Alabama’s loss wasn’t enough for them to drop significantly in the latest Coaches Poll heading into Week 12 but the bigger news might be the history made at the bottom of the rankings.
Though they were off this past weekend, Indiana made a historic move into the Coaches Poll for the first time since 1994, posting a 7-2 mark so far this season to come in at No. 25 overall. That is quite the accomplishment for head coach Tom Allen and his staff, who have dealt with a number of key injuries but became bowl eligible before November and appear to be a fairly tough out in Big Ten play in 2019.
Nationally the bigger picture was framed by the epic LSU-Alabama duel in Tuscaloosa and the predictable effect it had on the polls. The Tigers naturally moved up to No. 1 with the win while the Tide sat as the top one-loss team at No. 4. Ohio State is the new No. 2 over a Clemson team that stayed put at No. 3 for another week.
The biggest drop came courtesy of Penn State, which fell six spots to No. 11 after losing to new No. 7 Minnesota. The Gophers moved up the same amount of places and leapfrogged No. 8 Oklahoma, No. 9 Utah and No. 10 Baylor.
No. 15 Wisconsin and No. 16 Notre Dame also flipped spots with each other despite both winning on Saturday, though the Badgers did so over a ranked team in No. 22 Iowa.
No. 23 Texas and No. 24 Appalachian State also re-joined the rankings in place of Wake Forest, Kansas State and San Diego State, who all fell out after losses.
The full Coaches Poll heading into Week 12:
- LSU (55 first place votes)
- Ohio State (5)
- Clemson (4)
- Alabama
- Georgia
- Oregon
- Minnesota
- Oklahoma
- Utah
- Baylor
- Penn State
- Florida
- Auburn
- Michigan
- Wisconsin
- Notre Dame
- Cincinnati
- Memphis
- Boise State
- SMU
- Navy
- Iowa
- Texas
- Appalachian State
- Indiana