Texas Rises to No. 1 in New AP Poll After Historic Comeback as Ohio State and Oregon Tumble, Shaking Up CFP Title Odds

Texas is the new No. 1 team in college football. The Associated Press released its latest Top 25 poll Sunday afternoon, and the Longhorns claimed the top spot for the first time in a regular season since October 2024 after pulling off the largest fourth-quarter comeback ever against an AP No. 1 team. Ohio State, the team Texas just knocked off, tumbled to No. 6 — its lowest ranking since entering the 2024 College Football Playoff. Oregon suffered an even more dramatic fall, dropping 15 spots to No. 21 after an upset loss to Oklahoma State.

The shakeup caps a wild opening two weeks of the season and reshapes the national title picture heading into the heart of September. Texas received 56 first-place votes on its way to the top spot, marking the earliest a Longhorns team has sat at No. 1 in a regular season in decades. Ohio State, which had occupied the No. 1 ranking in 17 of the previous 20 AP polls dating back to its 2024 national championship run, now finds itself outside the top five for the first time in two seasons.

How Texas Toppled the Buckeyes and Seized No. 1

Texas trailed Ohio State 23-3 entering the fourth quarter Saturday night in Austin, and the Buckeyes looked in complete control after three dominant quarters. Then everything unraveled for Ohio State. Arch Manning found Ryan Wingo for a touchdown to jump-start the rally, and Hollywood Smothers punched in a short touchdown run to cut the gap to 23-17 with just over seven minutes remaining. Ohio State had a chance to put the game away, but a missed 45-yard field goal handed the ball back to Texas, and Manning drove the Longhorns 73 yards before Smothers scored again with 25 seconds left, completing the 24-23 victory. The 20-point rally is the largest fourth-quarter comeback against an AP No. 1 team on record, and it doubled as revenge for a Texas team that lost to the Buckeyes a year earlier in a game that had cost the Longhorns their own No. 1 ranking.

Oregon’s collapse was just as jarring in its own right. The Ducks entered Week 2 as the No. 6 team in the country and lost 39-31 on the road to Oklahoma State, a program that had dropped 21 straight games against Football Bowl Subdivision opponents before that win. It was the first loss to an unranked team in coach Dan Lanning’s tenure at Oregon, and it sent the Ducks plummeting to their lowest ranking in four years. Elsewhere in the poll, Michigan returned to the rankings at No. 19 after beating Oklahoma, which fell to No. 24 following the loss. The SEC now boasts six teams in the top 10 — Texas, Georgia, LSU, Ole Miss, Texas A&M and Alabama — underscoring the conference’s continued depth entering the meat of the schedule.

What the Rankings Shakeup Means for Championship Futures

A ranking swing this severe doesn’t stay contained to the poll — it moves markets. Texas’ comeback shifted the Longhorns from a middling-favorite tier into a tie for the second-shortest national championship price on the board, reflecting a team that just delivered the kind of statement win that title contenders are made of. Ohio State, despite the gut-punch loss, remains priced as the outright national title favorite in most futures markets, a reminder that oddsmakers still view the Buckeyes’ overall body of work and roster talent as championship-caliber even after an ugly fourth quarter.

Oregon’s market reaction has been the mirror image of Texas’ rise. The Ducks’ championship odds lengthened dramatically after the Oklahoma State loss, a sharp reprice for a team that opened the season among the shortest-priced contenders in the sport. That kind of movement reflects just how much weight bettors and books put on results against unranked competition — a loss like that erodes confidence in a team’s floor far more than a close defeat to a fellow ranked opponent would. Michigan’s return to the rankings and Oklahoma’s slide will also factor into secondary futures markets like conference title odds and playoff-field props as the season’s contenders continue to separate from the pretenders. With six SEC teams now inside the top 10, expect that conference’s presence in playoff and title futures to keep growing as more marquee matchups play out over the next month.