We -- OK, I -- were surprised that Alabama wasn’t a unanimous No. 1 in the Associated Press poll released earlier today.
Imagine my surprise, then, at how many football support staffers sports information directors head coaches deemed the Tide unworthy of its No. 1 vote.
In the USA Today coaches’ poll released a short time ago, the Tide and LSU were 1-2. ‘Bama received 54 of the 59 first-place votes, while the Tigers received the other five.
The remainder of the coaches’ Top 10 shakes out as Oregon (No. 3), Florida State (No. 4), Oklahoma (No. 5), Georgia (No. 6), West Virginia (No. 7), South Carolina (No. 8), Clemson (No. 9) and Texas (No. 10). The Seminoles, Tigers and Longhorns all jumped up two spots from a week ago, while the others inched ahead one spot apiece.
USC, which lost to new No. 11 Stanford (No. 16 last week), plummeted to No. 12. Michigan State lost to now-No. 15 Notre Dame (No. 19 last week) and dropped from No. 10 to No. 20.
Outside of the Top 10, a pair of Pac-12 teams -- UCLA and Arizona -- took the biggest jumps of the week by moving up four spots apiece, with the former coming in at No. 19 and the latter at No. 21. Florida moved up three from No. 17 to No. 14 courtesy of its road win over Tennessee.
On the strength of embarrassing beatdowns, No. 13 Virginia Tech and No. 21 Arkansas were the only teams top tumble out of the Top 25. The Hokies and Razorbacks were replaced by Mississippi State (No. 23) and Oklahoma State (No. 25).
