Editor's Note: Tom Murphy of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette is a voter in The Associated Press Top 25 Poll. He explains his vote each week.
National Champion Clemson’s 21-20 escape at North Carolina made me re-think the very top of my ballot.
I dropped the Tigers three notches to No. 4 behind Alabama, LSU and Ohio State, who have been whomping opponents. The top 10 teams on my ballot remain undefeated, with five SEC teams, three Big Ten teams, Clemson from the ACC and Oklahoma from the Big 12 in there.
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The Pac-12 lost its final unbeaten team in Cal, which also lost QB Chase Garbers to an arm injury in its 24-17 home loss to Arizona State. I dropped the Bears to No. 21 and brought Arizona State back in at No. 19.
The two other newcomers in my poll were in there two weeks ago. Oklahoma State is back in after a 26-13 win over defensive-oriented Kansas State, which I dropped out. Memphis re-joined the top 25 at No. 20 with a resounding 52-0 drubbing of Rutgers.
I have three American Athletic Conference teams on the ballot: UCF, which bounced back from last week’s loss at Pitt with a 56-21 thrashing of UConn, and Memphis and SMU from the West.
1 Alabama
2 LSU
3 Ohio State
4 Clemson
5 Oklahoma
6 Auburn
7 Georgia
8 Wisconsin
9 Florida
10 Penn State
11 Notre Dame
12 Texas
13 Oregon
14 Iowa
15 Boise State
16 UCF
17 Utah
18 Washington
19 Arizona State
20 Michigan
21 California
22 Oklahoma State
23 Wake Forest
24 Memphis
25 SMU
Dropped out: Kansas State, Virginia, USC