College Football Power Rankings: How did the top 25 look in Week 9?

Compared to the past few weeks, it was a somewhat ho-hum Week 9 in college football. Four AP-ranked teams lost, but each lost to a fellow ranked opponent.

Ohio State and Penn State both survived scares, setting up a top-five showdown next week in State College.

How did Saturday’s action affect our Power Rankings?

Here’s the latest top 25 from our college football experts, who provide their insight on each team’s Week 9 performance.

Previous ranking: 1

In their first game as the No.1 team in the country, the Ducks dismantled No. 20 Illinois with 35 first-half points and a 38-9 win to remain undefeated heading into the final four games of the regular season. After outlasting Ohio State a few weeks ago, Oregon has put together its two best defensive performances on back-to-back weeks, shutting out Purdue on the road and holding Illinois to 293 total yards and nine points Saturday. Teams not named Ohio State or Boise State have not been able to score more than 14 points on the Ducks’ defense, which ranks in the top 20 in the nation at stopping the pass. Overall, Dan Lanning’s defense has been consistent, but if there was something to nitpick, it’s that heading into the game, opponents scored 88% of the time once inside the 20-yard line. On Saturday, Illinois entered the red zone four times and scored only twice. — Paolo Uggetti

Previous ranking: 2

Last we saw Kirby Smart’s Dawgs, they were playing their most defensively brilliant game of the season in a 30-15 win over Texas. UGA’s defensive front was as healthy as it’s been all year and got star performances out of end Mykel Williams and linebacker Jalon Walker. UGA was on bye this week, but the next two offenses the Dawgs will see — Florida’s and Ole Miss’ — have plenty of upside and could test them if they can’t solve their biggest 2024 issue: inconsistency. In five SEC games, they’ve allowed 12, 41, 13, 31 and 15 points. They headed into their bye week ranked just 26th in yards allowed per play and 19th in yards allowed per game. That’s good, but they were great in Austin and might need to show that form more frequently down the stretch. — Bill Connelly

Previous ranking: 6

There were too many penalties and Texas was never able to completely put away Vanderbilt, but the Longhorns bounced back from their disappointing home loss to Georgia to beat the Commodores 27-24 on the road Saturday. The best news for Texas was that quarterback Quinn Ewers also bounced back…