USF Bulls move up one spot to 18th in AP college football poll

On a weekend with significant movement in the AP Top 25, South Florida moved up one spot to 18th controls its chances of securing the automatic berth in the College Football Playoff.

USF, at 6-1 overall and 3-0 in the American Conference, is the only Group of Five team in the poll, which is based on a vote by The Associated Press’ panel of reporters and broadcasters. The five highest-ranked conference champions earn bids in the CFP field.

The 12-team playoff is seeded by the CFP committee, which doesn’t release the first of its six rankings until Nov. 4. However, AP is using its poll to create a “mock” bracket that now matches the Bulls as the 12th seed against No. 5 Georgia in the first round.

After the Bulls picked up their fourth straight win, 48-13 over Florida Atlantic on Saturday, USF coach Alex Golesh pointed out how difficult it is to maintain success, even for college football’s best.

ALSO READ: Bulls pull away from Florida Atlantic in second half for 48-13 homecoming victory

“What I am really proud of … I told our guys, there's six teams in the Top 25 that got upset this week. So one, we earned the right not to be one of them, but (also) how fragile winning really is.”

The victims: Miami, LSU, Texas Tech, Tennessee, Ole Miss, and USF’s next opponent, Memphis.

“We're going to continue to get pat on our back for doing well in these games every week as we go, but a pat on the back and a slap in the face is 18 inches apart, and it's really fragile,” Golesh said. “And I bring up the teams losing this week just simply how fragile it really is.”

The Bulls can turn AP’s “mock” to reality by winning out, but there are conference hurdles in their lane.

The first comes Saturday, when USF travels to Memphis (6-1, 2-1), which dropped out of the poll after losing to Alabama-Birmingham. Game time is noon, with one of the ESPN networks broadcasting.

“We know we've got a huge road trip up to Memphis coming next week, again on national TV on a big stage that we continue to put ourselves on,” Golesh said. “I told these guys, ‘Shut out any outside noise you get.’ ”

After that, the Bulls host Texas-San Antonio before traveling to Navy (6-0. 4-0), which shares the conference lead with South Florida and Tulane (6-1, 4-0).

Tulane is not on USF’s schedule, but they could meet in the American title game, which matches the teams with the best league records on Dec. 5.

Ohio State, Indiana, Texas A&M and Alabama are now Nos. 1-4 in the rankings. The Hurricanes dropped from second to ninth, while Alabama moved up after beating Tennessee. The CFP’s top four seeds receive a first-round bye.

ALSO READ: USF jumps to 19th in AP poll, finds a place in early playoff conversation

No. 7 Georgia Tech, No. 10 Vanderbilt, which beat LSU, and No. 11 BYU moved into the top 12 for the first time. Texas Tech lost at Arizona State and dropped to 14th, while Tennessee was 17th and LSU 20th.

Based on the AP Top 25, the CFP would open like this:

• No. 9 seed Miami at No. 8 Mississippi. Winner vs. No. 1 Ohio State.
• No. 12 seed USF at No. 5 Georgia. Winner vs. No. 4 Alabama.
• No. 10 seed Vanderbilt at No. 7 seed Georgia Tech. Winner vs. No. 2 Indiana.
• No. 11 seed BYU at No. 6 Oregon. Winner vs. No. 3 Texas A&M.

The first team outside the mock bracket is Notre Dame, which is ranked No 12 by AP but would get bumped by USF as the automatically qualifying conference champion.

In the weekly coaches poll, South Florida jumped to 20th from 23rd.

Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.