Alabama is a unanimous No. 1 in the Associated Press college football poll, and Northwestern moved up to No. 11 on Sunday for its best ranking in 24 years.
For the second straight week, the top eight teams in the poll held their spots. The Crimson Tide received all 62 first-place votes after beating Kentucky, 63-3, making Alabama the first unanimous No. 1 this season and the first team to do it in the regular season since 2018.
Notre Dame was No. 2, followed by Ohio State, Clemson and Texas A&M. Florida was No. 6, and No. 7 Cincinnati and No. 8 BYU also held their spots.
The rest of the top 10 was No. 9 Oregon and Miami.
Northwestern moved up eight spots after beating Wisconsin, 17-7, to improve to 5-0. The Badgers slipped eight spots to 18th.
The Wildcats were last ranked this highly in 1996. The year after their surprising run to the Rose Bowl, coach Gary Barnett’s team reached a high of No. 10.
No. 12 Indiana dropped three spots after putting a scare into Ohio State in the Big Ten’s other top-25 matchup Saturday. The Buckeyes beat the Hoosiers, 42-35, after leading 35-7.
This is the 80th time in the history of the AP poll, which dates to 1936, there has been a unanimous No. 1.
It was a rare occurrence in the early days of the poll, when college football was more regional. From 1936-66, only twice was there a unanimous No. 1.
Southern Cal was a unanimous No. 1 twice during the 1967 season, but not until the 1990s did the unanimous No. 1 become a common occurrence.
From 1992, when Alabama finished the season by getting all the first-place votes in the poll, to last season when LSU did the same, the AP Top 25 had a unanimous No. 1 on 67 occasions.
The unanimous No. 1 for Alabama is its 22nd overall, most of any school, and its 21st since 2012.
Four ranked teams lost Saturday, but three of those defeats came against other ranked teams. Because of that, just one team fell out of the rankings.
Liberty took its first loss of the season, falling 15-14 at N.C. State, and is no longer ranked.
Replacing the Flames was North Carolina, which moved back into the rankings at No. 25.
