Michigan Football drops in AP Poll following loss to Ohio State

The final week of the 2025 college football regular season did not disappoint, with rivalry games on Black Friday and throughout Saturday providing upsets, nail-biting finishes and dominant performances. After the final week of the regular season, the AP Poll rankings have been shaken up once again.

The biggest matchup of the weekend came in Ann Arbor, as the four-year, 2,191-day streak was finally broken. The No. 1 overall Ohio State Buckeyes finally did what many thought was impossible, defeating the Michigan Wolverines to go into conference championship weekend as the top-ranked team.

It was a disappointing finish to a promising season for the youngest team in America, and Michigan finished at No. 18 in the final AP Poll of the regular season, down three spots from last week. The Wolverines will await their bowl season fate, but will more than likely face an SEC opponent in the Cheez-It Citrus Bowl on New Year’s Eve.

Around the Big Ten, No. 2 Indiana secured a spot in the Big Ten Championship for the first time ever after blowing out Purdue. No. 4 Oregon also finished the season strong, beating its hated rival, Washington, 26-14. Finally, No. 17 USC defeated UCLA to cap off a strong season as well.

Elsewhere in college football is where the messiness began. The SEC beat up on one another this past weekend, as Ole Miss defeated Mississippi State. With head coach Lane Kiffin taking the LSU job, it’ll be interesting to see where the CFP committee puts Ole Miss in their rankings on Tuesday.

Texas had a huge upset win over in-state rival, Texas A&M, moving the Longhorns up to No. 14 and dropping the Aggies to No. 7 with their first loss of the season. To round out the top SEC teams, No. 3 Georgia handled business vs Georgia Tech to clinch the SEC title, Alabama pulled it together late to take down Auburn, and Vanderbilt put a nice finish on its resume by defeating Tennessee to keep its CFP hopes alive.

Miami, Utah, BYU, Tulane, North Texas and James Madison all picked up wins to keep their postseason dreams alive. However, SMU lost to Cal to give a 7-5 unranked Duke team a shot in the ACC Championship against Virginia.

Here’s how the AP Top-25 poll looks heading into conference championship weekend.

1. Ohio State

2. Indiana

3. Georgia

4. Oregon

5. Texas Tech

6. Ole Miss

7. Texas A&M

8. Oklahoma

9. Notre Dame

10. Alabama

11. BYU

12. Miami

13. Vanderbilt

14. Texas

15. Utah

16. Virginia

17. USC

18. Michigan

19. James Madison

20. North Texas

21. Tulane

22. Arizona

23. Navy

24. Georgia Tech

25. Missouri

Other teams that received votes: Tennessee 71, Houston 57, Iowa 51, UNLV 33, New Mexico 20, South Florida 11, SMU 8, Iowa State 4, Arizona State 3, Louisville 3, UConn 3, North Dakota State 3, Illinois 2, Washington 1, Pittsburgh 1, San Diego State 1.