SEC has six of first seven spots in AP Top 25 as Notre Dame drops - ESPN

After the first shake-up of the college football season, the Southeastern Conference grabbed six of the top seven spots in the AP Top 25 — a first in the 88-year history of the rankings — and Notre Dame tumbled all the way to No. 18 on Sunday after being stunned at home.

Georgia received 54 out of a possible 63 first-place votes to keep a firm hold on No. 1. Texas jumped a spot to No. 2 after dominating defending national champion Michigan on the road and received four first-place votes. The Longhorns have their best ranking since finishing second in 2009.

The Wolverines were down to No. 17.

No. 3 Ohio State — from the Big Ten — slipped a spot. Then it was four more SEC teams. Alabama held steady at No. 4 and Ole Miss moved up a spot to No. 5.

Missouri moved up three spots to No. 6, and Tennessee made a big jump from No. 14 to No. 7 after routing NC State in Charlotte.

With the SEC bigger (16 teams) — and seemingly better — than ever given the additions of Texas and Oklahoma — the circumstances were right for an early season takeover like never before.

Not only is six of the top seven teams from one conference a record for a poll, but never before had a single league held as many as five of the top seven places.

Those teams will start playing each other in the coming weeks, so it is unlikely the SEC can keep this up. It's a stark example, however, of what's possible in the superconference era.

Especially after the first huge upset of the college football season. Notre Dame's 16-14 loss to Northern Illinois marked the first time a top-five team lost to an unranked team since the 2022 season, when Purdue knocked off then-No. 2 Iowa on Nov. 5, 2022.

First-place votes in parenthesis

The Huskies' victory, the first top-5 win