Florida State fell out of the Associated Press college football poll on Tuesday after starting the season 0-2, becoming just the third team to go from preseason top-10 to unranked in the first regular-season poll since the rankings expanded to 25 in 1989.
Georgia remained No. 1, receiving 57 first-place votes after starting the season with a blowout of then-No. 14 Clemson. The Tigers hung on at No. 25.
Ohio State is No. 2 with five first-place votes. No. 3 Texas and No. 4 Alabama each moved up a spot, putting three Southeastern Conference teams in the top four along with Georgia.
No. 5 Notre Dame jumped two spots after opening the season with a victory at then-No. 20 Texas A&M, which fell out of the rankings.
Florida State has been the early season’s major disappointment. The defending Atlantic Coast Conference champion lost a Week 0 game in Dublin, Ireland, to ACC rival Georgia Tech and then dropped another league game Monday night at home to Boston College.
No other preseason Top 25 team this year lost to an unranked opponent to open the season. Florida State did it twice as a double-digit favorite and did not receive a single vote from the AP poll panel.
In the past 35 years, the other preseason top-10 teams to fall out of the Top 25 after Week 1 were Michigan in 2007 after famously losing to Appalachian State as No. 5 and Clemson in 2008. The Tigers were No. 9 but opened with a blowout loss to Alabama and tumbled out of the rankings.
Mississippi remained at No. 6. Oregon slipped four spots to No. 7 after winning a close game with Idaho. Penn State stayed at No. 8. Missouri moved up two spots to No. 9 to give the SEC five teams in the top 10. Michigan dropped one spot to No. 10.
Georgia Tech’s 2-0 start has the No. 23 Yellowjackets ranked for the first time since 2015.
Poll points
Because Florida State started its season a week before most of the country, it moves into an exclusive club of teams that began their seasons 0-2 with each loss coming while ranked in the top 10.
Notre Dame was the last to do it in 2022, when the Fighting Irish began the season No. 5, lost at No. 2 Ohio State in their opener, and then were upset at home the next week by Marshall while ranked eighth. The Irish went to on finish 9-4.
Ohio State opened the 1986 season ranked ninth and lost back-to-back games to ranked opponents, No. 5 Alabama and No. 17 Washington. The Buckeyes were No. 10 when they played the Huskies. Ohio State finished the season 10-3.
The 1967 Texas team and TCU from 1952 also started 0-2 while ranked in the top 10 of both games.
Florida State is only the second ranked team to lose twice before the first regular-season poll was released, joining 1951 Kentucky. The Wildcats went from No. 6 to No. 17 while going 1-2 to start the season, losing at No. 11 Texas and at Mississippi.
Florida State gets a weekend off before resuming its schedule with home games against Memphis and new ACC member California before a trip to SMU followed by a home game against Clemson.
“You’ve got a football team that nobody envisioned ever being where we are and having disappointment, having failure, but I do believe in what this team can do,” coach Mike Norvell said after the BC loss. “I believe in what this team can accomplish.”
Moving up
The big risers in the Top 25 were Miami and Southern California.
The Hurricanes jumped seven spots to No. 12 after routing Florida at The Swamp and have their best ranking since cracking the top 10 late in the 2020 season.
No. 13 USC moved up 10 places after beating LSU with a late touchdown Sunday night in Las Vegas. The loss dropped LSU to No. 18.
The Trojans started last season at No. 6, but ended up unranked after a disappointing 8-5 season with 2022 Heisman Trophy winner Caleb Williams.
In and out
The only other team to move into the rankings this week, along with Georgia Tech, was fellow ACC school Louisville. The Cardinals were among the top unranked vote-getters in the preseason and now sit at No. 22.
Conference call
Despite Florida State and Clemson starting the season 0-3, the ACC has one more team in this week’s rankings than it did last time:
SEC – 8 (Nos. 1, 3, 4, 6, 9, 14, 16, 18).
Big Ten – 6 (Nos. 2, 7, 8, 10, 13, 21).
ACC – 5 (Nos. 12, 22, 23, 24, 25).
Big 12 – 5 (Nos. 11, 16, 17, 19, 20).
Independent – 1 (No. 5).
Ranked vs. ranked
No. 3 Texas at No. 10 Michigan. The first regular-season meeting ever is a top-10 matchup at the Big House.
No. 14 Tennessee vs. No. 24 NC State in Charlotte, North Carolina. Interesting SEC-ACC ranked matchup.
The Boston Red Sox are sending rookie Kristian Campbell to Triple-A, paving the way for the return of outfielder Wilyer Abreu off the injured list, sources told ESPN on Thursday.
Campbell, the reigning Minor League Player of the Year, signed an eight-year, $60 million contract extension before the beginning of the season and won American League Rookie of the Month in April, hitting .301/.407/.495. Since May, he has struggled offensively, hitting .159/.243/.222, and defensively as the Red Sox’s everyday second baseman.
The reset for Campbell, who turns 23 on June 28, comes in the wake of Boston trading star slugger Rafael Devers to the San Francisco Giants. The return of Abreu and eventual return of third baseman Alex Bregman from a right quadriceps strain are expected to fortify a lineup that ranks fifth in the major leagues with 358 runs scored.
Campbell rocketed to the big leagues after a 2024 in which he hit .330/.439/.558 with 20 home runs and 77 RBIs over three minor league levels. Boston entered spring training hopeful he would earn the second base job, and despite hitting .167/.305/.271, the Red Sox were confident enough in Campbell’s ability to succeed that they locked him up to a deal that with two club options can run through 2034.
With a unique stance, Campbell managed to produce top-end exit velocities, and the Red Sox banked on that ability to make up for his lack of minor league at-bats. A fourth-round pick out of Georgia Tech in 2023, the 6-foot-3, 210-pound Campbell responded with four multihit games among his first seven in the big leagues and finished April with four home runs and 12 RBIs.
May and June have proven far more difficult, with just four multihit games among the 38 he has played. Campbell spent the first eight days of May in the cleanup spot but has been dropped to the bottom of the order in June. In his last big league game Wednesday, he batted eighth and played center field.
Abreu, who turns 26 on Tuesday, is expected to rejoin the Red Sox 10 days after hitting the injured list with a strained oblique. He went 1 for 4 in a rehabilitation appearance with Triple-A Worcester on Tuesday and would head to San Francisco for the Red Sox’s series against the Giants that begins Friday.
In his third big league season, Abreu is hitting .245/.321/.471 with 13 home runs, just two shy of his career best in 2024. He joins a crowded outfield, with Gold Glove candidate Ceddanne Rafaela — who can also play in the middle infield — in center, All-Star Jarren Duran in left and top prospect Roman Anthony in right. Anthony is currently hitting third, the spot Abreu regularly occupied before his injury.
The two-way superstar made his mound debut for the Dodgers on Monday against the San Diego Padres, throwing one inning and allowing one run and two hits. He also batted leadoff as the designated hitter and had two hits.
The Dodgers conclude their four-game series with San Diego on Thursday night, looking for a sweep and their sixth straight victory.
Ohtani underwent Tommy John surgery after the 2023 season while with the Los Angeles Angels and missed all of the 2024 season after which he signed a $700 million, 10-year deal with the Dodgers.
ARLINGTON, Texas — Jac Caglianone has his first career home run just shy of two weeks after his debut with the Kansas City Royals, and a day after the 22-year-old prospect sat out of a big league game for the first time.
Caglianone won a lefty-lefty matchup by pulling a 95.5 mph fastball from Jacob Latz into the Texas Rangers bullpen in right-center field to give the Royals a 3-0 lead in the second inning Thursday.
The sixth overall pick in last year’s amateur draft out of Florida, Caglianone went 0-for-5 in his big league debut at St. Louis on June 3. His average was at .196 after going 0-for-4 in the opener of a series at Texas and sitting out the second game.
Caglianone, who played his first six games on the road before making his home debut against the New York Yankees, swung at Latz’s 2-2 pitch above the strike zone, and pointed toward center field as he rounded second base after his 387-foot drive.
The 6-foot-5 Caglianone hit 15 homers in 50 games combined with Double-A Northwest Arkansas and Triple-A Omaha before getting called up.
