Sports · NEWS EXPLAINER
AP Top 25: Missouri rises to No. 14, Florida falls to No. 16
Texas keeps the No. 1 spot in the October 4 poll, while Missouri passes Florida and LSU enters the top 10.
Missouri climbed 11 places to No. 14 and Florida fell eight to No. 16 in the October 4 AP college-football Top 25. The new rankings put the Tigers ahead of the team they beat a day earlier, while Texas stayed No. 1 and the national top five remained unchanged.
Missouri moves ahead of Florida
The September 27 poll had Missouri at No. 25 and Florida at No. 8. After the Tigers’ 45–17 victory on October 3, the new AP list reverses their relative order. Both teams remain ranked, but Missouri now sits two positions above the Gators.
This was not a direct exchange of places: Missouri did not inherit Florida’s former No. 8 slot, and Florida did not fall to No. 25. The 11-place rise and eight-place drop measure each team against its own previous position. They are ranking movements, separate from the game’s scoring margin.
A stable top five, with changes just below
Texas leads the AP poll for a fourth consecutive week. Georgia, Notre Dame, Miami and Ohio State follow in the same order as before. The lack of movement at the top makes the reshuffling farther down the list the main change for readers comparing the two releases.
Alabama advances from No. 7 to No. 6, exchanging positions with Indiana. BYU rises from No. 10 to No. 8, Ole Miss stays ninth, and LSU moves from No. 11 to No. 10. LSU therefore enters the top 10 as Florida leaves it; BYU was already inside that group.
A new entry and another notable fall
Pittsburgh joins the ranked field at No. 25, while Kentucky drops out after occupying No. 24 in the previous poll. Entering or leaving the Top 25 is a different change from moving within it: Missouri and Florida both appeared in both releases.
Iowa falls from No. 14 to No. 20 after losing to Ohio State. The Buckeyes remain fifth. Together, those changes show why a game result and a weekly ranking should be read separately: the losing team moved down, while the winning team’s position stayed the same.
Use the same poll and date when comparing
These positions belong to the October 4 AP poll. The Coaches Poll is a separate list; coverage that presents both can show different numbers beside the same school. Comparing a team’s old AP rank with its new Coaches rank would mix two different sets of rankings.
The dates also explain why older reports still identify Missouri as No. 25 and Florida as No. 8. Those were the rankings entering Saturday’s game. The game report establishes what happened on the field; Sunday’s poll supplies the updated order. Keep that distinction when reading the two stories together.
