Posted on 09/30/2007 12:43:23 PM PDT by indcons
NEW YORK (AP) -- LSU reached No. 1 the hard way.
The Tigers edged past Southern California in the AP Top 25 on Sunday, even though the Trojans remained undefeated.
On a wild day in college football, when half the top 10 lost, USC avoided the upset bug that struck Oklahoma, Florida, Texas and Rutgers. But a sloppy 27-24 victory at Washington on Saturday night cost the Trojans the No. 1 ranking they've held all season.
USC is the first team to lose the No. 1 ranking after a victory since Nov. 3, 2002, when top-ranked Miami dropped after beating Rutgers 42-17 and No. 2 Oklahoma moved up after a 27-11 victory over No. 13 Colorado.
LSU, which recovered from its own first-half malaise to beat Tulane 34-9 on Saturday, received 33 first-place votes from the media panel and 1,593 points. USC got 32 first-place votes, 11 fewer than last week, and 1,591 points.
The voting was the closest since the second poll of the 2002 season, when Miami and Oklahoma tied for No. 1 and each received 27 first-place votes.
LSU is No. 1 in the AP poll for the first time since Nov. 2, 1959.
The rest of the rankings released Sunday bore little resemblance to any of the previous polls, thanks to a crazy weekend in which three of the top five and seven of the top 13 teams lost.
Overall, nine ranked teams went down, seven to unranked opponents.
California moved up three spots to No. 3, Ohio State jumped four places to No. 4 and Wisconsin moved up five spots to No. 5.
The rest of the top 10 featured some unfamiliar names.
South Florida, which knocked off No. 5 West Virginia 21-13 on Thursday night, made it into the poll for the first time two weeks ago. Now the Bulls are No. 6 in the country and West Virginia dropped eight spots to 13th.
No. 7 Boston College is in the top 10 for the first time since 1992. No. 8 Kentucky has a top-10 ranking for the first time since 1977.
No. 9 Florida, which lost 20-17 on a last-second field goal to Auburn, fell five spots. Oklahoma, which lost to Colorado on a field goal as time expired, dropped seven spots to No. 10.
In the USA Today coaches' poll, USC held on to No. 1, with LSU, Cal, Ohio State and Wisconsin in the top five.
The other two top-10 teams to lose this weekend took the largest tumbles in the new rankings.
Texas dropped 12 spots to No. 19 after it was handed its worst home loss of the Mack Brown era, 41-21 at home to Kansas State. The Wildcats entered the rankings for the first time since 2004 at No. 24.
Rutgers fell 11 spots to No. 21 after losing 34-24 at home to Maryland.
The second 10 starts with South Carolina at No. 11 and Georgia at No. 12.
After West Virginia is Oregon at No. 14. The Ducks fell three spots after a tough 31-24 loss to Cal. Virginia Tech is No. 15, followed by Hawaii, Missouri and Arizona State at No. 18.
Cincinnati moved up four spots to No. 20, a week after receiving its first national ranking in 31 years.
Clemson, another upset victim, fell nine spots to No. 22 after losing 13-3 to Georgia Tech.
No. 23 Purdue was the second newcomer to the rankings, along with Kansas State, and No. 25 Nebraska was the only team in the Top 25 to hold the same spot as it did last week.
Falling out of the rankings were Penn State and Alabama.
I recall the Sooner fans saying the same thing a few years ago.
I don't think Cal jumps that much from their prior position nor should Oregon have fallen as much as they did.
I am perfectly fine with being #2 and settling it in the Sugar Bowl.
With Weis’ contract, ND can’t afford to get rid of him. With the ND performance this year, no NFL team would take him. Tyrone Willingham must be enjoying the ND season.
“I am perfectly fine with being #2 and settling it in the Sugar Bowl.”
Still won’t matter. USC would likely boat-race LSU just like they have pretty much every other non-conference opponent over the past five years (the exception a last-second loss to Vince Young) including 4 consecutive years of SEC opponents Auburn and Arkansas, but LSU and SEC fans would still insist that they were better.
A good question. This isn’t like a coach that took an established football team and made them great (ala Bobby Bowden @ FSU), but Leavitt built this entire football program...it is HIS and nobody else’s. How often in your life do you get to say something like that?
FWIW, I think he’ll stay until he’s tired of it. I don’t think $$ will come into the picture...and besides, who would choose Michigan or Indiana’s winters over Florida’s?
Who knows, he could wind up at FSU after Booby retires.
“I also think this might serve as both a wake up call to USC, as it gives them something to prove...”
I sure hope so.
Speaking of that, LSU had better watch out for Florida as well. I wouldn’t be surprised if Florida makes a strong comeback after their loss.
A moment's reflection should be enough for you to realize I was referring to out-of-conference home-and-home series.
And so, what is the answer?
#6 is good! Not as good as #5 or better, but we’ll see how the rest of the season unfolds.
Look, I don’t want to get snippy with a brother, but it seems silly to argue about who plays a tougher out-of-conference schedule when there’s a conference that makes every single game a challenge, and one you dare not look past. What happens if USC loses one of those OOC games? They’re still in the running for a BCS bowl. How difficult is it when you don’t have to focus much on Stanford (or most other P-10 teams) and can look forward to Cal or Oregon or your tough OOC opponent?
Because I hate it when people won’t answer other questions directly, I’ll answer yours: USC appears to have a very strong OOC schedule, definitely one of the most difficult.
I just can’t see Leavitt leaving USF for FSU, there’s gotta be either a non-compete agreement, or at least a “not to a team with the same letters” agreement.
usc sux.
War Eagle! ;-)
So, why wouldn't the same be true for LSU? And don't mention Stanford without also admitting the SEC's weak sisters. The point is, LSU has the opportunity to settle it fair-and-square on the field instead of outgassing all those bold claims. Why won't they?
I’ll see your “War Eagle” and raise you a “MOOOOOOOO”.
USC needs to know what playing really tough teams is like, so they schedule them for OOC games. LSU naturally has them because of their conference schedule. USC NEEDS the strength-of-schedule boosters; LSU doesn’t. It’s as simple as that.
Show off! Y’all done good though. I’m kinda sorta becoming a Bulls fan.
Honestly, they’re making a big fan out of me, too. When I attended USF, they didn’t even have a football team. In fact, there wasn’t talk of it until my last year. My thought was, “How could you have ANOTHER football team in this state? How could they recruit?” But Leavitt’s done a great job.
I ate lunch paid for by a WVU Mountaineer yesterday, courtesy of the Bulls winning that game.
The only issue with using the “Bulls” as a mascot is...what exactly is a LADY Bull?
34-9 is a struggle? If only all of life's struggles were so difficult....
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