Clemson remains at No. 1 in AP poll; Coastal Carolina ranked for 1st time

Clemson easily held off Alabama on Sunday to retain the No. 1 spot in the Associated Press college football poll, extending its longest run atop the poll to seven weeks.

The Crimson Tide ran away from Georgia on Saturday night to make the case to be No. 1, but it wasn’t enough to topple the Tigers.

Clemson defended its turf with a historic blowout against Georgia Tech. The 66-point rout was the largest ever in an ACC football game. Clemson received 54 first-place votes out of 62 from the panel of sports writers and broadcasters.

The Crimson Tide got the remaining eight first-place votes. Notre Dame moved up to a season-high No. 3. No. 4 Georgia dropped a spot, and Ohio State moved up to No. 5 a week before the Big Ten starts playing.

Clemson has been No. 1 since the preseason. The Tigers have been top-ranked 23 times in school history but never more than five times in a season before this year.

North Carolina took a big fall, dropping nine spots to No. 14 after losing at Florida State.

Oklahoma State is No. 6, with Texas A&M, Penn State, Cincinnati and Florida rounding out the top 10.

Unbeaten Coastal Carolina is ranked for the first time in the program’s short history. The Chanticleers from Conway, S.C., joined the FBS in 2017.

They beat Sun Belt rival Louisiana-Lafayette last Wednesday to improve to 4-0. The loss knocked the Ragin’ Cajuns out of the Top 25, but it still has been a banner year for the Sun Belt. The conference has had three of its teams ranked at one point or another. Never before had more than one Sun Belt team been ranked in any season.

No. 22 Marshall moved back into the rankings. The unbeaten Thundering Herd were ranked in September, got bumped by the return of Big Ten and Pac-12 teams but have played their way back in.

No. 23 N.C. State is ranked for the first time since 2018.

Joining Louisiana-Lafayette in falling from the rankings were two SEC teams. Auburn and Tennessee both suffered a second loss and dropped from the Top 25 for the first time.