Well, so much for a quality win over a top-ranked opponent being a lock to give you a boost in the polls.
No. 4 Florida State, fresh off a double-digit win over then-No. 10 Clemson, did little to impress the voters in the latest Associated Press poll, with the Seminoles coming in once again at No. 4.
The voters were, though, impressed by what a bunch of Wildcats and a Ducks did to ranked teams.
Kansas State’s win over then-No. 6 Oklahoma in Norman pushed Bill Snyder‘s charges from No. 15 last week all the way up to No. 7, by far the biggest move of the week from teams that were inside the Top 25 last week. Oregon’s home whitewashing of then-No. 22 Arizona allowed the Ducks to move past LSU and into the No. 3 hole in the latest AP poll.
The three losers, the Sooners, Tigers and Pac-12 Wildcats, dropped to No. 16, No. 17 and out of the poll completely, respectively.
Dropping one spot apiece inside the Top 10 were LSU to No. 3 and West Virginia to No. 9, no doubt due to unimpressive wins over unranked squads. Notre Dame, on the other hand, climbed into the Top 10 for the first time on the strength of its win over a then-ranked Michigan team, jumping up a spot to No. 10.
Alabama, of course, remains No. 1, pulling in 59 of the 60 first-place votes. LSU was the only other team to receive a vote.
The remainder of the Top 10 consists of Georgia (steady at No. 5), South Carolina (up one to No. 6) and Stanford (up one to No. 8). Four of the top six teams in the AP poll are from the SEC, and five of the top 11 (No. 11 Florida) are from that conference. All told, six teams from the SEC are in the Top 25, the same number as hail from the Big 12.
Three teams fell out of this week’s Top 25 -- Michigan (then-No. 18), UCLA (No. 19) and Arizona. Those teams were replaced by, among others, Oregon State, which went from unranked all the way to No. 18 thanks to the decisive win over the Bruins.
The other two to make their 2012 poll debut are Rutgers (No. 23) and Baylor (No. 25).
