AP Top 25 Extra Points: No. 23 Memphis gives state of Tennessee 3 teams in rankings for first time

Tennessee, Vanderbilt and Memphis are no strangers to The Associated Press college football poll. Until now, the three schools from the Volunteer State had never been ranked in the Top 25 together.

Memphis is the first Bowl Subdivision team to go 6-0 and achieve bowl eligibility, and Sunday the Tigers received their first ranking of the season at No. 23.

“Hopefully we continue to win football games and hopefully there continues to be positive headlines about this group and about this program,” sixth-year coach Ryan Silvefield said. “We want to continue to see that leaping Tiger, that Memphis logo, on national television week after week and people talking about us in a positive light — not only about this athletic department, this football program, but our great city.”

The Tigers, who won 34 games over four seasons with Seth Henigan at quarterback, have rallied around Brendon Lewis and are among the front-runners for the Group of Five bid in the College Football Playoff. Lewis, who transferred from Nevada, leads an offense averaging 40.5 points per game to rank second in the American Conference and 450 yards per game to rank third.

Memphis’ season highlight so far is its 32-31 win over Arkansas in a game in which it trailed by 18 points in the second quarter. The Tigers have lopsided wins over Florida Atlantic and Tulsa since. Their toughest remaining games, against No. 24 South Florida and Tulane, are at home.

No. 12 Tennessee, the state’s flagship institution, has appeared in at least one poll in all but eight seasons since 1985. They’ve been absent in only two polls since the start of the 2022 season, and their 642 total weeks as a ranked team are 13th-most.

The Vols (4-1) go into this week’s home game against Arkansas with the nation’s top scoring offense, at 51 points per game. They’ve scored over 40 points in five consecutive games for the first time. Their four defensive touchdowns lead the Southeastern Conference and rank second in the FBS.

No. 20 Vanderbilt, anchored at the bottom of the Southeastern Conference for most of its football history, appeared in only seven polls from 1959-2023. The Commodores were ranked two weeks last year and Sunday were in a fourth straight poll, a school record.

The Commodores, coming off a 30-14 loss at now-No. 8 Alabama, are 5-1 and off to their best start since 2008. Their next game is at home Oct. 18 against No. 11 LSU.

Middle Tennessee, the state’s other FBS program, has never been ranked in its three decades in the FBS. Tennessee is among 13 states that have had at least three teams ranked simultaneously over the 89-year history of the poll.

Franklin’s flop

A season that began with so much promise for Penn State is spiraling and James Franklin’s proverbial seat is blistering hot.

“There’s going to be a lot out there to divide, divide, divide,” Franklin said minutes after the Nittany Lions’ 42-37 loss at UCLA made them the first top-10 team since 1985 to lose to an opponent that was 0-4 or worse.

A columnist for the Patriot-News, a central Pennsylvania newspaper covering Penn State football, suggested the school and Franklin come up with an exit strategy on the plane ride home from the West Coast. Other media outlets tempered discussion of a firing with Franklin’s seemingly prohibitive buyout, which the Patriot-News reported to be $56 million if he’s let go this year. Names of replacements have been bandied.

Franklin said the Nittany Lions must tune out the noise and stick together. “Not going to be easy,” he said, “but I think we’ll do that.”

Penn State, following its emotional loss to Oregon, was supposed to use the UCLA game to get right and was a 24 1/2-point favorite.

The Lions opened as a 22 1/2-point favorite at home against Northwestern on Saturday, according to BetMGM Sportsbook. Proceed with caution, bettors. Penn State is 0-5 against the spread this season.

Red Raiders’ eye on prize

No. 9 Texas Tech has its highest ranking since 2008 and is among 15 unbeaten teams along with Big 12 mate BYU. Those teams play in Lubbock on Nov. 8. Quarterback Behren Morton says the Red Raiders are only concerning themselves with this week’s home game against Kansas. Texas Tech is bidding for its first Big 12 championship and CFP bid.

“Standings are cool, but at the end of the day what matters is us and the standard is the standard,” Morton said. “And we’re going to play to our standard of football every week and we’ll see where the polls take us.”

Extra points

Saturday’s Red River Rivalry game between No. 6 Oklahoma and Texas in Dallas will be the first since 2017 that won’t be a Top 25 matchup. Texas fell out of the rankings following its loss to Florida. … No. 1 Ohio State has not allowed a first-half touchdown or given up more than nine points in a game through five games. The last season the Buckeyes had more than five consecutive games when it held opponents to 10 points or fewer was 1979. … No. 2 Miami is the only team with three wins over ranked teams. … In two SEC games, No. 5 Texas A&M has held opponents to a combined 1 of 23 on third-down conversions.

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AP Sports Writers Tim Reynolds, Kristie Rieken and Teresa M. Walker contributed.

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This story has been updated to correct the poll history reference to 89 years.

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