UNDATED (AP) — Georgia, Alabama, Michigan State and Oregon are the top four teams in the first College Football Playoff rankings of the season with Ohio State and Cincinnati up next. The unbeaten Bearcats have the best ranking ever in the selection committee’s Top 25 for a team from outside the Power Five conferences, but are still behind three teams (Alabama, Oregon and Ohio State) that have already lost a game. Cincinnati is trying to become the first non-Power Five team to make the playoff. Michigan, Oklahoma, Wake Forest and Notre Dame rounded out the top 10. Only once in the seven-year history of the CFP have the four teams in the committee’s initial ranking made the final four. That was last season.

UNDATED (AP) — The calendar has flipped to November, signifying the final stretch of college football’s regular season. The Pac-12 has started to sort itself out, with several teams in contention in each division and others already out of the mix. Both divisions have frontrunners, but with this wild season there’s no telling how it might play out. No. 7 Oregon has been the class of the conference and its best chance to earn a College Football Playoff spot. But Washington State is just a half-game back in the North Division, with Oregon State and Washington a game behind. Utah leads the South at 4-1, with a one-game lead over Arizona State and 1 1/2 over UCLA and USC.

TEMPE, Ariz. (AP) — Arizona State is still trying to climb to the next tier under coach Herm Edwards. The Sun Devils went to bowl games in his first two seasons before finishing 2-2 in the the pandemic-altered 2020 season. They went into this season with high expectations, but have fallen flat after consecutive disheartening losses to Utah and Washington State. Arizona State allowed Utah to score 28 straight points in a 35-21 loss to the Utes, and fell into a 28-point hole against the Cougars before losing 34-21. The Sun Devils are still only a game behind Utah in the Pac-12 South, with games against USC, Washington, Oregon State and rival Arizona left.

UNDATED (AP) — A year after the NCAA gave athletes Election Day off, football teams all over the country were back practicing on the first Tuesday in November. Teams can pursue waivers and many did so, including some in places with significant elections on the ballot. A ballot question that could reshape policing in Minneapolis drew national attention in the aftermath of the killing of George Floyd last year. Minnesota was one of the programs that requested a waiver for football practice.

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