Alabama Wins Ugly To Fall From No. 1 to No. 3 In A.P. Poll - Georgia No. 1, James Madison Ranked For 1st Time

If you want to stay No. 1 in the Associated Press poll, you better win and look pretty doing it.

No. 2 Georgia (6-0) did that with a 42-10 victory over Auburn and moved into the No. 1 spot, bumping Alabama (6-0) to No. 3 after the Crimson Tide barely survived against unranked Texas A&M, 24-20, in Tuscaloosa.

TUSCALOOSA, ALABAMA - OCTOBER 08: Will Anderson Jr. #31 and Henry To'oTo'o #10 of the Alabama Crimson Tide react after their 24-20 win over the Texas A&M Aggies at Bryant-Denny Stadium on October 08, 2022 in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)

Alabama suffered four turnovers in all - three by quarterback Jaylen Milroe - and had to sweat out an incomplete pass from Texas A&M quarterback Haynes King on the last play of the game from the Alabama 2-yard line for the win. Milroe threw for only 111 yards as the Tide missed regular starter Bryce Young, who dressed out and could have played but did not because of a shoulder sprain suffered last week at Arkansas.

Ohio State (6-0) remained at No. 2 after a 49-20 win over Michigan State. Clemson (6-0) is No. 4, and Michigan (6-0) is No. 5.

No. 3 Alabama will play at No. 6 Tennessee (5-0) at 3:30 p.m. Saturday on CBS in the game of the week. It will be the first undefeated pairing of those two since 1989. The Vols torched No. 25 LSU, 40-13, in Tiger Stadium on Saturday and rose two spots.

James Madison (5-0), a school located in Harrisonburg, Virginia, that competes in the Sun Belt Conference, bumped LSU for the No. 25 spot and made the A.P. poll for the first time in its first season on the Football Bowl Subdivision level. The Dukes won 42-20 at Arkansas State on Saturday.

The rest of the top 10 has USC (6-0) at No. 7, Oklahoma State (5-0) at No. 8, Ole Miss (6-0) at No. 9 and Penn State (5-0) at No. 10.

The second 10 has UCLA at No. 11, followed by No. 12 Oregon, No. 13 TCU, No. 14 Wake Forest, No. 15 North Carolina State, No. 16. Mississippi State, No. 17 Kansas State, No. 18 Syracuse, No. 19 Kansas and No. 20 Utah.

Cincinnati is at No. 21, followed by Texas and Kentucky tied at No. 22, and Illinois at No. 24 before James Madison.

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