Week 3 college football rankings: AP Top 25 poll reactions, takeaways, analysis

The Week 3 college football AP Top 25 poll was released Sunday and Miami (Fla.) and Marshall were arguably the biggest winners. Here's everything you need to know about the latest AP poll, the teams that climbed in the poll, the teams that dropped and what will come next.

Miami (Fla.) moves up

The Hurricanes, which played in the only top-25 matchup in Week 2 — a 47-34 win over then-No. 18 Louisville, moved up five spots in the AP poll to No. 12. The 'Canes are now ranked just one spot behind ACC foe North Carolina at No. 11.

Miami quarterback D'Eriq King threw for 325 yards and three touchdowns in the win, while running back Cam'Ron Harris averaged nearly 15 yards per carry with nine carries for 134 yards and a touchdown.

Miami's current No. 12 ranking is the program's best since it was ranked No. 8 in the 2018 preseason AP poll.

Louisville dropped to No. 24 after the loss.

WEEK 3 RECAP: How each of the 10 ranked teams fared this past weekend

Marshall is ranked for the first time since 2014 season

After 10 previously unranked teams climbed into the AP poll in Week 2, just one new team entered the fray in the Week 3 AP poll: No. 25 Marshall. The Thundering Herd hadn't been ranked since the final AP poll in the 2014 season, when Marshall finished the campaign ranked No. 23.

The Thundering Herd went 13-1 that season, capped off with the Boca Raton Bowl win.

This year, Marshall is 2-0 with wins over Eastern Kentucky and then-No. 23 Appalachian State.

Texas is the highest-ranked team that moved up

Auburn and Texas received the same number of votes in Week 3 — 1,037 votes — which means both schools are ranked No. 8 in the latest poll. The Longhorns were previously No. 9, which makes them the highest-ranked team that moved up in the latest poll after the top seven teams held their Week 2 ranking.

After a 59-3 win over UTEP in Week 1, Texas didn't play over the weekend, which means the Longhorns moved up one spot in the poll despite not playing.

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Oklahoma State falls, despite winning

The Cowboys dropped four spots in the AP poll, falling from No. 11 to No. 15 after a come-from-behind 16-7 win over Tulsa in which Oklahoma State needed third-string quarterback Shane Illingworth to rally the team.

Big Ten back soon

Starting with the Week 4 AP Top 25 poll, schools from the Big Ten, whose fall football season will start the weekend of Oct. 23-24, will be eligible to receive votes in the AP poll. Big Ten schools were eligible for the preseason AP poll but they couldn't receive votes starting in Week 2, which prompted drops out of the poll from preseason No. 2 Ohio State, No. 7 Penn State, No. 12 Wisconsin, No. 16 Michigan, No. 19 Minnesota and No. 24 Iowa.

With Big Ten teams being eligible for the AP poll in Week 4, get ready for a potentially new-look top 10 if AP poll voters place Ohio State and Penn State among the best teams in the country, which is where they were in the preseason.

See the full Week 3 AP poll, released Sept. 20, below: