Week 3: Ole Miss reaches No. 4, Louisville rises seven and Texas A&M falls 14; Chambliss enters Round 1
A Week 3 digest of the AP Top 25 released Sept. 20 — Ole Miss into the top five, Texas A&M down fourteen spots, two new teams in and two out — with the games behind the movement and the week's 2027 NFL Draft stock shift.
Coverage: Sep. 14–Sep. 20, 2026.
Lane Kiffin's return to Oxford ended with Ole Miss at 3-0 and his LSU team at 2-1. Kentucky walked into Kyle Field and beat Texas A&M 31-21. Louisville outscored SMU 41-31 in a game with seven lead changes. Sunday's Associated Press Top 25 absorbed all three results: Ole Miss climbed four spots to No. 4, Louisville made the week's largest jump to No. 16, and Texas A&M made the week's largest fall, dropping fourteen spots to No. 23. 12
One calendar note before the numbers. The ballot AP released Sunday afternoon is the fourth of the 2026 season and grades the games of Sept. 17–19, which is why AP and ESPN file it as the "Week 4 poll." This digest keys off the games, so the ballot below is reported as Week 3. 3
Official AP Top 25: Full Ballot and Movement
| Rank | School (First-Place Votes) | Record | Points | Previous | Movement and Driver |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Texas (58) | 3-0 | 1,706 | 1 | Held No. 1 after a 30-6 win over UTSA; 58 of the 69 voters on the panel put the Longhorns first. 1 |
| 2 | Georgia (3) | 3-0 | 1,580 | 2 | Unchanged after a 45-17 win at Arkansas; Georgia has opened 3-0 in twelve straight seasons, the longest such streak by an FBS team in the AP poll era. 3 |
| 3 | Notre Dame | 3-0 | 1,517 | 3 | Unchanged after beating Michigan State 27-10; the Irish have won 13 in a row, the second-longest active streak in the FBS. 3 |
| 4 | Ole Miss (3) | 3-0 | 1,488 | 8 | Up four, the week's biggest move inside the top ten, after beating LSU 32-24. 1 |
| 5 | Indiana (4) | 3-0 | 1,467 | 4 | Down one after a 38-0 win over Western Kentucky; Indiana has posted consecutive shutouts for the first time since 1993. 3 |
| 6 | Miami (Fla.) (1) | 3-0 | 1,445 | 5 | Down one after beating Wake Forest 33-20 on Friday, a game Darian Mensah opened with 24 straight completions. 4 |
| 7 | Ohio State | 2-1 | 1,415 | 6 | Down one after a 59-3 win over Kent State; Ohio State has now been ranked in 100 straight Top 25s, third behind Alabama's 299 and Georgia's 152, and this is the Buckeyes' lowest ranking since Dec. 1, 2024. 1 |
| 8 | Alabama | 3-0 | 1,182 | 10 | Up two after a 50-36 win over Florida State, Alabama's most points against a power-conference opponent since 2022. 3 |
| 9 | BYU | 3-0 | 1,090 | 11 | Up two after beating Colorado State 41-23; BYU has reached the top ten this early in a season for the first time since 2009. 1 |
| 10 | LSU | 2-1 | 1,078 | 7 | Down three after the loss at Ole Miss; LSU has dropped four straight against AP top-10 opponents. 3 |
| 11 | Texas Tech | 3-0 | 1,067 | 13 | Up two after holding off Houston 28-26 on Friday night in Lubbock. 5 |
| 12 | USC | 4-0 | 907 | 12 | Unchanged after beating Rutgers 42-35; USC has started 4-0 under Lincoln Riley for the fourth time. 3 |
| 13 | Penn State | 3-0 | 850 | 14 | Up one after a 55-13 win over Buffalo; Penn State has won 31 straight home games against unranked nonconference opponents. 3 |
| 14 | Tennessee | 3-0 | 826 | 15 | Up one after beating Kennesaw State 42-9, setting up Texas at Neyland Stadium. 3 |
| 15 | Utah | 3-0 | 752 | 17 | Up two after a 33-0 win over Utah State, a series Utah has controlled in 16 of the past 17 meetings. 3 |
| 16 | Louisville | 2-1 | 692 | 23 | Up seven, the week's largest climb, after beating SMU 41-31. 5 |
| 17 | Iowa | 3-0 | 561 | 18 | Up one after a 55-0 win over Northern Iowa, Iowa's largest shutout win since 2018. 3 |
| 18 | Michigan | 3-0 | 432 | 19 | Up one after beating UTEP 52-17. 3 |
| 19 | Missouri | 3-0 | 369 | 20 | Up one after beating Troy 27-17. 3 |
| 20 | Oregon | 2-1 | 364 | 21 | Up one after an 84-0 win over Portland State, Oregon's largest shutout win since 1916. 3 |
| 21 | Florida | 3-0 | 269 | NR | New entry after a 44-39 win at Auburn; Florida is 3-0 for the first time since 2019 and ranked for the first time since Sept. 2, 2025. 1 |
| 22 | SMU | 2-1 | 212 | 16 | Down six after losing to Louisville 41-31 in the ACC's first real separator of the season. 5 |
| 23 | Texas A&M | 2-1 | 202 | 9 | Down fourteen, the week's largest fall, after losing to unranked Kentucky 31-21 at home. 1 |
| 24 | Mississippi State | 3-0 | 179 | NR | New entry after erasing a 16-point deficit to win 41-34 at South Carolina; ranked for the first time since 2022 and at the highest September spot since Sept. 23, 2018. 15 |
| 25 | Houston | 2-1 | 127 | 22 | Down three after losing 28-26 to Texas Tech. 6 |
Also receiving votes: Washington 107, Kentucky 98, West Virginia 93, Oklahoma 91, Oklahoma State 50, Boise State 48, Virginia Tech 46, Western Michigan 27, Duke 20, Tulsa 18, Arizona 12, Pittsburgh 10, UCLA 10, James Madison 7, North Dakota State 6, Kansas State 3, Nebraska 2. 7
Oklahoma and Virginia left the ballot to make room for Florida and Mississippi State. Oklahoma scored its fewest points in a win in decades in a 14-6 decision over New Mexico and slid from No. 24 to unranked; Virginia, No. 25 for two straight weeks, lost 38-27 to West Virginia. 13
The conference split widened for the SEC, which placed ten teams in the poll for the seventh time in the history of the ranking and put five in the top ten: Texas, Georgia, Ole Miss, Alabama and LSU. The Big Ten has seven ranked teams, the Big 12 four, the ACC three, and Notre Dame stands alone as an independent. 1
The Coaches Poll, released the same day, keeps Indiana at No. 4 and Ole Miss at No. 6, so the two polls disagree on the week's biggest riser even as they agree on Texas at No. 1, Georgia No. 2 and Notre Dame No. 3. Texas took 46 of the coaches' first-place votes, Georgia 16, Indiana nine, Notre Dame two and Miami one. 8
The Games Behind the Movement
Three results did the work: a revenge game in Oxford, an upset in College Station, and a shootout in Louisville that settled the early ACC hierarchy.
Ole Miss 32, LSU 24: what Kiffin built, without him
Kiffin left Ole Miss in November and took twelve staff members and several players with him to Baton Rouge, which made his first trip back to Vaught-Hemingway Stadium the most scrutinized game of the week. Mississippi officials said the game carried the largest law enforcement presence ever assembled for a college football game. 6
The first half belonged entirely to the Rebels. Trinidad Chambliss went 21-of-27 for 248 yards and two touchdowns before the break, and at one point Ole Miss had 214 yards of offense to LSU's 29 on the way to a 24-7 halftime lead. 6
LSU answered in the second half, wiping out the 17-point deficit by the 11:21 mark of the fourth quarter and filling the stadium with the specific anxiety of a team about to lose a game it had already won. 9
Chambliss scored on a 14-yard run with 6:14 left, and Ole Miss converted the two-point try for a 32-24 lead. Sam Leavitt then drove LSU 69 yards on thirteen plays, and on the fourteenth, fourth-and-goal from the 6, his pass was tipped at the line and intercepted in the end zone. 9
Chambliss finished 33-of-48 for 363 yards, two touchdowns and one interception, and he did it against the coach who found him at Division II Ferris State. 49 The voters kept LSU inside the top ten at No. 10, on the logic that a one-possession road loss to a top-five team costs less than the resume already built. 1
Kentucky 31, Texas A&M 21: the week's biggest upset
Kentucky arrived at Kyle Field unranked and one week removed from a 45-17 loss at home to Alabama. The Wildcats were tied 7-7 at halftime and then scored 21 unanswered points in the third quarter to lead 28-7, and Texas A&M's two fourth-quarter touchdowns only made the final score presentable. 26
Kenny Minchey went 14-of-18 for 252 yards and two touchdowns, and Kentucky's defense supplied the rest: Sam Greene intercepted Marcel Reed once, Jordan Castell finished with 13 tackles and a fourth-quarter interception, and Reed closed at 26-of-49. 6 CJ Baxter and Jason Patterson combined for 145 rushing yards behind that defense. 2
The loss ended a 19-game Texas A&M home winning streak against unranked opponents, and it was Kentucky's first win over the Aggies since Bear Bryant's 1952 team won 10-7 in the same stadium. It was also the first top-10 win for first-year Kentucky coach Will Stein, whose program had last beaten one in 2024. 6 Texas A&M still has Missouri, Alabama, Tennessee, Oklahoma and Texas ahead of it, which leaves the margin for the College Football Playoff close to gone. 2
Louisville 41, SMU 31: the ACC's early separator
This was the week's other ranked-versus-ranked game, and it produced seven lead changes and 522 combined rushing yards. 56
Kendrick Raphael's third touchdown put SMU ahead 31-28, and Keyjuan Brown answered with a 53-yard scoring run to take the lead back for good. Kevin Jennings appeared to score for SMU with about two minutes left, and the replay review ruled the play a fumble that rolled through the end zone for a Louisville touchback; Kaleb Beasley's interception on SMU's last possession closed it. 56
The win put Louisville in the driver's seat to reach the ACC championship game, and CBS Sports noted the Cardinals could go the rest of the regular season without facing another top-25 opponent. 5
Other ranked results
- Texas 30, UTSA 6: the Longhorns are 3-0 all time against the Roadrunners. 3
- Alabama 50, Florida State 36: Alabama trailed 21-6, sat through two lightning delays, then rode Keelon Russell's 23-of-30, 320-yard, three-touchdown passing day and a 57-yard scoring run. 56
- Miami 33, Wake Forest 20: Darian Mensah completed his first 24 passes against a Wake Forest defense that had won 11 of its past 16 games, then finished 30-of-34 for 220 yards and three touchdowns. 49
- BYU 41, Colorado State 23: BYU has now started 3-0 in four consecutive seasons, and Colorado State later apologized to the Cougars for derogatory chants from its student section. 310
- Texas Tech 28, Houston 26: Houston's two-point attempt to tie fell inches short of the goal line on Friday night. 2
- USC 42, Rutgers 35: Rutgers gained 460 yards against the Trojans two weeks after managing 346 total yards and 27 on the ground against UMass. 9
- Michigan 52, UTEP 17: UTEP, which had lost 51-0 to Oklahoma, led 14-7 late in the second quarter. 9
- Mississippi State 41, South Carolina 34: Kamario Taylor threw an interception on his first attempt, then four touchdown passes as the Bulldogs erased a 16-0 deficit on the road. 5
- Florida 44, Auburn 39: Jadan Baugh ran for 162 yards and three touchdowns in Jon Sumrall's first SEC game as Florida's coach. 5
- Shutouts for ranked teams: Indiana 38-0 over Western Kentucky, Iowa 55-0 over Northern Iowa, Oregon 84-0 over Portland State and Utah 33-0 over Utah State. 3
- The remaining ranked winners: Georgia 45-17 over Arkansas, Notre Dame 27-10 over Michigan State, Penn State 55-13 over Buffalo, Tennessee 42-9 over Kennesaw State and Missouri 27-17 over Troy. 3
- West Virginia 38, Virginia 27: Michael Hawkins Jr. accounted for five touchdowns and became the first West Virginia quarterback with three rushing and two passing touchdowns in a game since Pat White in 2008. The Mountaineers are 3-0 and sit just outside the poll. 6
- Vanderbilt over NC State: NC State led 31-28 with six seconds left and the ball at its own 5-yard line, and CJ Bailey ran backwards to burn the clock. Miles Capers punched the ball out, Cayden Daniels fell on it in the end zone, and Vanderbilt had a touchdown and the win. It was Vanderbilt's tenth straight home win and a second consecutive 3-0 start, the program's first this century. 69
2027 NFL Draft: Week 3 Stock Movement
The quarterback board: Chambliss moves in, Mensah waits
ESPN's Mel Kiper Jr. and Jordan Reid filed their weekly board notes Sunday, and the headline change came from Oxford. Reid now has Trinidad Chambliss in Round 1, citing how he attacks the middle of the field and how he elevates his play in big games, with Russell Wilson as his NFL comparison. Chambliss is 6-foot and 205 pounds and would arrive as a 25-year-old rookie, which Reid flags as the part of the profile teams will debate. 4
Darian Mensah is the harder case, and Reid says so plainly. Reid watched him in person Friday, credited his poise and command and called his arm strength slightly above average, then said he is taking a wait-and-see approach because Miami's schedule has offered no test yet. Scouts have circled Nov. 7, when Miami travels to Notre Dame. 4
The two boards published this week disagree about the quarterback order itself. In a poll of 25 NFL scouts and executives that ESPN published Sept. 16, before Week 2, Dante Moore took 14 votes as the quarterback most likely to be drafted first, with Arch Manning at seven, LaNorris Sellers at two, and Sam Leavitt and CJ Carr at one each. Kiper's read the same week: "I don't know that there even is a true QB1 right now." 411
This week's risers and stock-down names
| Prospect | Position / School | Week 3 On-Field Evidence | Stock Direction | Board Context |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Trinidad Chambliss | QB, Ole Miss | 33-of-48, 363 yards, two passing touchdowns and one interception against LSU, plus the 14-yard go-ahead scoring run. 4 | Rising | Reid moved him into Round 1 after the game; the NFL Draft Bible's Sept. 18 board has him No. 33 overall. 412 |
| Darian Mensah | QB, Miami | 30-of-34, 220 yards and three touchdowns against Wake Forest, opening with 24 straight completions. 4 | Rising, unverified | Reid keeps him in the first-round conversation and wants to see him against a real opponent; the NFL Draft Bible ranks him No. 3 overall, the top quarterback on that board. 412 |
| Charlie Becker | WR, Indiana | Five catches for 127 yards and his sixth touchdown of the season against Western Kentucky. 4 | Rising | Reid made him his new WR2, ahead of Texas' Cam Coleman; the NFL Draft Bible has him No. 20 overall. 412 |
| LJ Martin | RB, BYU | 175 rushing yards and three scores against Colorado State, including a 56-yard touchdown. 4 | Rising | Kiper has him in the Day 2 mix, describing a 6-foot-2, 225-pound north-south runner who breaks tackles. 4 |
| Duce Robinson | WR, Florida State | Six catches for 135 yards and a touchdown against Alabama, lifting his season average to 19.1 yards per catch. 4 | Rising | Kiper, who had wanted to see the 6-foot-6, 230-pounder play to his frame, now calls him a solid Day 2 prospect. 4 |
| Luke Reynolds | TE, Virginia Tech | Twelve catches for 107 yards and a touchdown against Maryland; his 265 receiving yards this season are already a career high. 4 | Rising | Reid puts him in Day 2 discussions with an argument as TE3 behind LSU's Trey'Dez Green and Oregon's Jamari Johnson. 4 |
| Dylan Stewart | EDGE, South Carolina | Season debut against Mississippi State: he forced a high incompletion on his first snap and made one tackle for loss. 4 | Debut | Reid saw flashes of a top-five pick and still wants countermoves and game conditioning; the NFL Draft Bible ranks him No. 6 overall. 412 |
| Ashton Hampton | CB, Clemson | Affected throwing windows across his first three games on the way to 3-0. 4 | Rising | Reid's third-ranked cornerback is making the CB2 race interesting, with top-15 potential. 4 |
| Xavier Atkins | LB, Auburn | Nine tackles, a sack and two tackles for loss against Florida. 4 | Rising | Kiper has him in the Day 2 conversation and wants the missed tackles cleaned up. 4 |
| John Mateer | QB, Oklahoma | Two first-half interceptions in a 14-6 win over New Mexico, one week after going 17-of-33 in the loss at Michigan. 511 | Falling | A veteran scout quoted by ESPN put it simply: "John Mateer is arrow down." 11 |
| Sam Leavitt | QB, LSU | Threw the fourth-and-goal interception that ended LSU's comeback in Oxford. 9 | Falling | Reid said in Week 2 that erratic reads had hurt his push into the upper tiers; the NFL Draft Bible has him No. 46 overall. 412 |
| CJ Bailey | QB, NC State | Fumbled in his own end zone with six seconds left, turning a 31-28 lead into a loss to Vanderbilt. 9 | Falling | Kiper's Sept. 13 assessment of a three-year starter: "uneven play." 4 |
Jeremiah Smith and the record he passed
Jeremiah Smith is the rare prospect whose week mattered more for history than for movement. Against Kent State he passed Michael Jenkins, who had 2,898 yards in 41 games from 2000 to 2003, with a 23-yard catch in the first quarter. Smith finished with five catches for 85 yards and sat out the second half, and he now stands at 179 receptions, 2,958 yards and 30 touchdowns in 33 games, with 27 catches needed to pass Emeka Egbuka's 205 and six touchdowns needed to pass Chris Olave's 35. 13
Jenkins congratulated Smith in a recorded message on the Ohio State videoboard during a media timeout, and coach Ryan Day put the record in its simplest terms: "Thirty-three games to break the all-time receiving record at Ohio State." 13
Smith is No. 1 on both boards published this week, and both boards agree on the first two names in the same order: Smith first, Arch Manning second. 412
Read the two boards together and the disagreement starts at No. 3. The NFL Draft Bible's Sept. 18 Hot 100 orders its top ten as Smith, Manning, Mensah, Ohio State quarterback Julian Sayin, Notre Dame cornerback Leonard Moore, Dylan Stewart, Texas edge rusher Colin Simmons, Oklahoma State quarterback Drew Mestemaker, Texas receiver Cam Coleman and Oregon quarterback Dante Moore. ESPN's Reid, working the same week with the Week 3 games in hand, has Mensah on hold, has Chambliss in Round 1 and has Becker ahead of Coleman at receiver. 412
Two dates explain most of the gap. The NFL Draft Bible published its board Sept. 18, before Chambliss beat LSU and before Mensah threw three touchdowns at Wake Forest; ESPN's notes landed Sept. 20 with those games included. 412
What to Watch Next Saturday
Six games match ranked teams, and AP flagged all six when it released the ballot. 1
- No. 1 Texas at No. 14 Tennessee — the first meeting between the programs since the 1969 Cotton Bowl, and Texas' first road game against a ranked opponent this season.
- No. 4 Ole Miss at No. 21 Florida — Kewan Lacy ran for 224 yards and three touchdowns in this fixture last year, and he left the LSU game with shoulder pain, so his availability is the open question. 16
- No. 23 Texas A&M at No. 10 LSU — the Aggies won at Death Valley last season and now arrive there at 2-1 and falling.
- No. 17 Iowa at No. 18 Michigan — Iowa's 111 points through three games are its most since 2003.
- No. 19 Missouri at No. 24 Mississippi State — the Bulldogs are chasing their first 2-0 SEC start since 2014.
- No. 20 Oregon at No. 12 USC — Oregon has won the past four meetings in the series.
For draft watchers, the date to hold is Nov. 7, when Notre Dame hosts Miami, the date scouts have circled to see Mensah against a higher-quality opponent. 4
References
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6
- 7The AP Top 25
apnews.com
- 8
- 9
- 10
- 11
- 122027 NFL Draft Hot 100, September Edition
allaccessfootball.com
- 13
This story was produced automatically by a channel. One sentence is all it takes for Neodrop to keep producing for you.