When the Top 25 college football rankings come out for Week 8 today

For the second-straight week, college football saw its fair share of upsets among some highly-considered teams, ensuring that we’ll see some more notable changes when the Top 25 rankings are released as we look ahead to Week 8.

Someone had to lose the top 10 battle between Oregon and Indiana, and for the first time since 2022, it was the Ducks who lost a game at home to the insurgent Hoosiers, who look well on their way towards earning a second-straight College Football Playoff berth.

Texas came up off the mat after falling out of the rankings last week to upset sixth-ranked Oklahoma in the Red River Shootout, giving Arch Manning a firmer foundation to work from and give this program a fighting chance in the SEC race going forward.

Alabama passed a third-straight test against a ranked SEC opponent by taking out undefeated Missouri on the road, beating three conference teams in the poll in a 3-0 start in league play for the first time in school history.

When will we know what happens? Here’s what you need to know for when the AP and Coaches college football rankings will be released today as we prepare for the Week 8 slate.

When the Top 25 college football rankings are released today

First up, the Coaches Poll will be announced at or around 1 p.m. Eastern on Sunday after the eligible coaches cast their ballots for the top 25 teams.

From there, the Associated Press will announce its official top 25 rankings at or around 2 p.m. Eastern on Sunday afternoon after official voters submit their ballots to the AP to be counted.

Keep in mind, however: much like the football rankings themselves, their scheduled release time isn’t an exact science and may not be exactly right.

These are estimated times and occasionally the ranking services can be early or late, by as much as 15 to 30 minutes every week.

Sometimes, ballots arrive late or there are technical issues in calculating them, but both polls are usually released around the times listed.

Whenever the rankings are released, you can see them in their entirety on College Football HQ On Sports Illustrated.

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What to expect in the rankings

Prediction: AP top 25 rankings projection for Week 8

Biggest movers: College football teams moving up, down in Week 8 rankings

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How the AP top 25 rankings are created

Voters designated by the Associated Press who take part in the poll first create a list of what they consider the 25 best teams in the country. 

From there, they assign each team a number of points, awarding the best team the most number of points, which is 25. 

They give the second-lowest number to the second-best team, the third-lowest to the third-best team, etc.

The AP then combines the numerical value of each voter’s poll and ranks the teams by number of points in descending order to create the final rankings.

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College Football Playoff rankings schedule for 2025

For now, the weekly college football rankings are confined to those released by the AP top 25 voters and the coaches, but in the weeks to come, the more consequential College Football Playoff rankings are slated to be revealed by the selection committee.

All times Eastern

CFP rankings release No. 1
Tues., Nov. 4 at 8 p.m.

CFP rankings release No. 2
Tues., Nov. 11 at 7 p.m.

CFP rankings release No. 3
Tues., Nov. 18 at 8:30 p.m.

CFP rankings release No. 4
Tues., Nov. 25 at 7 p.m.

CFP rankings release No. 5
Tues., Dec. 2 at 7 p.m.

Selection Sunday
Sun., Dec. 7 at 12 p.m.

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