Given that five of the Top 15 teams in the country -- and three of the Top Five -- saw its unbeaten seasons go up in flames Saturday, it was expected that there would be a significant shakeup in the latest release of the Associated Press rankings.
As expected, the, uh, expected has happened.
Florida, 14-6 winners over then-No. 4 LSU, was the biggest beneficiaries of a weekend rife with upsets, moving all the way from No. 10 to No. 4. South Carolina and West Virginia, which beat then-N. 5 Georgia and then-No. 11 Texas, respectively, also jumped into the Top Five at No. 3 and No. 5, respectively. That poll position for the Gamecocks is the school’s highest since the 1984 season.
Alabama and Oregon maintained their 1-2 positions from a week ago. The Tide, which has been No. 1 since the the polls that came out following Week 1, received all 60 first-place votes.
The Seminoles and Bulldogs took the biggest tumbles of the weekend, each dropping nine spots. FSU is now No. 12 while UGA is No. 14. Despite the road loss to the Gators, LSU remained inside the Top 10, coming in at No. 9. Texas, which lost to WVU, dropped from No. 11 to No. 15.
There were also two other new teams inside the Top 10: Ohio State (No. 8, up from No. 12) and Oregon State (No. 10, up from No. 14). The remainder of the Top 10 consists of Kansas State (No. 6) and Notre Dame (No. 7).
A total of five teams dropped from the rankings, with none taking a bigger tumble than TCU. The Horned Frogs came into Week 6 No. 15, but the loss to Iowa State ended both its nation’s-longest winning streak and its poll run. Nebraska (then-No. 21), Washington (No. 23), Northwestern (No. 24) and UCLA (No. 25) all dropped out following losses. Replacing that quintet are Cincinnati (No. 21), Texas A&M (No. 22), Louisiana Tech (No. 23), Boise State (No. 25) and Michigan (No. 25).
Tech, incidentally and albeit at least a couple of weeks too late, enters the rankings for the first time since 1999.
(Writer’s note: now, voters, with the egregiousness that was an unranked Tech squad taken care of, let’s get on with cleaning up this Ohio Bobcats issue. Thanks in advance.)
