USC moved into the top five of The Associated Press college football poll Sunday for the first time in five years.
Georgia again received 62 of the 63 first-place votes in the AP Top 25 as the top four teams held their places after playing varying degrees of close games Saturday.
No. 2 Ohio State received the other first-place vote. Michigan was No. 3 again, followed by TCU.
The fifth-ranked Trojans moved up two spots after a thrilling victory over rival UCLA. The last time USC was ranked in the top five was September 2017, when it started at No. 4 but spent most of the season ranked in the teens before finishing 12th.
Lincoln Riley’s first season as USC coach has produced one of the best turnarounds in the country, with the Trojans going from four wins to 10 and the regular-season finale against No. 13 Notre Dame and a Pac-12 championship game still to go.
“If you would have told me at the end of last season I would be here now with this group of guys and being able to play for a championship, I would have called you a dead liar. Just being completely honest,” USC fourth-year wide receiver Kyle Ford told reporters after the UCLA game. “I’m just so thankful for everyone on this team.”
LSU stayed at No. 6. Clemson moved up two spots to No. 7. Alabama held at eighth, and Tennessee dropped four spots to No. 9 after getting upset in a blowout at South Carolina.
In their 63-38 victory, the Gamecocks scored more points against a top-five team as an unranked team than any in the history of the AP poll.
Oregon rounded out the top 10 after the Ducks beat Utah in the Pac-12’s other marquee game Saturday night.
POLL POINTS
Georgia set a school record with its 10th appearance at No. 1 this season. Last year, the Bulldogs had nine No. 1s, the most in school history.
Georgia has been at No. 1 a total of 34 times, tying Michigan for 12th most in the history of the AP poll, which dates to 1936.
USC is a top-five team for the 283rd time in poll history. That’s seventh most, 13 behind Nebraska.
The top five at being top five: Alabama (451), Oklahoma (430), Ohio State (418), Notre Dame (318) and Michigan (306).
IN
Texas, again.
The 24th-ranked Longhorns, who started the season unranked, have moved into the Top 25 four times. They haven’t managed to stay there for more than two weeks.
A blowout victory against Kansas pushed the Longhorns back into the rankings as they head toward a season finale against Baylor.
OUT
Oklahoma State lost its rivalry game against Oklahoma to drop to 7-4 and out of the rankings again.
CONFERENCE CALL
Pac-12 — 6 (Nos. 5, 10, 12, 14, 17, 22) SEC — 5 (Nos. 1, 6, 8, 9, 20) ACC — 3 (Nos. 7, 16, 18) American — 3 (Nos. 19, 21, 25) Big Ten — 3 (Nos. 2, 3, 11) Big 12 — 3 (Nos. 4, 15, 24) Sun Belt — 1 (No. 23) Independent — 1 (No. 13)
RANKED vs. RANKED
Rivalry weekend’s highest-stakes games:
• No. 19 Tulane at No. 21 Cincinnati, Friday. The winner hosts the American championship game.
• No. 10 Oregon at No. 22 Oregon State. First time since 2012 that both are ranked.
• No. 3 Michigan at No. 2 Ohio State. Both are undefeated for the 20th time when they meet for their annual rivalry game.
• No. 13 Notre Dame at No. 5 USC. First time both have been ranked since 2017.
San Jose State wide receiver Danny Scudero, the leading receiver in FBS this season, will enter the NCAA transfer portal when it opens in January, he announced Friday.
The 5-foot-9, 174-pound redshirt sophomore caught 88 passes for 1,291 yards and 10 touchdowns in his first season with the Spartans, becoming a semifinal for the Biletnikoff Award and earning first-team All-Mountain West honors.
Scudero is expected to be one of the more coveted wide receivers available when the transfer portal officially opens on Jan. 2 and has two more seasons of eligibility remaining.
Scudero spent two years at Sacramento State before transferring to San Jose State after the 2024 season. He broke out with 189 receiving yards to open the season against Central Michigan and surpassed 100 yards in five more games, including a career-high 215 and two touchdowns against Hawaii.
Scudero’s 88 receptions ranked fourth-most in FBS, and he leads all receivers this season with 16 catches of 30 or more yards.
The Spartans produced the No. 14 passing offense in FBS this season but went 3-9 in their second year under coach Ken Niumatalolo.
North Carolina offensive coordinator Freddie Kitchens and special teams coordinator Mike Priefer will not return next season, with the school announcing the departure of both assistants after a 4-8 season in Bill Belichick’s college coaching debut.
“We want to thank Coach Kitchens and Coach Priefer for their commitment and many contributions to our program and student-athletes,” Belichick said in a statement. “We wish them both nothing but the best in their future endeavors.”
North Carolina’s offense was one of the worst in the country, ranking 119th in the FBS in scoring (19.3 PPG) and 129th in total offense (288.8 YPG).
The Tar Heels had special teams issues coming down the stretch too, notably with Duke running a fake field goal to set up a late winning touchdown and NC State successfully running a fake punt for a first down the following week.
Kitchens, who served as Cleveland Browns coach in 2019, had been with the Tar Heels since 2023 and was the interim coach for their Fenway Bowl loss at the end of the 2024 season. Belichick was hired as the new head coach earlier that month.
Priefer was a longtime NFL special teams coach who followed Belichick to Chapel Hill but lasted just one season on the job.
Iowa State quarterback Rocco Becht underwent labrum surgery on his non-throwing shoulder Thursday, sources told ESPN’s Pete Thamel.
Becht played the majority of the season with a partial labrum tear and using a harness on the shoulder. He was diagnosed with the injury after the Cyclones’ loss to Cincinnati on Oct. 4. He also dealt with an AC sprain in his throwing shoulder late in the season, which he is recovering from.
Sources said Becht is expected to make a full recovery in the upcoming months as he weighs decisions about his future. The quarterback is expected to consider a return to Iowa State or entering the transfer portal.
Longtime Cyclones coach Matt Campbell left the school earlier this month to become Penn State‘s coach. The Cyclones hired Washington State‘s Jimmy Rogers as his replacement.
Becht, a junior this season, threw for 2,584 yards with 16 touchdowns and 9 interceptions. He has totaled 9,274 yards, 64 touchdowns and 27 interceptions in three-plus seasons at Iowa State.