Alabama Stays #1 in College Football Polls; MSU & Ole Miss Receive Votes

NEW YORK (WCBI/ESPN/AP) — Alabama remains No. 1 in the AP Top 25 for the second consecutive week. Southern California is No. 2, followed by LSU and Oregon. Florida State moved into a tie for fifth with Oklahoma. Georgia is No. 7.

Arkansas was one of four teams to drop out of the top 25 after losses, along with Nebraska, Wisconsin and Oklahoma State.

Wisconsin, Nebraska and Oklahoma State all lost on the road, though none in a more startling fashion than the Badgers.

Wisconsin fell 10-7 at Oregon State, managing only 207 yards of offense. Montee Ball, last year’s Heisman Trophy finalist, had his streak of games with a touchdown snapped at 21 and was held to 61 yards on 15 carries.

Photo courtesy: amesphotos.com
The Crimson Tide stay atop College Football’s Top 25 polls.

“Any loss absolutely disturbs me to no end,” Wisconsin coach Brett Bielema told reporters after the game.

This loss should be particularly perplexing. Wisconsin averaged 44 points per game last year, and even though quarterback Russell Wilson is gone and the offensive line has been revamped, nobody saw this coming.

The four teams that fell out of the poll all had become mainstays in recent years.

Nebraska had a streak of 37 straight AP Top 25 appearances. Wisconsin’s streak of 36 straight appearances was snapped. Arkansas was on a 34-poll streak and Oklahoma State had been in the last 29 straight polls.

Respectively, they were the fourth, fifth, sixth and 10th longest current streaks heading into this weekend.

No. 22 UCLA and No. 23 Tennessee are back in the rankings for the first time in four years.

No. 24 Arizona returned for the first time since November 2010, and No. 25 BYU is in the Top 25 for the first time since the final 2009 poll.

UCLA and Arizona rounded out a solid Saturday for the Pac-12 by winning big nonconference games with powerful offensive displays for their new coaches.

The Bruins are off to a 2-0 start under Jim Mora and might have a Heisman Trophy contender in running back Johnathan Franklin, who ran for 217 yards in a 36-30 victory against Nebraska.

The Wildcats improved to 2-0 under Rich Rodriguez, whose spread offense has been a perfect fit for quarterback Matt Scott. Arizona beat Oklahoma 59-38, with Scott throwing for 320 yards.

Rodriguez, who was run out of Michigan after three tumultuous seasons, knows the power of beating — and being — a Top 25 team.

“Nowadays, it seems everybody knows the scores, but it seems like they put that Top 25 on that ticker and it goes on and on and on all week,” he said. “So we’re going to be on that ticker all week and I told the guys you want to be on the right side of that ticker.”

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.

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