Oregon St. Moves Into Top 10

The Oregon St. defensive players and coaches celebrated a performance that earned the Beavers a 19-6 win over Washington St., and it also earned a top 10 berth in this week's AP poll.

Losses by Florida St., Georgia, and Texas opened some space, and being unbeaten also meant more to some voters this week than the relative impressiveness of their wins, as Oregon St. also climbed past USC, despite the Trojans' winning 38-28 on the road at Utah Thursday night.

Oregon St. came in at #14 in this week's Coaches' Sports Information Directors' Poll, who left Florida St. and Georgia ahead of them, and also moved USC into the top 10.

It's Oregon St.'s first appearance in the top 10 since the beginning of the 2001 season.

The first BCS ranking comes out next week, but the preliminary computer rankings are available, and Oregon St. appears at #12 at this point there. Notably, not just Oregon, but also Stanford and USC are ahead there. A win this week in Provo will be pivotal for the Beavers going forward.

Alabama remains atop of all the polls, and Oregon is second in both polls, after obliterating Washington 52-21 last night, in a game that wasn't that close. The loss dropped the Huskies back out of the poll.

In addition to USC, now 1 slot behind the Beavers, Stanford is also ranked, #17 in both polls. UCLA also dropped out, after being routed 43-17 at California.

Boise St. is the only other western team that is ranked. The Broncos climbed back into the top 25, at #24, after rolling past Southern Mississippi 40-14 on the road.

Go Beavs!

Andy_Wooldridge@yahoo.com