By R.L. Bynum

Carolina’s thrilling 40–34 double-overtime victory over Appalachian State didn’t impress AP voters enough for the Tar Heels to move up in the Top 25 poll. Barely beating a Sun Belt Conference team cost them in the rankings.

UNC (2–0) fell three spots to No. 20 in the latest AP Top 25, released Sunday afternoon, heading into its 3:30 Saturday game against Minnesota (2–0) in a game that ESPN will televise.

The Tar Heels dropped two spots in the Coaches Poll to No. 18.

The only team ahead of Carolina in last week’s AP poll to lose was Alabama, which fell from No. 3 to No. 10 after a 34–24 home loss to Texas. The Longhorns jumped seven spots to No. 4.

Behind UNC in last week’s poll, Wisconsin lost 31–22 at Washington State (falling four spots to No. 23) and Texas A&M lost 48–33 at Miami (falling from No. 23 to unranked.)

The Hurricanes debuted in the poll at No. 22, giving the ACC four ranked teams, including No. 3 Florida State and No. 21 Duke.

Clemson, No. 25 last week, fell out of the poll to end a streak of 21 consecutive weeks ranks after following up the loss at Duke with a 66–17 win over Charleston Southern.

Ranking UNC the highest at No. 13 were Kirk Kenney of the San Diego Union-Tribune and Mike Niziolek of the Bloomington (Ind.) Herald-Times. Two voters, Dave Preston of WTOP in Washington and Michael Ley of the Arizona Daily Star, had Carolina No. 25.

Kate Rogerson of WTVD had UNC the highest of the North Carolina voters at No. 14. Steve Wiseman of The News & Observer and Jordan Crammer of WNCN voted Carolina No. 15.

AP Top 25

Rank	Team (1st-place votes)	Record	Poll points	Change
1	Georgia (55)	2–0	1,540	—
2	Michigan (2)	2–0	1,458	—
3	Florida State (3)	2–0	1,413	+2
4	Texas (2)	2–0	1,338	+7
5	USC	3–0	1,269	+1
6	Ohio State	2–0	1,265	-1
7	Penn State	2–0	1,204	—
8	Washington	2–0	1,102	—
9	Notre Dame	3–0	1,015	+1
10	Alabama	1–1	953	-7
11	Tennessee	2–0	929	-2
12	Utah	2–0	847	—
13	Oregon	2–0	827	—
14	LSU	1–1	667	—
15	Kansas State	2–0	636	—
16	Oregon State	2–0	605	—
17	Ole Miss	2–0	505	+3
18	Colorado	2–0	481	+4
19	Oklahoma	2–0	453	-1
20	North Carolina	2–0	444	-3
21	Duke	2–0	421	—
22	Miami	2–0	230	NR
23	Washington State	2–0	129	NR
24	UCLA	2–0	107	NR
25	Iowa	2–0	106	NR

Others receiving votes: Clemson 86, Arkansas 33, TCU 19, Kansas 19, Tulane 17, Wisconsin 10, Kentucky 5, Mississippi St. 5, Minnesota 3, Cincinnati 3, Fresno St. 2, Wyoming 1, Oklahoma St. 1, Maryland 1, James Madison 1. Point values in parentheses indicate the number of first-place votes.

UNC schedule

Month/ date	Opponent/event	2023 record	UNC record in series
April
20	Spring game, 3 p.m.	—	—
August
29 (Thurs.)	at Minnesota	6–7	1–0
September
7	Charlotte	3–9	0–0
14	N.C. Central	9–3	0–0
21	James Madison	11–2	3–0
28	at Duke	8–5	65–40–4
October
5	Pittsburgh	3–9	12–5
12	Georgia Tech	7–6	22–33–3
26	at Virginia	3–9	66–58–4
November
2	at Florida State	13–1	3–17–1
16	Wake Forest	4–8	72–36–2
23	at Boston College	7–6	6–2
30	N.C. State	9–4	68–39–6