Notre Dame cracked the top 10 of The Associated Press college football poll for the first time this season, coming in at No. 9, and Michigan fell out of the rankings for the first time in two years.

A week after a rash of upsets gave the poll a shake-up, the first eight teams in the Top 25 released Sunday were unchanged. Alabama remains a unanimous No. 1 in the media poll, with 61 first-place votes. Penn State is No. 2 and Georgia, which was idle, is No. 3.

Undefeated TCU – a 43-0 winner over Kansas on Saturday night – and Wisconsin round out the top five.

Notre Dame jumped four spots after beating Southern California 49-14 on Saturday night in South Bend, Indiana. The Trojans fell 10 spots to No. 21.

The Fighting Irish have slowly made their way up the rankings this season, jumping in briefly, falling out and then climbing steadily from 22 to 21 to 16 to 13. This is the 32nd time in seven-plus seasons under Coach Brian Kelly that Notre Dame has appeared in the top 10 of the AP poll.

Michigan played in the weekend’s other big game and lost to Penn State 42-13. The Wolverines (5-2) had been 19th.

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Michigan moved into the top 25 on Sept. 27, 2015, after the fourth game of Jim Harbaugh’s tenure as coach and had been there ever since. But after the Wolverines’ second loss in three games, sandwiched between an overtime win against Indiana, they landed second among the others receiving votes this week.

MISSISSIPPI: Quarterback Shea Patterson will miss the rest of the season with a knee injury.

The school announced on Sunday that an MRI revealed a torn posterior cruciate ligament in Patterson’s right knee. The sophomore appeared to suffer the injury during the second quarter of the Rebels’ 40-24 loss to No. 24 LSU on Saturday night.

GEORGIA SOUTHERN: The school fired coach Tyson Summers halfway through his second season with the school after an 0-6 start.

The Eagles were blown out 55-20 on Saturday by previously winless Massachusetts, dropping Summers’ record to 5-13. Summers is a Georgia native who was defensive coordinator at Colorado State and Central Florida before replacing Willie Fritz after the 2015 season.

Summers got off to a bad start not only with a losing season but by moving away from the triple-option offense that brought the program decades of success.


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