Florida State Ascends as Poll Undergoes Seismic Shake-Up

Florida State surged from sixth to first, supplanting Stanford at the top of the poll and signaling that the Seminoles' 16-2-4 resume finally got the respect it deserved. Stanford slipped to No. 2, but the real carnage was further down — Notre Dame plummeted from second to eleventh, Arkansas collapsed from fourth to seventeenth, and Memphis fell from third all the way to eighteenth.

The biggest riser was Duke, rocketing from eleventh to third and giving the ACC three of the top eight spots alongside Florida State and Virginia. TCU held strong at fourth, while Vanderbilt climbed to fifth. Washington made a notable jump from thirteenth to sixth, and Ohio State crashed the party as a new entry tied at ninth.

Four teams entered the poll fresh — Ohio State, North Carolina, Kansas, and BYU — while Baylor and LSU both climbed from the bottom five into the mid-teens. The message is clear: nothing is settled, and the race for the top is wide open.