Purdue moved back to No. 1 in the AP Top 25 men’s college basketball poll Monday ahead of Houston, which spent a single week there after leapfrogging the Boilermakers.

It’s hardly a two-team race for the top, though. UConn, Arizona and Duke also got No. 1 votes from the 61-member media panel in a poll that also saw No. 6 Louisville and No. 8 Illinois jump into the top 10.

The Boilermakers got 44 first-place votes after an impressive week that included a road win over then-No. 8 Alabama and a victory over Akron. Houston lost six of its No. 1 votes but still had 12 after beating Oakland and edging No. 22 Auburn in a matchup of Final Four teams from last season.

“We have a great group of guys,” said Purdue coach Matt Painter, who also picked up his 500th career win last weekend, “and just trying to go from one game to the other I think is really hard after you have such an emotional, big win on the road like we had.”

UConn remained No. 3 with three first-place votes after beating then-No. 7 BYU 86-84 on Saturday. That started a tough road for the Huskies that includes games against No. 4 Arizona on Wednesday and Illinois and No. 24 Kansas down the road.

The Wildcats swapped spots with Duke this week, moving up with two first-place votes thanks in part to a win over then-No. 15 UCLA. The Blue Devils received the remaining No. 1 vote ahead of their game against the Jayhawks on Tuesday night.

Louisville tied for the biggest climb in the Top 25, moving up six spots after beating then-No. 9 Kentucky 96-88 last week. Michigan fell one spot to seventh while Big Ten rival Illinois also moved up six spots. BYU dropped two spots after its loss to the Huskies, while defending national champion Florida rounded out the top 10.

The losses by Alabama and Kentucky cost each three spots in this week’s poll, pushing them into the second 10. Gonzaga was next, followed by St. John’s and Texas Tech, which dropped four spots following its loss to Illinois.

Speaking of the Illini, they have climbed nine spots from No. 17 in the preseason poll, the highest they’ve been since they were No. 6 in the final poll two seasons ago. Staying there will be a test. Illinois plays the Crimson Tide on Wednesday night, UConn in a couple of weeks, No. 20 Tennessee the first week of December, and then Ohio State, Nebraska and Missouri — all of them unbeaten so far this season — before Christmas rolls around.

“It’s the way you practice, the mental focus you have — not reading all your guy’s stuff, and the fans and everything else,” Illini coach Brad Underwood said when asked about how to keep early success in perspective. “I call it drinking the poison. And you can’t. You have to stay with what is vital and what is important.”

The Illini joined Louisville and Gonzaga in making six-spot climbs this week, while the biggest falls came from Texas Tech as well as UCLA, which dropped four spots after a close loss to Arizona. NC State moved into the poll at No. 25 at the expense of Creighton.

CONFERENCE WATCH

The Big Ten, Big 12 and SEC led the way with six teams apiece in the Top 25, though the Big Ten and Big 12 also had three each in the top 10. The ACC was next with four ranked teams, the Big East had two and the West Coast Conference one.

WATCH LIST

San Diego State was the top team outside the Top 25, followed by Indiana, which appeared on 18 ballots. Keep an eye on Georgetown, which appeared on six ballots and entered the week 4-0; the Hoyas have not been ranked since the final poll of the 2014-15 season.

FLORHAM PARK, N.J. — In his first personnel move as the New York Jets‘ coach, Aaron Glenn fired quarterback Aaron Rodgers. In his latest quarterback decision, Glenn benched Rodgers’ replacement, Justin Fields, signaling the most-likely end to the organization’s $30 million gambit after 10 games.

An NFL head coach doesn’t have an endless supply of mulligans, but Glenn will be afforded another swing to solve the riddle that has confounded the franchise since Joe Namath played his last game 50 years ago.

The next one is the big one. It will likely come in the form of a high draft pick (in 2026 or 2027) or perhaps a trade for a veteran.

What happened Monday — Glenn informed the team that Fields will be replaced by Tyrod Taylor — merely confirms the Jets (2-8) will have two lame-duck quarterbacks for the remainder of the season. It felt inevitable. Heck, Glenn almost made the switch four weeks ago after pulling Fields in a dreadful loss to the Carolina Panthers.

While New York will prepare for its final seven games, the long-term focus shifts to the offseason — when the Jets are expected to reset their quarterback depth chart. Yes, Fields is under contract for 2026 ($20 million salary, half of which is guaranteed), but it’s hard to imagine him as part of the plan. Taylor, 36, will be a free agent.

So there’s a good chance the Jets will start over, with a veteran and a rookie. They have a surplus of first-round draft picks, thanks to the recent Sauce Gardner and Quinnen Williams trades — two in 2026, three in 2027.

First, this question must be asked: Can the people who got it so wrong with Fields get it right with the next one?

Glenn and general manager Darren Mougey will be charged with the big decision, just as Joe Douglas was in 2021 (Zach Wilson) and Mike Maccagnan was in 2018 (Sam Darnold).

Neither one worked out. The Jets have a history of that, in case you didn’t know. Glenn and Mougey will have a chance to change the trajectory of the franchise, which has suffered through 14 straight non-playoff seasons, in large part, because of quarterback instability.

At the time, their thinking on Fields went like this: With seasoning and sound coaching, he can outperform his spotty NFL track record and push his way into long-term conversation. Sure, they knew it was a game of chance, like hoping to find a winning lottery ticket, but they liked the risk-reward ratio.

“What were their options?” a longtime personnel executive said. “Rodgers didn’t make sense and Fields, was the arrow still pointing up? I think so, so I’m not going to beat them up for it.”

Before the season, Mougey subscribed to the belief that Fields could be the next Baker Mayfield or Sam Darnold — late-developing former high picks.

“I do believe Justin can be one of those guys,” Mougey said.

Nevertheless, here we are.

Pairing Fields with Tanner Engstrand, an inexperienced offensive coordinator from a drop-back system, hasn’t worked out. That Fields has failed as the Jets’ starter isn’t blockbuster news (since 2021, he’s 33rd out of 38 qualified passers in Total QBR); that he failed so spectacularly is what should raise concern.

So now they have options galore, setting up what figures to be a multi-layered strategy that could stretch into 2027. Their avenues include:

The 2026 draft. Just the Jets’ luck, there’s no super-elite prospect among the top quarterbacks, according to talent evaluators.

Dante Moore (Oregon), Fernando Mendoza (Indiana), Ty Simpson (Alabama) and LaNorris Sellers (South Carolina) are ranked first, second, fifth and 21st, respectively, on ESPN senior draft analyst Mel Kiper Jr.’s latest Big Board. They’re all underclassmen, and there’s a feeling that Moore and Simpson could return to school for more seasoning.

Mougey has scouted Mendoza and Moore in person this fall. In fact, he witnessed Mendoza’s dramatic, game-winning drive against Penn State. Currently, the Jets hold the fifth pick in the draft, but they have the draft capital to trade up if they’re smitten with one of the top prospects.

2026 free agency. Two words — slim pickings. The only starter eligible for free agency is Daniel Jones, who likely will be retained by the Indianapolis Colts. The rest are backup types; you’d be hard-pressed to find even a bridge starter among the group.

2026 trade market. Kyler Murray, Kirk Cousins and Mac Jones are the names to watch. Joe Burrow has been bandied about on talk shows and such, but that seems like a pipe dream. Jones, who has resurrected his career in Kyle Shanahan’s quarterback-friendly offense, is the most intriguing option. As Brock Purdy‘s injury replacement, Jones is 5-3 with the San Francisco 49ers. Maybe he’d fit as a one- or two-year rental, allowing the Jets to wait until 2027 to draft their long-term solution.

In that sense, Jones would be like Fields. He’d also be the third Jets quarterback from the 2021 first round, joining Wilson and Fields.

Cousins, who has replaced injured Atlanta Falcons starter Michael Penix Jr. will have an opportunity to improve his value to the league. In 2018, the Jets made an unsuccessful free-agent bid for Cousins, which may have chafed some feelings in the organization.

Right now, the Jets are in quarterback hell. They’ve been frequent visitors to this place. Maybe they should’ve drafted one in the second or third round last spring, creating some hope. Maybe they should’ve taken Jaxson Dart in the first round. They opted to go all-in with Fields.

If the Jets cut Fields after the season, they will have to absorb $22 million in dead cap charges. They’re still paying off their debt from the ill-fated Rodgers mistake — $35 million in dead cap for 2026. Do the math: That would be $57 million for absent quarterbacks.

No matter what, the Jets are headed for a total rebuild at quarterback.