AP Top 25 college football poll: Ohio State moves to No. 2, Florida State drops to No. 5

Ohio State passed Michigan and moved up to No. 2 in The Associated Press college football poll Sunday, a week before the Big Ten rivals play another top-five matchup, and No. 4 Washington also flip-flopped with No. 5 Florida State.

Georgia remained No. 1 and received a season-high 61 first-place votes. The Bulldogs have been atop the rankings for 23 straight weeks, the second-best streak in the history of the poll and 10 behind the record held by Southern California (2003-05).

The top five teams, all unbeaten, had held their places for five straight weeks. All improved to 11-0 on Saturday, but the order changed Sunday.

-- The Associated Press

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Steve Wiseman’s ballot

Left for dead after an ugly loss to Duke a month ago amid quarterback turmoil, N.C. State hasn’t lost since.

Toledo lost on a last-second field goal to Illinois on its opening night back in September and has since reeled off 10 consecutive wins.

In the waning days of college football’s regular season, those are the types of accomplishments that will get a team that’s not previously drawn a vote this season a place on an Associated Press Top 25 poll ballot.

The bottom five spots on the ballot tend to be a scramble as the season drags on. Everyone is flawed, otherwise they’d be in the top 10.

By beating Clemson, Miami, Wake Forest and Virginia Tech, N.C. State (8-3) has stacked wins on top of each other with quality performances since that dismal 24-3 loss at Duke. So I have them at No. 22 this week.

Toledo (10-1) is dominating the Mid-American Conference since its 30-28 loss at Illinois. The Illini aren’t special, but they are a Big 10 team.

And that brings to me to a point about another team that’s on a roll.

Liberty (11-0) is the only unbeaten FBS-level team not ranked in the top five. But it’s a hollow accomplishment. The Flames have not played a team from a Power Five conference. Not one. That’s why I decided to rank Toledo over Liberty. You want to swim in the deep waters? Challenge yourself. Liberty hasn’t.

Other newcomers to my ballot this week are SMU (9-2) and UNLV (9-2).

That means Utah (7-4), North Carolina (8-3), Tennessee (7-4) and James Madison (10-1) all drop out following losses on Saturday.

The top nine teams on my ballot stayed in place. There’s debate about Washington and Florida State’s placement. I kept FSU at No. 4 and Washington at No. 5. The gruesome injury FSU quarterback Jordan Travis suffered could change things in the coming weeks, but, for now, I’m maintaining the status quo.