Kentucky climbs to No. 9 in AP football Top 25

No. 1 Miami was the only team to hold its spot in The Associated Press Top 25 on Sunday and Kentucky continued its rapid rise, this week to No. 9.

A week after five of the top seven teams lost, three more top-10 teams went down Saturday to make it 10 in the last three weeks. Three teams ranked either No. 1 or 2 have lost to an unranked opponent over that span in what is shaping up to be the most topsy-turvy season since 2007. Idle Ohio State moved up to No. 2 as the poll went through another major reordering in the wake of BYU’s loss at UCF and subsequent six-spot fall to No. 8.

Georgia moved up a spot to No. 3 after its open date, Indiana jumped two rungs to No. 4 after winning at Michigan in overtime and Notre Dame slipped a spot to No. 5 after being idle. Utah, UCLA, BYU, Kentucky and Alabama rounded out the top 10.

UCLA and Kentucky are the biggest movers in recent weeks. The Bruins have jumped 19 spots over the last five polls and the Wildcats have moved up 17 in the last three.

No. 6 Utah has its highest ranking in seven years and No. 7 UCLA has its highest in 11. No. 9 Kentucky has won six in a row and is in the top 10 for the first time since 2022. No. 10 Alabama avoided its first three-game losing streak since 2007 by beating Texas A&M and returned to the top 10.

The SEC has 9 ranked teams in the poll: No. 3 Georgia, No. 9 Kentucky, No. 10 Alabama, No. 11 Texas, No. 12 Mississippi, No. 15 LSU, No. 16 Tennessee, No. 17 Florida, and No. 23 Missouri.

Miami, Utah and UCLA are the only remaining unbeaten Bowl Subdivision teams, the fewest at this point in a season since there were three left in 1977, according to Sportradar.


(AP Photo Timothy D. Easley)