New AP Top 25: Missouri Rockets to No. 14, Alabama Jumps Indiana After Wild Week 5

COLUMBIA, Mo. — Eleven spots. That is how far Missouri rocketed in the new Associated Press Top 25 released Sunday morning, from No. 25 to No. 14, on the strength of the single most emphatic result of a wild Week 5: a 45-17 evisceration of Florida at Faurot Field. The Gators, who had just cracked the top 10 a week ago, tumbled to No. 16. And in the other big jump of the morning, Alabama passed Indiana for No. 6 after hanging 56 points on Mississippi State in Starkville. The top five of the poll held firm — Texas, Georgia, Notre Dame, Miami, Ohio State, in that order — but the rest of the ballot reads like a crime scene report from a Saturday that separated contenders from pretenders with a meat cleaver.

This is the part of the season when the poll starts to matter. The College Football Playoff selection committee does not release its first rankings until November 3, which means the AP poll is the only public scoreboard we have for the next four weeks. And this week’s ballot tells a clear story: the SEC is a beautiful, tangled mess, and next Saturday in Tuscaloosa — No. 2 Georgia at No. 6 Alabama — is going to sort a lot of it out.

Missouri’s arrival

Let’s start with the Tigers, because Saturday was the kind of performance that changes how a program is talked about. Missouri ran for 220 yards behind Jamal Roberts’ 211-yard, three-touchdown afternoon. Quarterback Austin Simmons threw for 340 yards and two scores. The offense piled up 560 yards. And the defense? It held Florida star Jadan Baugh to 13 rushing yards and the Gators to 42 yards on the ground, racking up three sacks and 11 tackles for loss.

The game was 10-10 in the second quarter. Then Missouri scored 35 straight points, and it was effectively over five seconds into the fourth. For Eliah Drinkwitz, it was one of the best performances of his tenure — and, crucially, it washed away the sting of last week’s loss to Mississippi State, the result that had dropped the Tigers to No. 25 in the first place.

There is a delicious irony in the sequencing. Missouri lost to Mississippi State in Week 4. Mississippi State then went to get trucked 56-23 by Alabama in Week 5. Transitive property, meet the SEC: it does not apply here, and that is exactly why the middle of this poll is about to be argued about on every sports show in America for the next month.

Everyone should be terrified of Alabama

The Crimson Tide went into Starkville and beat the No. 16 team in the country by 33 points. That is not supposed to happen to a 4-0 team at home, and the AP voters responded by flipping Alabama and Indiana: the Tide are No. 6, the Hoosiers No. 7 despite a 47-15 win at Rutgers.

Keelon Russell accounted for four touchdowns in the kind of road performance that wins quarterbacks hardware. On the other side, Mississippi State’s Kamario Taylor — who came into the weekend tied for the national lead with 14 touchdown passes — played the whole game on a bad leg, threw for 258 yards and three scores, but turned it over three times, and every single giveaway became an Alabama touchdown. The pick-six by Tide cornerback Dijon Lee, a 30-yard return, came 71 seconds after a first-quarter fumble that set up Bama’s opening score. That is a 14-point swing before most fans had found their seats.

Taylor’s health is now one of the biggest stories in the sport — he wore a walking boot on his right leg during the week, sat out the fourth quarter, and left the field in a protective boot. We broke down what his injury means for the Bulldogs’ season here. Mississippi State fell to No. 16, and the Bulldogs’ dream start now comes with a very real asterisk.

The one-loss SEC beauty contest

Here is where the poll gets fun. Try to rank these teams: Ole Miss (3-1, idle), LSU (4-1), Missouri (4-1), Florida (4-1), Mississippi State (4-1). Missouri beat Florida, which beat Ole Miss, which beat LSU — but Missouri lost to Mississippi State, which just got boat-raced by Alabama. Every head-to-head argument cancels out another one. The voters landed on BYU at No. 8, Ole Miss at No. 9, and LSU at No. 10, with Florida falling to No. 16, Mississippi State dropping to No. 16 as well, and Iowa sliding to No. 20. Honestly, you could shuffle five of these teams in a hat and nobody could prove you wrong. Only November sorts this out.

The rest of the ballot

The top five did what top-five teams are supposed to do in October. Idle Texas kept 61 of 70 first-place votes. Georgia pulled away from Vanderbilt 38-14 in the second half (six first-place votes). Notre Dame survived a rainy 37-26 trip to Chapel Hill behind CJ Carr’s five touchdowns (four passing, one rushing) against the Tar Heels. Miami went into Death Valley and routed Clemson 41-13 in prime time (two first-place votes). Ohio State handled No. 14 Iowa 31-14 at Kinnick behind another monster night from Jeremiah Smith.

BYU climbed from 10th to eighth after a 17-10 win at TCU. LSU inched to 10th after the 63-14 McNeese tune-up. Iowa dropped to No. 20. And then there is the week’s strangest line: Kentucky beat South Carolina 35-34 in overtime in Columbia — a two-point conversion gamble by first-year coach Will Stein that paid off — and fell out of the rankings anyway. Pitt, 5-0 after Friday’s controversial 35-33 win at Virginia Tech, takes the Wildcats’ place at No. 25. Our full breakdown of Kentucky’s wild night is here.

What it all means

Four weeks from Tuesday, the selection committee shows its first hand. Between now and then, the SEC schedule is a demolition derby: Georgia at Alabama this Saturday, with both teams 3-0 in conference play, is the first true elimination game of the season. Texas sits at 1-0 in the league with the grind ahead of it. Missouri gets to find out whether Saturday was a statement or a spike — the Tigers’ remaining schedule will not let them hide.

The lesson of Week 5 is the oldest one in the sport: in October, you are not ranked on what you were in September. Florida learned it in Columbia. Mississippi State learned it in Starkville. Missouri, for one glorious Saturday, got to be the teacher. And next Saturday, in Tuscaloosa, two 5-0 teams get to find out which one of them is real.

For the full Saturday scoreboard, see our deep game-story wrap and the 72-game morning digest. For the other quarterback drama of the weekend, Tennessee’s mid-game QB switch has the Vols’ season at a crossroads. More coverage at Previously’s news hub.