Oregon St. Edges Up To #7

Updated 5:35 PM

Oregon St.'s 21-7 win over Utah that has the Beavers off to a 6-0 start for the first time since 1907, and a 4-0 start to conference play since 1968, has also elevated them from #8 last week up to #7 in this week's AP Poll.

It's the highest Oregon St. has been ranked since climbing to #4 following the 2000 season, after beating Notre Dame in the 2001 Fiesta Bowl.

Both 5th ranked Notre Dame and 6th ranked LSU had to come from behind, but pulled out wins to stay ahead of the Beavers, but while Ohio St. did so as well, the Buckeyes slipped from 7th to 9th this week.

Notre Dame edged BYU, whom Oregon St. downed 42-24 last week in Provo, 17-14 at home, while LSU edged Texas A&M 24-19 in College Station.

Ohio St. fell behind Purdue on the first play of the game, and never caught up until the Buckeyes scored with 3 seconds left, and then forced overtime with a successful 2 point conversion. Playing minus injured starting quarterback Braxton Miller, Ohio St. pulled out the 29-22 win in overtime.

Alabama and Oregon used dominant wins to remain #1 and #2, while Florida's 44-11 win over South Carolina and Kansas St.'s blowout win at West Virginia has the Gators and Wildcats in the 3rd and 4th spots.

The top 6 is the same in the Coaches Sports Information Directors poll, but the Beavers are only #9 there, though that's progress, as they have moved into the top 10.

USC is #10 in the AP poll, and #8 in the SID's opinions, after the Trojans made Buffalo burger out of Colorado to the tune of a 50-6 score.

Stanford is now #19 on both lists, after blowing California out of the Bears' own stadium 21-3 in the moderately "Big Game".

Boise St. is the only other western team to be ranked, #21 in the AP and #18 in the SID poll, after blacking out UNLV 32-7.

UPDATE:

Oregon St. has also moved up to #7 in this week's BCS rankings. Oregon has slipped to #4, and USC at #9 gives the Pac-12 3 teams in the top 10.

Andy_Wooldridge@yahoo.com