College Football AP Top 25: Winners and losers of Week 9

With the release of the Week 9 AP Top 25, which college football teams won and lost in the newest poll?

While Week 7 of college football saw some mammoth upsets, Week 8 was a little different. In fact, last week we saw Syracuse topple Clemson and Cal take down Washington State, but this week was more of the opposite.

There weren’t many upsets, but a handful of games that were one or two plays away from resulting in a wild ending with the underdogs on top.

Let’s start with the surprising blowouts by top-tier teams of other top-tier teams. First off, No. 19 Michigan went to Happy Valley looking for another blowout win like it had against No. 2 Penn State in 2016 which ignited the Nittany Lions’ run to the Rose Bowl. The Wolverines were shellacked, though, losing to James Franklin’s squad, 42-13.

The other blowout happened in South Bend. The No. 11 USC Trojans played the role of visitor against No. 13 Notre Dame in a game that wasn’t expected to be close when the season began. The Fighting Irish were coming off a 4-8 campaign and Brian Kelly was squarely on the hot seat while USC was ranked in the top five. Notre Dame has been red-hot this year, though, and dismantled USC, 49-14.

Now, onto the almost upsets. Michigan State needed three-plus quarters to put away pesky Indiana, Oklahoma came back to beat Kansas State, Oklahoma State downed Texas in overtime, Miami scored late to end Syracuse’s upset hopes and West Virginia stopped winless Baylor’s two-point conversion try to hold on late.

The newest edition of the AP Top 25 has reflected accordingly.

Take a look at the biggest winners and losers from this week’s release of the AP Poll.