College football rankings for Week 9 drive reaction as Alabama reaches historic low, Oregon climbs to top spot….

There is another new No. 1 team in the AP Top 25 entering Week 9 of the college football season. The shakeups atop the national ladder keep coming, and this one slotted Oregon into the No. 1 spot after Texas lost to Georgia in one of the most highly anticipated games of the entire campaign. That is just one of the numerous consequential changes to the pecking order this week, though.

Alabama tumbled after it suffered its second loss in three games, Vanderbilt joined the AP Top 25 for the first time in more than a decade, the race for the Group of Five’s College Football Playoff berth heated up and Michigan slipped out of the rankings for the first time in years.

The first batch of CFP rankings is just weeks away, and it remains to be seen how closely the AP Top 25 voters mirror the selection committee. If this week’s rankings are any indication, though, the battle for the final few spots in the playoff field will be intense.

Top-ranked teams had a tough go of it over the first two months of the season. Texas is the latest No. 1 team to lose, and it did so in historic fashion. The Longhorns’ 30-15 loss to Georgia was the largest by a No. 1 team at home since 1982, and the 23-0 halftime deficit was the biggest by a top-ranked team since Notre Dame’s appearance in the 2013 national title game.