It was a given that Stanford and Boise State would fall from their top-five perches in the USA Today coaches’ poll, with the only question being how far.
The answer? Pretty damn far.
Stanford’s beatdown at the hands of Oregon cost the Cardinal seven spots in the eyes of the coaches, falling from No. 2 to No. 9. While Boise State didn’t fall as many spots following their home loss to TCU, they did drop out of the Top Ten, going from No. 5 to No. 11.
As expected, LSU maintained its stranglehold on the top spot, grabbing all 59 first-place votes for the second straight week. Oklahoma State and Alabama each moved up one to No. 2 and No. 3, respectively, while Oregon (No. 4) and Oklahoma (No. 5) moved into the Top Five thanks to the losses ahead of them.
Arkansas (No. 6), Virginia Tech (No. 7) and Clemson (No. 8) each moved up two spots from last week, while Houston moved to No. 10 to round out the Top Ten.
It should also be noted yet again that both Tech and Clemson have one loss, but the Tigers beat the Hokies by 20 points in Blacksburg earlier this year; how in the hell do the coaches have one-loss VT rated ahead of one-loss Clemson? This is just reason No. 1,479 why it’s an utter joke and an absolute disgrace that the coaches are involved in a poll that makes up one-third of the BcS components.
(Writer’s note: if the coaches are going to continue this abomination each and every week, I’m going to continue to write the exact same thing each and every week.)
TCU’s upset over Boise State led to the Horned Frogs jumping from No. 24 to No. 19, while Kansas State moved up the same number to No. 17. Southern Miss was up three from last week to No. 20.
Penn State took the biggest fall of the week, tumbling to No. 21 after entering their game with Nebraska at No. 12.
Cincinnati (then-No. 18), Texas (No. 20) and Auburn fell from the ranks of the, um, ranked, replaced by No. 22 Florida State, No. 23 West Virginia (tied with Georgia Tech) and No. 25 Notre Dame.
