Northwestern Rises To 8th Wildcats Break Into Top 10 For The First Time Since 1963
Northwestern broke into the Top 10 for the first time in 32 years, and Notre Dame moved up to No. 12 in Sunday’s Associated Press college football poll after defeating Southern California.
Northwestern (6-1) climbed three spots to No. 8 after beating Wisconsin 35-0 Saturday. The Wildcats’ last Top 10 appearance was in 1963, when they were ranked as high as No. 4.
Notre Dame, which lost its opener to Northwestern, rose five places after handing Southern Cal its first defeat, 38-10. The Fighting Irish (6-2) had fallen to No. 23 three weeks ago after losing to Ohio State.
Florida State and Nebraska remained 1-2 in the poll.
The Seminoles (7-0) received 34 first-place votes and 1,512 points after beating Georgia Tech 42-10. The Cornhuskers (7-0) got 20 firsts and 1,495 points after spoiling Kansas State’s perfect record with a 49-25 victory.
No. 3 Florida (6-0), which didn’t play Saturday, was first on three ballots. The other five first-place votes went to No. 4 Ohio State (7-0), which defeated Purdue 28-0.
Rounding out the Top 10 were Tennessee (6-1), Kansas (7-0), Colorado (6-1), Northwestern, Michigan (6-1) and Oregon (6-1).
Tennessee was off Saturday. Kansas beat Oklahoma 38-17, Colorado outscored Iowa State 50-28, Michigan defeated Indiana 34-17 and Oregon downed Washington State 26-7.
Auburn was 11th, followed by Notre Dame, Southern Cal, Kansas State, Texas, Penn State, Washington, Alabama, Texas A&M, Virginia, Syracuse, Texas Tech, Oklahoma, UCLA and Iowa.
Southern Cal and Oklahoma each plunged eight notches, while Kansas State dropped six spots. Virginia fell six places after losing to Texas 17-16, and Iowa dropped seven spots following a 41-27 loss to Penn State.
Syracuse and UCLA, which were ranked earlier this season, moved back into the Top 25. Syracuse (6-1) beat West Virginia 22-0 and UCLA defeated Stanford 42-28.
Dropping out of the Top 25 were Stanford and Wisconsin. Stanford was 23rd last week and Wisconsin was 24th.