Alabama leapfrogs Auburn in poll

Published 3:52 pm Sunday, September 14, 2008

NEW YORK – Auburn and Alabama both won Saturday, but AP pollsters found the Crimson Tide’s 41-7 win over Western Kentucky more impressive than the Tigers’ 3-2 decision over Mississippi State as ‘Bama leapfrogged Auburn in this week’s poll.

Record Pts Pvs

1. Southern Cal (61) 2-0 1,596 1

2. Oklahoma 3-0 1,485 3

3. Georgia (2) 3-0 1,437 2

4. Florida (1) 2-0 1,414 4

5. Missouri 3-0 1,389 6

6. LSU 2-0 1,274 7

7. Texas 2-0 1,140 8

8. Wisconsin 3-0 1,076 10

9. Alabama 3-0 982 11

10. Auburn 3-0 958 9

11. Texas Tech 3-0 904 12

12. South Florida 3-0 801 19

13. Ohio St. 2-1 800 5

14. BYU 3-0 788 18

15. East Carolina 3-0 781 14

16. Penn St. 3-0 779 17

17. Oregon 3-0 679 16

18. Wake Forest 2-0 482 20

19. Kansas 2-1 445 13

20. Utah 3-0 428 22

21. West Virginia 1-1 179 25

22. Illinois 2-1 163 24

23. Clemson 2-1 160 —

24. Florida St. 2-0 146 —

25. Fresno St. 1-1 121 21

Others receiving votes: Vanderbilt 63, Oklahoma St. 62, TCU 45, Boise St. 38, Arizona St. 36, North Carolina 31, Virginia Tech 28, Nebraska 21, Tennessee 15, Connecticut 13, Iowa 12, Kentucky 6, Tulsa 6, Minnesota 4, Northwestern 4, Notre Dame 4, Arizona 2, Ball St. 1, South Carolina 1 1-2, UCF 1.

Meanwhile, Southern California is now a no-doubt-about-it No. 1 in the AP Top 25, and there’s a new No. 2 as Georgia slipped again.

The Trojans’ resounding 35-3 victory against Ohio State on Saturday night made USC an overwhelming No. 1 in the media poll. USC received 61 first-place votes and 1,596 points on Sunday. The Trojans had 33 first-place votes last week.

Oklahoma moved past Georgia into No. 2. The Bulldogs barely got past South Carolina 14-7 on Saturday and the Sooners notched their third consecutive blowout victory, winning 55-14 at Washington.

Georgia is the first preseason No. 1 to drop that far after starting 3-0 since Oklahoma in 1985. The Sooners also fell to No. 3 after winning their first three games.

The Bulldogs received two first-place votes this week. No. 4 Florida received the other first-place vote and Missouri moved up a spot to No. 5.

Ohio State dropped eight spots to No. 13.

No. 6 was LSU, followed by Texas, Wisconsin, Alabama and Auburn. Half the top 10 teams are from the Southeastern Conference.

Two Pac-10 teams dropped out of the rankings after losing: California and Arizona State.

Clemson moved back into the rankings. The Tigers started the season ranked ninth and fell all the way out after losing their opener 34-10 to Alabama, and returned as No. 23.

Florida State also moved into the Top 25 for the first time since the middle of last season. The Seminoles were No. 24.

Texas Tech is No. 11, followed by South Florida, Ohio State, BYU and East Carolina, which slipped one spot to No. 15 after squeaking past Tulane 28-24 in its first game as a ranked team since 1999.

Penn State was No. 16 and Oregon was 17th, followed by Wake Forest, Kansas and Utah.

The final five were West Virginia, Illinois, Clemson, Florida State and Fresno State, which lost 13-10 to Wisconsin.