Getty ImagesThanks to Alabama’s upset loss to Texas A&M Saturday, the only question heading into Sunday was whether Kansas State or Oregon would take over the top spot in the Associated Press Top 25.
With three weeks left in the regular season, Ducks, you’re up.
In the AP’s latest release, Oregon has staked its claim to the No. 1 ranking held by Alabama for the past 10 weeks. While the Ducks received 45 of the 60 first-place votes, they are far from a going-away pick for the top spot.
In last week’s poll, the Tide held a 79-point lead over the Ducks. The Ducks’ lead over No. 2 Kansas State? Just 34 points, the closest margin between 1-2 since the preseason poll was released in late August.
Two other teams received first-place votes: No. 2 K-State (14) and No. 3 Notre Dame (1).
As for the Tide, the defending BcS champions dropped a mere three spots to No. 4. The Aggies received a significant boost from the upset, jumping up six spots to No. 9.
With the Aggies move, the SEC now holds exactly half of the spots in the Top 10, the others being Georgia (No. 5), Florida (No. 7) and LSU (No. 8). With South Carolina at No. 12, the SEC owns half of the top dozen spots despite three of those teams owning two losses apiece.
No. 6 Ohio State (T-No. 5 last week) and No. 10 Florida State (No. 8) round out the Top 10.
The biggest loser of the week was Louisville. The Cardinals went from unbeaten and ranked No. 11 a week ago to No. 20 in the latest poll thanks to their loss to unranked Syracuse.
Mississippi State (No. 22) and Toledo (No. 23) both dropped out of the rankings, replaced by Michigan (T-No. 23) and Kent State (No. 25). The Golden Flashes are ranked in the AP poll for the first time since 1973.
VOTE: THE NO. 1 TEAM IN THE COUNTRY IS…
Surprised it took this long.
Can only imagine what their uniforms will look like for the National Championship game.
What are Oregon’s, KSU’s, and ND’s BCS resume highlights?
I would have also dropped Alabama to 5 just under Georgia.
Alabama drops all of three spots? Ah, the love affair with the SEC continues. Here’s hoping Oregon and K-State win out and USC drops ND from the ranks of the unbeaten. A Ducks/Wildcats NCG would be a nice break from SEC monotony.
I thought the mentality was that an early loss was better than a late loss. Elite teams aren’t supposed to lose late. Therefore, I would think Alabama should be lower. Voters are still caught up on the brand rather than the actual team.
Notre Dame is the only team living on really thin ice, and borrowed time. I don’t think they could hold one of those USC deflated balls to the other top 5 teams. If they make it to the national championship they will get blown out. Getting nostalgia votes. Voters are avoiding reality of what they are seeing and getting votes for the Gipper.
Oregon has given up more points in the last two games than Notre Dame has all season. People that don’t think ND belongs in the conversation don’t understand football and should keep their mouths shut.
UCLA should be ranked 16 and we should be ranked 17, but it is accrued votes from 60 different people.
That’s because the Ducks play in the pac12 where the only gimme is Colorado and Washington state! Who does Norte Dame play? Byu, Navy, horrible big ten and down big twelve teams! Its no wonder there defensive numbers are so good. The Ducks have to play Pac12 juggernauts week in and week out. Have Norte dame play 9 of there games vs. the pac12 or the Sec and guarantee they wouldn’t be undefeated! It’s like saying an undefeated Mac team should play for the N.C!
Only gimme games lol? ND has a way tougher strength of schedule than the Ducks. Do your research. ND does not play 1-AA teams like you. What a joke Tennessee Tech, Fresno, and Arkansas State are gimme games. ASU, Boulder, WSU, Utah, u of a omg you play nobody but common ND opponents USC and Stanford. GO IRISH!
Notre Dame has 4 teams in top 25. Don’t think the other teams could say that. While I can’t disagree about the military academies, that’s a tradition thing. Every team on Notre Dame schedules in the FBS. While K State , Oregon and everybody else are playing d2 maybe, d3 schools that’s really tough.
Pac-12 juggernaut ? I would have to disagree , and if you didn’t pay attention Notre Dame probably be the best team in the Pac 12, Stanford.
Florida stays the same after what they did yesterday? If they played in another conferance they would have dropped 3 spots..EASILY!
So A&M beats ‘Bama at home and they only tumble 3 spots, 5 spots ahead of A&M? No wonder AP is irrelevant.
Kent. Freakin’. State. It’s been a long, long time since we hung on and tore down the goalposts after an epic win over the defending 1-AA champion YSU Penguins. Now? Back from “bolivion,” baby!
That Pac 12 juggernaut comment is cracking me up. I’m not sure if the guy is being sarcastic or not, but either way, it is comedy gold.
Bama only drops 3 spots for a loss – well that seems fair. End sarcasm font
no one talks about defense. Ill bet you ND doesnt give up 51 pointes to USC
i still think Bama going to bcs championship game. kstate will lose in the big12 championship game and ND is going to lose to USC.
@kiopta and barbeaux …
Ranking is based on how you lose and your opponent more than when you lose.
Both Georgia and Alabama fell to two-loss ranked opponents, Bama to #9 A&M and Georgia to #12 South Carolina. But Alabama lost by 5 points and took it down to the last possession. And Georgia lost 35-7 without ever being in the game. That’s why Alabama is ranked ahead of Georgia.
big 12 does not have a championship game. Kansas State owns Texas, all there is left to find out who they are going to play
Lol justify any way you want in your mind, but don’t forget that Bama lost *at home* to a red shirt freshman QB. Plus they lost late in the year rather than early. Elite teams get better over the course of the season. My point is that Bama has been given its high ranking all year rather than earning it. I mean, they’re 1-1 vs top 15 teams and are still ranked in the top 5? I just don’t see why.
Why is USC still ranked? Apart from cheating what else they done? Nothing and ucla is about to put a hurt on them, it will be fun next week can wait to see the temporary fan base leave at half time !
Cheaters will always cheat !
Georgia lost its only game *on the road* at South Carolina. Florida lost its only game *on the road* at Georgia. Florida St lots its only game *on the road* at NC State. Bama lost at home…late in the season. For other teams that would be a death knoll for BCS hopes. Oklahoma as #8 lost at home to #5 ND and tumbled 6 spots to 14…that’s right. They fell 6 spots after losing to a higher ranked opponent at home. Bama loses at home to a lower ranked opponent and drops only 3? The brand bias is sickening and perverses the sport.
And which last possession? The one where Bama threw a pic in the end zone which wasn’t the last possession of the game…or the real last possession where they jumped off side on 4th and short thereby letting the Aggies run out the clock? Bama isn’t the same as last year, and shouldn’t get credit as if it is.
Why is Ohio State even in the rankings they are legally out of action? It is a waste of print to even mention them and with their current unprofessional coach they should be out for five years.
Florida vs. Georgia is played at a neutral site IN THE STATE OF FLORIDA.
@barbeaux …
Yes, Bama threw an INT at the goal line on their last possession. I haven’t made any excuses for our loss in any post on any thread. I simply told you why Bama was rated ahead of Georgia. If you don’t like the why, take it up with the voters. If I had a vote, I’d rank A&M ahead of us both.
Best example of bias. Oklahoma with 2 losses, to the #2 and #3 teams in the polls, is ranked behind 3 SEC teams with 2 losses, some of the SEC losses were to unranked opponents.
Go figure
Big 12 quality? 4 teams in the top 25. There were 8 before they started playing each other. But, evidently, a loss to a Big 12 opponent drops you further than a loss to a SEC opponent, even though every SEC team has at least 4 or 5 “cupcakes” on their schedule.
I think K-State should be ranked higher than Oregon. Just my opinion…
The AP has 7 SEC team ranked in the top 12. This is absolutely ridiculous. They don’t deserve it. Consider this:
In June, 2012, Jerry Trammel at NewsOK ranked the non-conference schedules of 68 BCS schools. Here is how it fell out for the SEC:
14th: University of Missouri
32nd: University of Florida
33rd: University of Alabama
35th: University of Mississippi
37th: Auburn University
39th: Vanderbilt University
47th: University of Georgia
53rd: University of Tennessee
55th: Louisiana State University
57th: University of Kentucky
58th: Arkansas University
64th: Texas A&M
65th: Mississippi State University
Unranked: University of South Carolina
In addition, he was able to demonstrate that SEC teams play only 8.9% of their games against ranked national powers and only 21.4% of their games away from home.
The SEC has mesmerized football writers for the better part of a decade. The conference has played in a number of championship games, but it is certainly fair to ask if they belonged there in the first place.
barbeaux said:
I thought the mentality was that an early loss was better than a late loss. Elite teams aren’t supposed to lose late…
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I guess that’s why seven SEC teams are playing FCS opponents this week.
-LSU is #7 in the BCS with two losses, struggles with Towson and Auburn. Lost to the only two decent teams faced. Only “quality” win is against #21 Mississippi State that only has wins against 1-AA teams and 3 win D1 teams.
-Florida is #6 after struggling with BGSU, Mizzou, losing to Georgia and now needing a last second block return against a Sun Belt team. They face Jacksonville State (FCS) next week and then FSU.
-Georgia is top 5 after giving up 44 points to Tennessee, playing it close with Kentucky and losing to the ONE decent team they faced. SEC title game locked up and will get a big bump with a win.
Essentially these guys have beaten no one at all. The only qualifier they have is that they lost to “good” teams. Georgia, South Carolina, Florida and LSU all beating eachother has really jacked this thing up.
Oregon’s schedule, I count one victory over a ranked team USC
Sept. 1, 2012 Arkansas St. W 57-34 1-0
Sept. 8, 2012 Fresno State W 42-25 2-0
Sept. 15, 2012 Tennessee Tech W 63-14 3-0
Sept. 22, 2012 Arizona W 49-0 4-0 (1-0)
Sept. 29, 2012 at Wash. St. W 51-26 5-0 (2-0)
Oct. 6, 2012 Washington W 52-21 6-0 (3-0)
Oct. 18, 2012 at Arizona State W 43-21 7-0 (4-0)
Oct. 27, 2012 Colorado W 70-14 8-0 (5-0)
Nov. 3, 2012 at USC W 62-51 9-0 (6-0)
Nov. 10, 2012 at California
A&M has come over from the Big 12 (u know the conference w/ no D?) and put a dent in the SECs reputation for defense. Sumlin’s offense has racked up both points & yards against teams that rarely play any OOC games of note. I do give props to LSU who always plays BCS conf teams OoC. While I respect Bama for scheduling PSU last yr & Michigan this year, I can’t respect them playing Coastal Carolina at the end of the schedule virtually giving them a 2nd buy week.
Nike’s huge investment in Oregon has finally paid off. Best team money can put together. By the way whatever happened to that NCAA investigation of Oregon. Sure seems to take much longer to investigate Oregon than USC.
I am going to pick ND to make it to the big dance for the national championship. They have the will, determination and fire power to get there despite the odds.