Wake Forest handed North Carolina its first loss of the season last Saturday, which caused a small stir at the top of the SBI College Top 25.
Stanford moves into second, a spot held by the Tar Heels since Sept. 18, and the move is well-deserved, especially since the Cardinal have not lost a game since its opener against UC Santa Barbara on Aug. 28.
The Demon Deacons, meanwhile leapfrog Clemson into third place. The Tigers have done an exceptional job to date, winning 12 in total while staying unbeaten in their last 10 games with nine wins. Clemson doesn’t have as tough of an ACC schedule as Wake Forest, though, because it doesn’t have to play North Carolina during the regular season. The Tar Heels now sit fifth in the rankings with an in-form Akron side and an unbeaten Denver team right behind them in the sixth and seventh seed, respectively.
Meanwhile, six fresh faces appear in the Top 25 this week, including Washington, Rutgers and Cal Poly.
Ohio State and Florida International climbed the highest up the rankings, as the former is on an eight-game win streak and the latter pulled out an impressive victory last Saturday against then-No. 10 Old Dominion.
Here is the SBI College Soccer Top 25 for Oct. 23:
SBI COLLEGE SOCCER TOP 25
1. (1) CREIGHTON (14-0)
2. (3) STANFORD (11-1-1)
3. (5) WAKE FOREST (11-1-2)
4. (4) CLEMSON (12-1-2)
5. (2) NORTH CAROLINA (12-1-1)
6. (6) AKRON (11-2-1)
7. (9) DENVER (11-0-2)
8. (11) COASTAL CAROLINA (10-1-1)
9. (8) GEORGETOWN (9-2-2)
10. (12) SOUTH FLORIDA (10-3-1)
11. (14) VIRGINIA (8-3-2)
12. (16) SEATTLE UNIVERSITY (12-3)
13. (10) OLD DOMINION (8-2-1)
14. (6) NOTRE DAME (8-2-5)
15. (19) SMU (11-2-2)
16. (24) OHIO STATE (9-4-2)
17. (NR) FLORIDA INTERNATIONAL (9-4)
18. (15) ELON (12-3)
19. (NR) WASHINGTON (7-2-6)
20. (NR) INDIANA (8-4-2)
21. (13) SYRACUSE (9-4-2)
22. (NR) KENTUCKY (8-3-1)
23. (18) BOSTON COLLEGE (8-4-1)
24. (NR) RUTGERS (9-4-1)
25. (NR) CAL POLY (9-3-3)
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HONORABLE MENTION
Monmouth (10-3-3), UNLV (9-3-1), UCSB (10-5-1), South Carolina (7-5-1), Xavier (8-4-1), UCLA (7-6), Maryland (6-4-4), NC State (8-3-3), Michigan (7-3-3), New Mexico (7-4-2)