The past two weeks have been highlighted by close calls involving some of the nation's top-ranked teams, with Florida State pulling two great escapes.
The latest Seminoles rally resulted in a 56-41 victory at North Carolina State on Saturday. The Seminoles fell behind 24-7 in the first quarter before storming back behind Jameis Winston, who returned from his one-game suspension.
Crunch time
• The top seven teams in the AP Top 25 were unchanged for a second consecutive week, but that could change by Sunday. There are six games matching ranked teams on Saturday, including three SEC showdowns involving six ranked West division rivals. Rankings in parenthesis:
Alabama (3) at Mississippi (11)
Oklahoma (4) at TCU (25)
LSU (15) at Auburn (5)
Texas A&M (6) at Miss State (12)
Stanford (14) at Notre Dame (9)
Nebraska (19) at Mich. State (10)
Florida State held the top spot in The Associated Press Top 25 on Sunday, though support for the Seminoles continues to wane. Florida State is down to 27 first-place votes, after starting the season with 57, and its lead on No. 2 Oregon is 11 points. Oregon received 13 first-place votes. No. 3 Alabama got 13, too, and Oklahoma had 7 first-place votes.
The margin between Nos. 1 and 2 is the smallest in the AP poll since the final regular-season poll of 2010, when Auburn was 11 points ahead of Oregon heading into the BCS title game.
Florida State dropped to No. 2 behind Alabama in the USA Today coaches.
The Seminoles have looked nothing like the dominant team that routed its way to the BCS championship game in 2013, but it should be noted that Florida State's early season schedule has been as good -- or better -- than any highly ranked team. The three FBS opponents Florida State has played (No. 21 Oklahoma State, Clemson and N.C. State) are a combined 9-1 in games not against FSU.
"Winning is hard in college football, especially against power five teams," Notre Dame Coach Brian Kelly said after the ninth-ranked Fighting Irish beat Syracuse 31-15 while committing five turnovers.
IN AND OUT
A week after falling out of the rankings, No. 24 Missouri moved back in. No. 25 TCU made its season debut in the Top 25.
Missouri rallied to win 21-20 at South Carolina. That dropped the Gamecocks, 13th last week, out of the rankings for the first time this season and signaled that the SEC East race could get messy. Missouri (4-1), which lost at home to Indiana last week, is the only team in the division without a conference loss. Also falling out was Arizona State, which was blown out 62-27 at home by No. 8 UCLA.
Sports on 09/29/2014