Pitt moves up to No. 17 in AP poll
MORE HEADLINES - 2024 four-star athlete expected Pitt to win | Four-star Gallagher on Pitt's win over Clemson: "It was great" | PODCAST: Reactions to Pitt's win over Clemson | Slideshow: Photos from Saturday at Heinz Field | Five takeaways on Pitt's win
On the heels of Pitt’s win over Clemson that propelled the team’s record to 6-1 overall and 3-0 in the ACC, the Panthers have their highest midseason ranking in the Associated Press college football poll since 2009.
Pitt checked in at No. 17 in the AP poll that was released on Sunday. The Panthers haven’t cracked the top 20 since 2010, when they were ranked No. 15 in the preseason poll and dropped out after losing the season opener at Utah.
A year earlier, Pitt climbed as high as No. 8 in the AP poll, spending three weeks in that spot while building a 9-1 record. The Panthers fell into the teens with a loss at West Virginia in the penultimate game of the regular season before finishing at No. 15 following a bowl win over North Carolina.
Pitt peaked at No. 17 after starting the 2008 season at 5-1. In 2004, the Panthers reached No. 19 at the end of the regular season. A year before that, Pitt reached No. 9 in the AP poll with a 2-0 record. And in 2002, the Panthers topped out at No. 17 with an 8-3 record.
At 3-0 in the ACC, Pitt’s current team holds a fairly strong lead in the conference’s Coastal Division. Each of the other six teams in the division has at least two conference losses, and North Carolina, Georgia Tech and Duke have three conferences each. The Panthers’ remaining schedule features Miami (3-2 overall, 1-2 ACC), Duke (3-4 overall, 0-3 ACC), North Carolina (4-3 overall, 3-3 ACC), Virginia (6-2 overall, 4-2 ACC) and Syracuse (4-4 overall, 1-3 ACC).
None of those five teams is ranked in this week’s AP poll, although Virginia did receive nine votes after beating Georgia Tech 48-40 at home on Saturday.
This is the tenth time Pitt has been ranked in the AP poll since Pat Narduzzi became head coach of the Panthers and the first time the team has broken into the top 20 under Narduzzi’s leadership. Pitt’s longest string of consecutive appearances in the AP poll under Narduzzi came last season, when the Panthers were ranked the final three polls of September.