USC is ranked fourth in the latest AP Top 25, released on Sunday.

It’s the highest ranking in an AP poll since Sept. 10, 2017, when USC was slotted in the same spot. The new College Football Playoff rankings release next Tuesday, and last week’s batch of rankings deviated from the traditional media poll on USC’s place — with the Trojans sitting fifth in the AP poll and sixth in the CFP ranking — but it feels like a good sign for USC’s CFP chances.

Only two voters in this week’s AP poll had USC outside of the fourth spot — New Orleans-based TV sports editor Garland Gillen and The Mercury News’ Jon Wilner, both of whom had USC at No. 5.

Michigan, TCU, and USC each moved up one spot thanks to the Wolverines’ 45-23 win over then-No. 2 Ohio State on Saturday. The Buckeyes dropped to No. 5 while Alabama moved up to No. 6.

LSU sat ahead of USC in last week’s CFP ranking but dropped its third game of the season Saturday — a 38-23 defeat at the hands of unranked Texas A&M. That should effectively end LSU’s CFP hopes, but it will be interesting to see if the CFP selection committee hands their spot to Ohio State or to USC.

Immediately after the Buckeyes’ loss on Saturday, Big Ten commissioner Kevin Warren told ESPN he thinks 11-1 Ohio State should still get into the four-team CFP field.

Does the committee agree? We’ve already seen it question USC’s merits.

But the Trojans were convincing on Saturday in a 38-27 win over Notre Dame. Quarterback Caleb Williams completed 18 of his 22 pass attempts for 232 yards, scored four total touchdowns, and struck the Heisman pose as the Trojans largely controlled things against a top-15 Fighting Irish team.

(Notre Dame fell six spots from 13th to 19th in the latest AP poll.)

Five other Pac-12 teams are ranked in the AP Top 25 once again. Washington surged into the top 10 after an Apple Cup win on Saturday. The rest of the poll can be seen below (with first-place votes in parenthesis):

  1. Georgia (58)
  2. Michigan (5)
  3. TCU
  4. USC
  5. Ohio State
  6. Alabama
  7. Tennessee
  8. Penn State
  9. Washington
  10. Clemson
  11. LSU
  12. Utah
  13. Kansas State
  14. Florida State
  15. Oregon
  16. Oregon State
  17. UCLA
  18. Tulane
  19. Notre Dame
  20. South Carolina
  21. Texas
  22. UCF
  23. UTSA
  24. North Carolina
  25. Mississippi State

Receiving votes: Troy 80, North Carolina State 62, Cincinnati 43, Boise State 39, Purdue 24, Ole Miss 22, South Alabama 12, Illinois 10, Coastal Carolina 6, Pittsburgh 5, Fresno State 4, James Madison 4, Ohio 2, Minnesota 1