Our AP Top 25 ballot: Ohio State, Florida State on top, Deion Sanders out

My list of teams worthy of consideration for the top spot on my Associated Press Top 25 ballot dwindled this week to Florida State, Ohio State and Georgia.

The Seminoles had been atop my ballot and boast arguably the best pair of wins in the country (over LSU in Week 1 and Saturday at Clemson). The LSU victory, however, looks slightly weaker after the Tigers barely beat Arkansas this week, and a talented Clemson team is still only 2-2.

I don’t like the argument I hear most often for Georgia — the fact that the Bulldogs have won back-to-back national championships and therefore should be No. 1 until someone beats them. Previous years’ success has no bearing on this team’s success. And this team’s success is limited to three blowout wins over awful teams and a 10-point home win over South Carolina.

Ohio State now has the best victory of any team in the country after escaping Notre Dame with a 17-14 win. A 53-point win over Western Kentucky is strong, too.

I moved the Buckeyes from third to first on my ballot after watching their defense star against the Irish. If Ohio State’s shakiest performance so far is a season-opening 20-point conference win on the road, that’s impressive and worth passing FSU.

The ’Noles are second in my rankings because of their strength of schedule. Georgia is next, though my No. 4 team (Washington) has dominated, too, and bolstered a great resume by thumping Cal.

Deion Sanders and Colorado were tricky to figure out after the Buffaloes’ rough outing at Oregon. Granted, the Ducks are an excellent team, but that doesn’t excuse a 42-6 loss. Colorado was, however, buoyed by the fact that TCU was among the teams I considered for the final few spots on my ballot — but not ahead of the Buffaloes, who beat the Horned Frogs in Coach Prime’s debut. I ultimately decided the blowout defeat overshadowed everything else and dropped Colorado.

Other AP Top 25 thoughts

• The Ducks flew five spots to eighth, so add Oregon to the list of great teams that could go anywhere from first to ninth. They passed Penn State despite the Nittany Lions’ lopsided win over Iowa. That created the odd scenario where I felt stronger about Penn State’s potential but dropped the team a spot because of movement elsewhere.

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• Washington State was my biggest mover this week, jumping from 19th to 12th. The Cougars now have a pair of wins over top-40 teams (Wisconsin and Oregon State).

• I only bumped Notre Dame down one spot to 10th after the heartbreaking loss to Ohio State. The Irish remain in the very-good-but-not-elite tier.

• Miami is up two spots to 15th after a 34-point victory at Temple. The Hurricanes’ win over Texas A&M looks better after Jimbo Fisher’s Aggies beat an Auburn team I ranked last week. I wouldn’t be surprised if this is finally the year we get a Miami-FSU ACC championship.

• Colorado and two Tigers (Clemson and Auburn) all disappeared from my ballot this week. Missouri entered at No. 20 thanks to nice wins over Memphis and Kansas State. The Wildcats returned after beating UCF in the Knights’ first Big 12 game; Kansas State’s lone loss came on a walkoff 61-yard field goal at Mizzou. Undefeated Kentucky also returned to my ballot.

• The Gators were, again, among the teams I considered based on the Week 3 win over Tennessee. But Florida is still weighed down by an ugly loss at Utah and didn’t help itself much by failing to blow out a Charlotte team that entered last weekend No. 129 in SP+ advanced metrics. Louisville, Wisconsin, Kansas, Maryland, Fresno State and Texas A&M were among the other teams that just missed the cut.

Matt Baker’s AP Top 25 ballot

1. Ohio State

2. Florida State

3. Georgia

4. Washington

5. Texas

6. Michigan

7. USC

8. Oregon

9. Penn State

10. Notre Dame

11. Utah

12. Washington State

13. LSU

14. Alabama

15. Miami

16. Duke

17. Oklahoma

18. North Carolina

19. Mississippi

20. Missouri

21. Kansas State

22. Oregon State

23. UCLA

24. Syracuse

25. Kentucky

AP Top 25

1. Georgia (4-0)

2. Michigan (4-0)

3. Texas (4-0)

4. Ohio State (4-0)

5. Florida State (4-0)

6. Penn State (4-0)

7. Washington (4-0)

8. USC (4-0)

9. Oregon (4-0)

10. Utah (4-0)

11. Notre Dame (4-1)

12. Alabama (3-1)

13. LSU (3-1)

14. Oklahoma (4-0)

15. North Carolina (4-0)

16. Washington State (4-0)

17. Duke (4-0)

18.Miami (4-0)

19. Oregon State (3-1)

20. Ole Miss (3-1)

21. Tennessee (3-1)

22. Florida (3-1)

23. Missouri (4-0)

24. Kansas (4-0)

25. Fresno State (4-0)

Others receiving votes: Kansas St. 57, Kentucky 41, Colorado 32, Louisville 32, UCLA 28, Maryland 20, TCU 17, Tulane 11, Syracuse 8, Wisconsin 6, Air Force 6, Clemson 5, Texas A&M 5

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