The first nine spots in the USA Today coaches’ poll remained unchanged this afternoon, with Florida, Texas and Alabama continuing to hold down the top three spots in the rankings.
No. 4 TCU went from 151 points behind ‘Bama last week to 111 behind this week, but figures to have a Mt. Everest-like hike to gain a berth in the BcS title game.
Cincinnati (No. 5), Boise State (No. 6), Georgia Tech (No. 7), Pittsburgh (No. 8) and Ohio State (No. 9) all held serve over the weekend. The top six teams are all undefeated.
The only change in the Top Ten was Southern Cal. Ranked No. 10 heading into the weekend, the Trojans exited play humiliated at the hands of Stanford and tumbled all the way to No. 21. The Cardinal, on the other hand, rocketed from unranked to No. 17 on the strength of their 55-21 manhandling of the Trojans.
No. 19 Arizona, No. 23 West Virginia, No. 24 South Florida and No. 25 Auburn dropped from the rankings, replaced by the aforementioned Stanford Cardinal, No. 19 Clemson, No. 20 Oregon State and twin No. 25′s — Nebraska and North Carolina.
Conference-wise, the ACC tops all schools with five teams in the poll, followed by the Big Ten and Pac-10 with four apiece. Surprisingly, the SEC and Mountain West are represented by the same amount of teams — three.
Of course, all three of the SEC teams are ranked in the Top Ten.
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