dropped off of the top five and now is ranked sixth in the nation. Georgia, Michigan, Washington, Florida State and Oregon lead the way in the latest batch of rankings. OSU is followed by Texas, Alabama, Missouri and Penn State rounding out the top ten.
The canonical rankings this time of year are put out by the College Football Playoff committee, who will reveal their last rankings on Tuesday before Sunday afternoon’s official reveal of the four teams that make the field. There are plenty of games this week that have playoff implications on championship weekend.
Georgia will play Alabama in the SEC title game, and an Alabama win might be enough to put them in the top four with only a loss to Texas on its resume. Washington and Oregon are facing off in the Pac-12 title game that could serve as a play-in game, while Florida State could punch its ticket with an ACC title game win over Louisville. Texas is also lurking and could play its way into the field with a Big-12 title victory over Oklahoma State if chaos happens in front of them.
Here is the full AP Poll revealed this week.
- Georgia (52 first-place votes)
- Michigan (10)
- Florida State
- Ohio State
- Penn State
- Ole Miss
- Notre Dame
- Oklahoma State
- North Carolina State
- Oregon State
- James Madison
Acting head coach Sherrone Moore says never felt the pressure of the week throughout preparation or in the win over OSU.
“Never really pressure,” Moore said. “Our players, the way they prepare and the way they attack things, it doesn’t make you feel pressure. You feel extremely prepared, you feel very confident in what you’re going to do. Only way I might not sleep good is my daughter might have her foot in my face. That’s about it. I don’t lose sleep over these guys, they work too hard and attack everything every day. We know this game. When this game comes around, you want that. That’s why you come here, you come here for the pressure and this game. It makes us want to run through a wall and go attack it. Nothing added there this week.”
What’s next for Wolverines?Michigan is back in action this weekend in Indianapolis going for its third-straight Big Ten Championship game. For the second time in three years, the opponent will be the Iowa Hawkeyes. U-M enters the week as 22-point favorites for the game that kicks off at 8 p.m. ET from Lucas Oil Stadium on FOX.
