College Football-Michigan suffers record fall out of AP Top 25 after loss
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The final fallout from a disastrous opening weekend for Michigan came Tuesday, when the Wolverines dropped all the way out of The Associated Press Top 25, an unprecedented fall from No. 5 to unranked.
Since the AP poll expanded to 25 teams in 1989, no team has taken a bigger tumble in one week.
After an opening college football weekend filled with blowouts and highlighted by Appalachian State's stunning 34-32 upset of Michigan at the Big House, there was little notable movement in the Top 25 other than the Wolverines.
Southern California was voted No. 1 by the media panel, but the Trojans lost some support. USC received 62 first-place votes in the preseason poll. A lackluster 38-10 victory over Idaho led to the Trojans dropping to 59 first-place votes.
No. 2 LSU picked up those first-place votes, receiving five. No. 3 West Virginia received one first-place vote, the same as it did in the preseason.
No. 4 Florida and No. 5 Wisconsin moved up two spots. Oklahoma, tied for fifth, moved up three spots. No. 7 Texas fell three spots after slogging through a 21-13 home victory over Arkansas State.
No. 9 Virginia Tech held its place and plays at LSU on Saturday.
No. 10 California moved up two spots after a 45-31 victory over Tennessee. The Volunteers dropped eight spots to No. 23.
Florida State also fell out of the rankings. The Seminoles were 19th heading into their season opener at Clemson and lost 24-18 in the Bowden Bowl.
Clemson moved into the rankings at No. 25 and Georgia Tech also moved into the Top 25. The Yellow Jackets were 21st after winning at Notre Dame 33-3.
As for Michigan, the Wolverines became the first ranked team from Division I-A, now known as the Bowl Subdivision, to lose to a team from I-AA, now known as the Championship Subdivision.
"It hurts because you don't like losing," Michigan linebacker Chris Graham said Monday. "But how far can you hold your head down? I'm not holding my head down at all. You've got to move on forward."
Michigan received 39 points from the media voters in the Top 25, including a 16th place vote by Wayne Phillips from The Greenville (Tenn.) Sun.
"I still think Michigan has a good football team," he said. "I think they're worthy of being ranked. They may prove me wrong."
Phillips said he gave Michigan some leeway because he's very familiar with Appalachian State, the two-time defending I-AA champions.
"They're a pretty darn good football team," he said. "If Michigan had lost to some of the other patsies some of the big teams played I could see dropping them out."
Appalachian State is not eligible for the AP Top 25, which only ranks Bowl Subdivision teams. The Wolverines host Oregon on Saturday.
Before Michigan's fall, Notre Dame held the ignominious record for largest drop in the rankings in the Top 25-era. The Fighting Irish dropped 16 spots -- from No. 9 to No. 25 -- after losing to Northwestern 17-15 on Sept. 3, 1995.
Texas dropped 15 spots in 1997, going from ninth to 24th after a 66-3 loss to UCLA in September 1997. Louisville also fell 15 spots -- 11th to unranked -- in September 2005 after losing to South Florida.
The highest ranked team to fall from the poll after one loss was No. 2 Oklahoma in 1959, when the AP was ranking the top 20 teams. Later that season Army went from No. 4 to unranked.
In 1950, Tennessee went from No. 4 to unranked in October and in 1960 Illinois fall out of the ranking from No. 4.
In the latest poll, No. 11 Georgia moved up two spots and was followed by Ohio State, UCLA, Penn State and Rutgers.
No. 16 Nebraska jumped four places. Auburn is 17th and Arkansas, TCU and Hawaii round out the first 20.
The final five are Georgia Tech, Boise State, Texas A&M, Tennessee and Clemson.
Associated Press
