Ohio State drops to No. 11 in AP Poll following loss to Purdue

A 29-point road loss at night to an unranked team apparently does some real damage to a team’s AP Poll ranking. The Ohio State Buckeyes dropped from No. 2 in the land all the way down to No. 11, following their eye-opening loss to Purdue.

That was the biggest downward move in the polls for any program in the Top 25. Conversely, the biggest upward mover in the latest poll was Washington State, whose upset home-win over Oregon brought them from No. 25 to No. 14.

With OSU being the only major upset in the Top 10, a handful of teams moved up a single spot. Alabama is still the No. 1 team, but Clemson, Notre Dame, LSU and Michigan round out the top-5.

The duo of UM and OSU aren’t the only representation of Big Ten teams in the top-20. Penn State and Iowa are back-to-back at No. 17 and No. 18, respectively, and Wisconsin moved up three spots to No. 20 after beating Illinois.

There’s also some history in this week’s poll too. Appalachian State, who now plays in the Sun Belt conference, cracked the rankings for the first time in program history. They are No. 25 this week, but can they keep their new-found streak of being in the Top 25 alive? The Mountaineers play in this week’s edition of Thursday night football, with a road game at Georgia Southern on tap.

Next week, no matter what happens, we know that at least one top-10 team will fall. No. 7 Georgia plays No. 9 Florida in — what I still call — the World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party in Jacksonville.

Below is the full AP Top 25 ranking following Week 8.