The Ohio State Buckeyes (1) remained atop the Associated Press college football poll, but regained ground with 39 first-place votes, up from 27 a week ago.

Ohio State head football coach Urban Meyer named J.T. Barrett the team's starting quarterback after starting Cardale Jones for the first seven weeks. The Buckeyes promptly trounced Rutgers 49-7 and Barrett accumulated 324 total yards and scored five touchdowns in the air and on the ground.

Baylor (2) stayed put after beating Iowa State, but the poll's Top Five got a new entrant in week eight. While TCU (5) and LSU (4) switched places, Clemson (3) rose three spots after demolishing Miami 58-0 and even got six first-place votes.

The third overall spot became available thanks to USC handing Utah (13) its first loss of the season. Moving up amid the 10-spot drop was Michigan State (6), Alabama (7), Stanford (8), Notre Dame (9), Iowa (10), Florida (11), and Oklahoma State (12).

Aside from Clemson's huge win, the rest of the ranked ACC teams are occupying the lower half of the poll. Florida State (17) is the second-highest ranked ACC team and just suffered an eight-spot drop after an improbable loss to Georgia Tech. Following the Seminoles are Duke (22) and Pittsburgh (23).

With the exception of Texas A&M and Cal falling from the Top 25, and TCU's one-spot drop, the other four Power Five conferences - Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12, and SEC - experienced nothing but rises.

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