Utes win bye week, move up to No. 16 in latest AP Top 25 rankings

SALT LAKE CITY — In a chaotic weekend of college football, the University of Utah sat on the sidelines and watched it unfold.

And though the Utes didn't face an actual opponent this weekend, it managed a noticeable win based on the coverage of its latest NIL deal of leased Ram 1500 trucks for all its players on scholarship. It even got prime billing on ESPN's College GameDay, where the crew praised Utah's NIL efforts.

But Utah got another win over the weekend by seeing several teams around it in the rankings suffer a loss. As a result, Utah moved up in the latest Associated Press Top 25 rankings that were released Sunday without taking an official snap.

The Utes moved up to No. 16 Sunday, up two spots from Utah's previous spot at No. 18 after suffering its first loss of the season on the road to Oregon State last week.

Utah is one of seven teams ranked from the Pac-12 this week, with UCLA moving back into the top 25 after a win over Washington State at the Rose Bowl. With the Bruins' inclusion, the Pac-12, again, has the most teams ranked from a conference.

Washington, who was on a bye week as well, remains the highest-ranked team in the Pac-12 at No. 7. Just one spot behind the Huskies is No. 8 Oregon to set up a top 10 rivalry clash Saturday. Behind the Ducks is No. 10 USC, No. 15 Oregon State, No. 18 UCLA and No. 19 Washington State.

After losing a bit of support among voters last week, Georgia remains at the top of the rankings with 50 first-place votes after a 51-13 win over a ranked Kentucky team. Behind the Bulldogs is No. 2 Michigan, No. 3 Ohio State, No. 4 Florida State and No. 5 Oklahoma.

Texas, which got as high as No. 3 and received 10 first-place votes last week, dropped to No. 9 after Oklahoma gave the Longhorns their first loss of the season in a wild, back-and-forth Red River Rivalry game Saturday morning. Oklahoma moved up to No. 5.

Related topics