A new No. 1, farewell to UCF and where Miami was going

This year's Game of the Century (Alabama 41, Georgia 34) did not disappoint, resulting in a new No. 1 on my Associated Press Top 25 ballot.

The Bulldogs' loss knocked them out of my top spot and allowed the Crimson Tide to take the lead. Barely. I initially had Texas ranked No. 1, but crossed out the Longhorns for the second straight year. Advanced metrics have generally viewed Texas as the best team in the country through the first month, but “Bama has three wins by at least 20 points and its best win of the season.” Advantage: Alabama. Georgia fell to fourth place, just behind Ohio State. I see very little gap between the top four (and perhaps No. 5 Tennessee).

Miami is the only state team on my ballot. The Hurricanes remained seventh after a wild win over Virginia Tech. I picked Oregon over the Canes because I thought Miami should have beaten the underperforming Hokies team with more than just a controversial Hail Mary call at the end.

Missouri and Mississippi are the two hardest teams for me to understand. The Tigers are 4-0 with close wins over Boston College and Vanderbilt. The Rebels beat four bad teams and then lost at home to Kentucky by three points after missing a field goal in the final minute. I idle Missouri moved up two spots to ninth (as other teams fell behind) and placed Mississippi at No. 10 (down four spots). In my opinion, both could be ranked somewhere between ninth and 19th.

I'm also not confident about moving Notre Dame from 18th to 11th after the Irish's win over a top-20 Louisville team. The early loss to Northern Illinois still hurts Notre Dame. But the Irish have two quality wins (the Cardinals plus Texas A&M) and lopsided victories over Purdue and Miami (Ohio). Advanced metrics put them in or around the top 10, putting them ahead of a host of other one-loss teams (Michigan, USC, LSU, Clemson).

BYU was another big riser – moving up four notches to 17th. The Cougars' wins over Kansas State and SMU look better, and I generally give the teams credit for conference wins on the road (like their triumph at Baylor).

Utah was a big loser after a 20-point home loss to Arizona. The Utes' resume looks weaker after Kansas State ran away from Oklahoma State, so I couldn't justify ranking them higher than 23rd.

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Last week I was the only voter who had UCF on their ballot. That's apparently no longer the case after Deion Sanders' Colorado Buffaloes knocked off the Knights at FBC Mortgage Stadium. My colleagues were right. Maybe UCF can recover from this (starting Saturday at Florida), but it was a terrible performance. I was very impressed with the Buffs' all-around performance, especially their improved ground game.

Oklahoma State and Illinois also fell out of my rankings. Their departures made way for Boise State, Arizona and Texas A&M. SMU's destruction of Florida State was worthy of attention, but wasn't enough to crack the top 25. Other participants included Colorado, UNLV, Iowa, Kentucky, Pitt, Navy and James Madison.

Matt Baker's AP Top 25 pick

1.Alabama

2.Texas

3. Ohio State

4. Georgia

5. Tennessee

6.Oregon

7.Miami

8. Penn State

9. Missouri

10. Mississippi

11. Notre Dame

12.Michigan

13. U.S.C

14. LSU

15. Clemson

16. Iowa State

17.BYU

18. Kansas State

19.Oklahoma

20. Louisville

21. Boise State

22.Arizona

23.Utah

24.Indiana

25. Texas A&M