The USC Trojans began their week ranked No. 20 in the Associated Press college football poll. After nearly upsetting the No. 4 Stanford Cardinal before ultimately falling 56-48 in three overtimes, will USC remain in the AP poll top 25 once the rankings are released on Sunday morning?
The Trojans climbed eight spots, from No. 28 to No. 20, after beating the Notre Dame Fighting Irish last week. To stay in the top 25, it will have to be because voters think USC did enough to hang with the big boys Andrew Luck and the gang.
There were plenty of upsets in the AP top 25 on Saturday:
- The No. 6 Clemson Tigers lost 31-17 on the road to the No. 30 Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets
- The No. 9 Michigan St. Spartans lost 24-3 on the road to the No. 13 Nebraska Cornhuskers
- The No. 10 Kansas St. Wildcats lost 58-17 at home to the No. 11 Oklahoma Sooners
- The No. 12 Wisconsin Badgers lost 33-29 on the road to the unranked Ohio St. Buckeyes
- The No. 16 Texas A&M Aggies lost 38-31 at home to the unranked Missouri Tigers
- The No. 19 Texas Tech Red Raiders lost 41-7 at home to the unranked Iowa St. Cyclones
Those first four don't really affect USC much, other than perhaps Georgia Tech leapfrogging the Trojans after the Yellow Jackets' big win over Clemson. But both Texas A&M and Texas Tech could drop lower than USC since their losses came to unranked teams.
The problem for USC is that the 11 teams directly below them, Nos 21 through 31, all won on Saturday. But perhaps the Trojans had enough votes last week that they won't suffer a huge drop after their loss to Stanford. Here are the vote point totals for the bottom part of the poll last week:
Associated Press Poll, Week 9 | ||
Rank | Team | Points |
19 | Texas Tech | 350 |
20 | USC | 340 |
21 | Penn St. | 312 |
22 | Georgia | 290 |
23 | Arizona St. | 239 |
24 | Cincinnati | 71 |
25 | West Virginia | 64 |
26 | Auburn | 62 |
27 | Southern Miss | 48 |
28 | Baylor | 47 |
29 | Washington | 32 |
30 | Georgia Tech | 30 |
31 | Texas | 26 |
There was quite a drop in points from No. 23 to No. 24 in the poll. It seems possible, if not likely, that USC will remain in the top 25 despite their loss to Stanford.
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