Alabama jumped Cincinnati to No. 2 behind Georgia in The Associated Press college football poll on Sunday and Oklahoma dropped eight spots to No. 12 after losing for the first time this season.
Georgia is a unanimous No. 1 in the AP Top 25 presented by Regions Bank for the sixth consecutive week and the Southeastern Conference has the top two teams in the poll for the sixth time this season.
Alabama and Georgia were flip-flopped at Nos. 1 and 2 for five weeks in September and early October.
The switch from Cincinnati to Alabama at No. 2 was more about the Bearcats than the Crimson Tide, which closed the gap on UC to four points last week.
Alabama took care of business against overmatched New Mexico State on Saturday. No surprise there.
Cincinnati remained unbeaten after winning at South Florida 45-28 on Friday night. It was the fourth straight week the Bearcats played a team with a losing record and found themselves in a competitive game in the second half. That tipped a few more voters to drop Cincinnati.
“It was an evaluation of their overall resumes,” said voter Ryan Aber from The Oklahoman. “Alabama’s win over New Mexico State didn’t do much on the surface, but other factors — Ole Miss’ win over Texas A&M as well as Cincinnati’s less-than-dominant performances against lesser competition in recent weeks — led me to raise the Crimson Tide ahead of the Bearcats.”
Matt Baker of the Tampa Bay Times made the switch to put Alabama ahead of Cincinnati last week and then further separated the Tide and Bearcats after this week’s games.
“I’ve seen Alabama and Cincinnati both with my own eyes,” Baker said. “Neither one is on Georgia’s level, but I see a gap between ’Bama and Cincinnati.”
Behind the Bearcats, No. 4 Oregon, No. 5 Ohio State, No. 6 Notre Dame, No. 7 Michigan State, No. 8 Michigan and No. 9 Oklahoma State all moved up one spot after Oklahoma tumbled.
The Sooners were No. 4 before being handed their first loss of the season at Baylor on Saturday.
The Bears moved up to No. 11 behind No. 10 Mississippi.
Alabama has the longest current streak of top-five appearances in the AP Top 25 at 29. Georgia is second after running its streak to 12 this week.
Cincinnati is third at seven straight polls. Oklahoma had been next coming into this weekend at five straight, but with that snapped, the next best top-five streak is Oregon with two straight polls.
Alabama holds the all-time record for top-five appearances with 68 from 2015-19.
Brewers, Rays make trade
MILWAUKEE (AP) — The Milwaukee Brewers acquired infielder Mike Brosseau from the Tampa Bay Rays for minor league pitcher Evan Reifert on Saturday in a trade between division winners.
Brosseau slumped this season after hitting a huge home run for Tampa Bay in the 2020 playoffs. His tiebreaking drive in the eighth inning off Yankees closer Aroldis Chapman lifted the Rays to a 2-1 win in the decisive Game 5 of the AL Division Series.
The 27-year-old Brosseau hit .187 with five home runs and 18 RBIs in 57 games for the AL East champion Rays, and also struggled at Triple-A Durham.
Brosseau is a career .245 hitter with 16 homers and 46 RBIs in 143 games over three seasons, all with the Rays. The right-hander has batted .277 against lefties in his career.
Brosseau has made 50 starts at second base, 35 at third and nine at first base in the majors.
Reifert, a 22-year-old righty, made his professional debut this season, going a combined 3-3 with eight saves and a 2.10 ERA in 37 games for Low-A Carolina and High-A Wisconsin.
The trade came a couple days after the major league general managers’ meetings ended.
On Thursday, the NL Central champion Brewers announced the hiring of Ozzie Timmons and Connor Dawson as hitting coaches to replace the fired Andy Haines.
Milwaukee scored a total of six runs in a four-game NL Division Series loss to the eventual World Series champion Atlanta Braves. The Brewers ranked 12th out of 30 major league teams in scoring, 20th in OPS and 27th in batting average during the regular season.
