Estimated read time: 4-5 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
See the polls hereAlabama and Texas Tech and their perfect records were on top of the BCS standings Sunday. Texas, Florida and Oklahoma, all with one loss, are lurking and ready to take advantage if the front-runners fall.
Penn State's loss to Iowa on Saturday left the Crimson Tide and Red Raiders as the only unbeaten teams in the BCS conferences, making it easy to sort out the all-important first two places in the BCS standings this week.
First-place Alabama (.981 average) was No. 1 in both the Harris and USA Today coaches' polls. Second-place Texas Tech (.972) was a solid second in both polls and first in the computer rankings. The computers have Alabama No. 2.
Texas (.879) was third, followed closely by Florida (.864) and Oklahoma (.844).
Sixth-place Southern California (.789) still needs a lot of help to reach the BCS national championship game on Jan. 8 in Miami. Penn State (.683) dropped all the way from third to eighth behind unbeaten Utah (.769).
Alabama and Texas Tech are still on course to meet in the BCS national title game if they stay unbeaten, though the Crimson Tide knows now that its road will go through Atlanta.
The Tide clinched the SEC West and a spot in the league title game against Florida in the Georgia Dome on Dec. 6. The game could turn into a de-facto national semifinal, with the winner earning a spot in the championship game.
The computer rankings are helping Texas stay at the top of the one-loss pack. The Longhorns are fourth in the Harris poll, close behind Florida, and fifth in the coaches' poll, not far behind both Florida and Oklahoma, which Texas beat last month.
But the computer ratings prefer Texas and Utah over both Florida and Oklahoma.
In two weeks, Oklahoma hosts Texas Tech in the latest Big 12 game with huge national title implications.
If the Sooners win, they'll create a three-way tie for first in the Big 12 South. If the Sooners, Longhorns and Red Raiders finish deadlocked, the tiebreaker to determine who plays in the Big 12 championship game in Kansas City on Dec. 6 is best BCS average.
Utah is positioned for its second BCS bid in five seasons if it can stay unbeaten. The Utes from the Mountain West Conference need to finish in the top 12 of the BCS standings to earn an automatic bid to one of the five major bowls.
Unbeaten Boise State from the Western Athletic Conference is in ninth place and also trying to reach the BCS for the second time. The Broncos not only need to stay unbeaten, they need to pass Utah in the BCS standings to get an automatic bid.
Penn State slipped to the back of the one-loss pack Sunday in The Associated Press college football poll, while No. 1 Alabama and No. 2 Texas Tech strengthened their hold on the top spots.
The Nittany Lions fell four places to No. 7 in the Top 25 after losing for the first time this season. The 24-23 loss at Iowa on a field goal in the final seconds all but eliminated coach Joe Paterno's team from the national title race and left only Alabama and Texas Tech as unbeaten teams from the six BCS conferences.
The Crimson Tide (10-0) needed overtime to stay perfect, beating LSU 27-21 in Nick Saban's return to Baton Rouge, La., as Alabama coach. The Tide received 44 first-place votes and 1,604 points from the media panel.
The Red Raiders (10-0) followed up their big win over Texas last week with a resounding 56-20 victory over Oklahoma State. The impressive performance earned the Red Raiders the remaining 21 first-place votes, up from 12 last week, and 1,574 points.
Alabama plays Mississippi State at home on Saturday and Texas Tech has a week off before playing at Oklahoma on Nov. 22, the Red Raiders' fourth consecutive game against a ranked opponent.
No. 3 Florida, No. 4 Texas, No. 5 Oklahoma and No. 6 Southern California, all with one-loss but still with national title hopes, all moved up one spot and are ahead of the Penn State.
No. 8 Utah (10-0) moved up two spots, jumping over Boise State (9-0) which stayed at No. 9. The Utes and Broncos are both trying to break into the Bowl Championship Series from conferences without an automatic bid to the big-money games.
Ohio State moved up two spots and completes the first 10.
Oklahoma State fell three spots to No. 11 and is followed by Big 12 rival Missouri.
No. 13 Georgia is one spot ahead of the other unbeaten team, Ball State (9-0) from the Mid-American Conference.
Mountain West rivals TCU and BYU are Nos. 15 and 16, respectively.
No. 17 North Carolina has its highest ranking since it started the 1998 season No. 12. That was the season after coach Mack Brown left Chapel Hill for Texas.
Michigan State is No. 18. LSU dropped three spots to 19th and Florida State moved up four spots to No. 20.
Pittsburgh moved up four spots to No. 21 and the final four teams were unranked last week.
Cincinnati is ranked for the first time this season at No. 22 after beating West Virginia 26-23 in overtime. The Mountaineers dropped out of the rankings.
Oregon State, which has won four straight and controls the Pac-10 race because it beat USC, also moved into the rankings for the first time this season. The Beavers are No. 23.
No. 24 South Carolina and No. 25 Tulsa both moved back into the rankings.
California, Georgia Tech and Maryland also dropped out after losses.
