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SALT LAKE CITY — Coming off an emotional comeback win over USC at a sold-out Rice-Eccles Stadium, Utah had a bye week to soak in the victory and watch the college football action around it.
It was a week to get healthy, fine tune some deficiencies in its game — defense and its run game on offense — and recharge for the final five games of the regular season and its pursuit of another Pac-12 title. In the week off, in which Utah was one of eight ranked teams on a bye, the Utes still managed a victory over the weekend.
Utah moved up one spot to No. 14 in the latest Associated Press Top 25 rankings that were released Sunday afternoon in the penultimate rankings before the College Football Playoff selection committee releases its first rankings (Nov. 1 at 5 p.m. MDT, ESPN) of the 2022 season.
Utah's playoff hopes were eliminated in a loss to UCLA in Week 6, the school's second loss of the season, but the Utes remain the highest-ranked team in the AP Top 25 with two losses. The Utes also remain the fourth-highest ranked team from the Pac-12 this week.
Oregon took a big step forward in Week 8 with a dominant win over a previously undefeated UCLA team and checks in at No. 8. The Ducks have done well to erase a Week 1 loss to Georgia and now lead the Pac-12 with the only remaining undefeated record in conference play. Behind Oregon in the rankings is No. 10 USC and No. 12 UCLA.
Oregon State, which got a 42-9 win over Colorado on Saturday, continued to receive votes this week but did not crack the Top 25.
The top of the rankings remain unchanged, with Georgia at No. 1 with 31 first-place votes, followed by No. 2 Ohio State, No. 3 Tennessee, No. 4 Michigan and No. 5 Clemson. Ohio State received the second-most first-place votes (18) this week after a dominant win over Iowa, followed by Tennessee (13) and Clemson (1).
