Posted on 09/30/2007 12:57:25 PM PDT by indcons
The national title race received a major makeover in an upsetting couple of days for a bunch top-ranked teams.
Half of the top 10 teams in the country lost in the fifth weekend of the season, including defending national champion and fourth-ranked Florida falling 20-17 at home to Auburn on a last-second field goal.
No. 3 Oklahoma, No. 7 Texas, No. 10 Rutgers and No. 13 Clemson were also all handed their first losses Saturday ... all by unranked opponents.
Add to that No. 5 West Virginia's 21-13 loss to No. 18 South Florida on Friday night, plus No. 6 California knocking off No. 11 Oregon 31-24, No. 21 Penn State falling to Illinois 27-20, and No. 22 Alabama getting knocked off by Florida State 21-14, and it's pretty obvious the polls will have a very different look Sunday.
Except at the very top, though even that looked shaky for a while Saturday night.
No. 1 Southern California overcame its own sloppy play — the Trojans had 16 penalties, three turnovers and a blocked punt — and escaped Washington with a 27-24 victory.
It was the first time since the weekend ending Oct. 12, 2003, that five top-10 teams lost in the same week. No. 3 Ohio State, No. 5 Florida State, No. 6 LSU, No. 7 Arkansas and No. 10 Nebraska were the losers in 2003.
This latest wild Saturday was capped by Auburn, which snapped the Gators' 11-game winning streak.
"It's very disappointing," Florida coach Urban Meyer said. "We didn't play smart."
The Tigers had a 17-3 lead in the second half, but Tim Tebow led Florida back to tie it in the fourth quarter.
In the end, though, it was Auburn's Brandon Cox, benched earlier this season as the Tigers' offense struggled, who came up big
(Excerpt) Read more at nola.com ...
LSU should replace USC at #1 after the lousy game USC played against Washington.
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