As expected, a pair of top-five upsets Saturday has led to a significant shakeup in the top half of the USA Today coaches’ poll Sunday.
After spending the first eight polls at No. 1, Oklahoma’s stunning home loss to Texas Tech has opened the door for LSU, ranked No. 1 by the Associated Press the past four weeks, to take over the top spot in the eyes of the coaches. Alabama, No. 3 last week, moves into the No. 2 hole behind their conference brethren, setting the stage for the next game of the week/year/millennium Nov. 5 in Tuscaloosa.
The two SEC schools were the only teams to receive first-place votes, with the Tigers garnering 41 and the Tide 18.
With the Sooners and Wisconsin, victims of a last-second Hail Mary in an instant classic against Michigan State, falling from the ranks of the unbeatens and dropping out of the Top Five, there were obviously a handful of beneficiaries in one of the two polls that actually matter when it comes to the BcS standings.
Stanford, Oklahoma State, Boise State and Clemson each moved up two spots to come in at Nos. 3-6, respectively. Clemson gained one spot and sits at No. 7, while Arkansas climbed from No. 10 to No. 8 despite a lackluster performance against woeful Ole Miss. The Spartans miracle win over the Badgers moved MSU to No. 10, up three from a week ago.
Rounding out the Top Ten is OU, which fell eight spots to No. 9. UW, incidentally, tumbled seven spots and comes in at No. 11 this week.
The biggest risers of the week were Arizona State from No. 25 to No. 20 and Kansas State from No. 16 to No. 12. West Virginia took the biggest fall of the week, dropping 10 spots to No. 24 following their embarrassing drubbing at the hands of Syracuse Friday.
Falling completely out of the rankings were Georgia Tech (then-No. 19), Illinois (No. 21), Auburn (No. 23) and Washington (No. 24). Replacing them were Georgia (No. 21), Texas Tech (No. 22), Cincinnati (No. 23) and Southern Miss (No. 25).
