The UCF Knights opened their season with fireworks at Spectrum Stadium, defeating Florida A&M 62-0 on Thursday.
That was not enough to impress the pollsters as the Knights fell one spot to No. 18 in the latest Associated Press poll. They remained No. 17 in the Coaches Poll.
The Knights outgained the Rattlers 694-96, dominating the game in all three phases. Notre Dame transfer quarterback Brandon Wimbush made his debut, throwing for 168 yards and two touchdowns on 12-for-23 passing. Freshman quarterback Dillon Gabriel made his debut in the second half and completed 9 of 13 passes for 127 yards and three touchdowns.
UCF has been ranked in 28 straight polls, dating back to week six of the 2017 season, and it marks the 41st time in history the Knights have been in the Top 25.
UCF is scheduled to play Florida Atlantic on Saturday at Boca Raton. There have been no signals the game will get canceled or moved because of Hurricane Dorian.
The opponent was likely not enough to impress voters on a Week 1 that saw several high-profile matchups.
Wisconsin jumped over UCF to No. 17 after a 49-0 win at USF on Friday.
The Florida Gators had their own high-profile matchup with the Miami Hurricanes the week before at Camping World Stadium. The Gators won the game 24-20 but did not impress in doing so. They dropped from No. 8 to No. 11. Florida returns to action this Saturday at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium in Gainesville against UT-Martin.
Top 25 teams went 23-0 against unranked teams to open the season, leaving the rankings mostly unchanged with No. 1 Clemson and No. 2 Alabama at the top of the first regular-season AP college football poll of 2019.
The Tigers received 54 first-place votes out of 62 in the media poll, up two from the preseason. The Crimson Tide received the remaining eight in the poll presented by Regions Bank.
The only Top 25 team to lose was Oregon, which slipped to No. 16 after dropping a thriller to Auburn. The Tigers moved up to 10th.
The last time the Top 25 teams went undefeated against unranked foes in a full, regular-season weekend was October 2017 (15-0 the week of Oct. 15). The last time only one ranked team lost in a full weekend of games was Sept. 21, 2013.
There have been three times since the AP poll expanded to 25 teams in 1989 that no ranked teams lost during a regular-season weekend schedule. In 1996, Top 25 teams went 11-0 leading into the second regular-season poll. The Top 25 had two undefeated weeks in September 2004, going 18-0 the opening weekend of the season and 19-0 a few weeks later.
The top seven teams in the preseason rankings held their spots Tuesday. Clemson and Alabama were followed by No. 3 Georgia, No. 4 Oklahoma, No. 5 Ohio State, No. 6 LSU and No. 7 Michigan. Notre Dame moved up a spot to No. 8 and Texas was ninth.
No. 24 Boise State was the only team to move into the rankings this week, but in an odd quirk, no team fell out. There was a tie at No. 25 between Nebraska and Iowa State. The Broncos are ranked again after rallying from 18 points down to beat Florida State on the road Saturday.
The last time there were 26 teams in the top 25, with a tie for the final spot, was Nov. 18, 2012. The last time a full schedule of college football was played and no teams fell out of the rankings was Nov. 6, 2016.
