AP College Football Poll 2015: Complete Week 11 Rankings Released

Last week, the College Football Playoff committee spurned multiple unbeaten teams to throw Alabama in its initial Top Four. After Alabama's emphatic victory over LSU on Saturday, the Associated Press now agrees.

The Crimson Tide moved up to No. 3 in the latest poll, coming in behind new No. 1 Clemson and No. 2 Ohio State. Baylor slides from No. 2 to No. 4, while Oklahoma State moves into the fifth spot to round out the Top Five. Iowa brings up the rear of the unbeatens in the Top 10 at No. 8.   

Here is how the Top 25 played out:

Clemson, which ranked No. 1 in the initial playoff rankings, ascends to the top spot in the AP poll after a 23-13 win over Florida State. The Tigers end the season with three winnable games against Syracuse, Wake Forest and South Carolina, so it'd be a surprise if they didn't at least enter the ACC title game unbeaten.

Alabama now sits in the driver's seat for a playoff berth after a 30-16 win over LSU that wasn't even as close as the score indicates. Derrick Henry rushed for 210 yards and three touchdowns, helping the Tide control the clock for nearly 40 minutes as their defense showed up in a big way.

LSU running back Leonard Fournette, who came into the week as the runaway Heisman favorite, left in danger of losing the trophy after a 31-yard day. Tigers quarterback Brandon Harris completed as many passes (six) as Alabama quarterback Jake Coker missed.

Alabama middle linebacker Reggie Ragland discussed how the Tide stymied Fournette, per Michael Casagrande of AL.com:

"

The guys in the locker room were like "Man, I'm tired of hearing about this guy." We have to go out there and do something. He's a heck of a player. He tried to make a play at the end. He scored, but before that, guys were getting up to him. He's a heck of a player like I said and it's hard to stop a guy like that. I'm glad I have the guys that I have in the locker room and they held it to theirselves. We're not going to let him do this.

"

Adam Jacobi noted Alabama's dominance even before this week:

The loss drops LSU to No. 9. While head coach Les Miles' team will have an uphill climb to get back in the committee's good graces, it finishes with three winnable games, including contests with Ole Miss and Texas A&M. Depending on what happens around the country, it would be hard to ignore a one-loss LSU squad.

Of course, getting into the playoff with one loss got a lot easier Saturday with losses by TCU and Michigan State. The Horned Frogs, ranked fifth in last week's AP poll, take a nosedive to No. 13 after their 49-29 loss to Oklahoma State. Mason Rudolph threw five touchdowns, and James Washington came down with three of them as the Cowboys led 42-16 heading into the fourth quarter.

"I have some good friends that hang out at the house all the time. And that's all they want to talk about, how we get disrespected," Oklahoma State quarterback J.W. Walsh said of the playoff rankings, per Brandon Chatmon of ESPN.com. "We just tell them 'Look, we have TCU this week, Iowa State next week.' We go week by week and don't worry about it. But they just want to keep bringing it up."

While TCU went down in a battle of the unbeatens, Michigan State's no-show against Nebraska was the week's most inexplicable loss. The Cornhuskers entered the week 3-6 and losers of four of their five Big Ten games. They responded by putting up 39 points on the Spartans defense, with quarterback Tommy Armstrong Jr. accounting for four touchdowns.

It's worth noting that the last of those scores, a 30-yard touchdown pass to Brandon Reilly, is mired in controversy. Replay clearly showed Reilly stepping out of bounds without assistance from the defensive back before catching the ball, making him ineligible to be the first pass-catcher to touch the ball. However, officials claimed he was forced out and upheld the touchdown ruling.

Mike Greenberg of ESPN wasn't happy with the ruling:

The result was an eight-spot drop to No. 14 for the Spartans, tied with TCU for the second-biggest descent; Memphis dropped 10 places to No. 25 after losing at home to Navy. Oklahoma State's seven-spot leap was by far the largest among teams ranked inside the Top 25 last week.

Overall, three teams moved out of the rankings. Ole Miss was sent packing after a 53-52 loss to Arkansas, Texas A&M is gone after a 26-10 loss to Auburn and Toledo fell out of the rankings after Northern Illinois ended its unbeaten run. Navy, Wisconsin and Northwestern replaced them in the Top 25.

Follow Tyler Conway (@tylerconway22) on Twitter.