Alabama football moves into Top 10 after winning SEC opener
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It wasn’t a pretty first half from Alabama but the Crimson Tide capped off their trip to Lexington in style, outscoring Kentucky 32-0 in the second half.
Alabama’s win kept them undefeated after two weeks of the 2026 season and the performance was enough to push the Tide into the top 10 in both the USA Today Coaches’ Poll and the Associated Press poll for the first time this season.
This is Alabama’s 298th consecutive appearance in the AP rankings, the longest active streak in college football. It’s the second longest streak of all time to Nebraska’s 348 straight polls which ended in 2002.
SEC dominates latest college football rankings
The two rankings have a nearly identical top 10 which features six SEC teams including No. 1 Texas and No. 2 Georgia.
This is the first time this season an SEC team has topped either ranking, thanks to a dramatic comeback victory from Texas against previous-No. 1 Ohio State.
The SEC now has nine teams in the top 25 including:
- Texas (1 in AP/1 in USA Today)
- Georgia (2/2)
- LSU (7/7)
- Ole Miss (8/9)
- Texas A&M (9/8)
- Alabama (10/10)
- Tennessee (15/14)
- Missouri (20/22)
- Oklahoma (23/21)
Auburn was among five other SEC teams receiving votes in the Coaches’ poll, officially coming in at No. 37. The Tigers did not receive any votes in the AP Poll despite their 43-8 win over Southern Miss in the team’s season opener.
In-state schedule for Week 3
There is still plenty of football to be played and these rankings don’t actually determine who makes the College Football Playoff (although there is certainly a debate on if these influence those rankings).
But we are still more than six weeks away from the first CFP rankings of the season (Nov. 3) so this is what we can work with in the meantime.
Meanwhile, Alabama and Auburn both have big games this week as the Tide seeks revenge while the Tigers start SEC play. Here’s the full schedule for our teams in Week 3:
- Florida State at No. 10 Alabama | 2:30PM | ABC
- Florida at Auburn | 6PM | ESPN
- Troy at No. 20 Missouri | 6PM
- Ohio at South Alabama | 6PM
- Georgia Southern at Jax State | 6PM
- Alcorn State at North Alabama | 6PM
- Bowie State at Alabama A&M | 6PM
- Tuskegee at Jackson State | 6PM
- UAB at Louisiana | 7PM
