College football rankings: Preseason 1-2 both tumble out of top-25 for first time ever

Saturday was catastrophic for both Texas and Penn State, the two teams ranked at the top of the college football AP Top 25 at the start of the season.

Now both are on the outside looking in at the Top 25 as the calendar flips to October.

Texas began the year ranked as the No. 1 team in the nation in the AP college football poll, but went into Columbus and lost in their first game by a final score of 14-7 to Ohio State, the defending National Champions. While that loss dropped Texas down a bit, they rebounded with three consecutive non-conference wins before going on the road this weekend to take on Florida, a team on the ropes with a 1-3 record at kickoff.

But Billy Napier, perhaps with his job on the line, guided the Gators to a 29-21 win, and the loss for Texas saw them tumble out of the Top 25. In today’s poll, the Longhorns fell into the “Others Receiving Votes” category with 111 total votes, second-most in that group behind Cincinnati.

However, that put the Longhorns ahead of James Franklin and Penn State. If what happened to Texas on Saturday was bad, what befell the Nittany Lions was worse.

After losing to Oregon in a double-overtime game that pitted two teams ranked inside the Top 10, Penn State — who began the year at No. 2 — went on the road to take on UCLA. That pitted them against a Bruins team that was 0-4, had yet to lead a game for even a single second this season, had already fired their head coach, and turned to Jerry Neuheisel mid-week to take over offensive play-calling duties.

That same Bruins team never trailed on Saturday. Final score: UCLA 42, Penn State 37.

The Nittany Lions were 25-point favorites.

The loss not only sent searches for “James Franklin buyout” skyrocketing during the game -- that number is north of $50 million, by most estimates -- but it also dropped the Nittany Lions to 3-2 (0-2 in the Big Ten) and out of the Top 25. They received 97 votes, third-most among teams in the “Others Receiving Votes” category.

This is also the first time in the history of the AP Top 25 that both preseason No. 1 and No. 2 fell out of the rankings in the same season. This was also the first time since 1986 that two teams ranked inside the Top 10 fell out of the AP Top 25 in the same week. That year, then-No. 8 Tennessee and then-No. 10 Ohio State fell out after a week in September.

Just a brutal weekend for the teams that began the year atop the rankings.

Here’s the full top-25, with the number of first place votes in parenthesis.