the SEC owns the new AP poll

SEC places 5 teams in top 10 of AP poll
By RALPH D. RUSSO, AP College Football Writer

NEW YORK (AP)"?The Southeastern Conference has taken over the top 10 in The Associated Press college football poll as no league has ever done before.

On Sunday, the SEC became the first conference to place five team among the first 10 in the AP Top 25.

Southern California is now a no-doubt-about-it No. 1 and Oklahoma moved into the No. 2 spot for the first time this season, slipping ahead of Georgia in the media poll.

The Bulldogs barely got past South Carolina 14-7 on Saturday and the Sooners notched their third consecutive blowout victory, winning 55-14 at Washington.

Georgia is the first preseason No. 1 since Oklahoma in 1985 to start the season with three consecutive victories and still drop as far as No. 3.

"I'm not surprised that it could happen, because you've seen it happen before,"? Georgia coach Mark Richt said. "Everybody wants to kind of settle in and see where everybody thinks everybody belongs. It's hard. Shoot, I'm a voter too. It's hard on everybody."?

Georgia also fell behind USC and Oklahoma in the USA Today coaches' poll.

The Bulldogs shouldn't fret. They'll have plenty of opportunities to make up what they've lost in the rankings when they play the other SEC's four other top-10 teams. Florida is No. 4, LSU is sixth, Alabama is No. 9 and Auburn is 10.

The Trojans' resounding 35-3 victory against Ohio State on Saturday night made them an overwhelming No. 1 in their third week atop the poll. USC received 61 first-place votes and 1,596 points. The Trojans had 33 first-place votes last week.

Georgia received two first-place votes this week, and Florida got one.

The rest of the top 10 was Missouri at No. 5, Texas at No. 7"?giving the Big 12 three teams in the top 10"?and Wisconsin at No. 8.

Ohio State dropped eight spots to No. 13.

Two Pac-10 teams dropped out after losing: California and Arizona State.

Clemson moved back into the rankings. The Tigers started the season ranked ninth and fell all the way out after losing their opener 34-10 to Alabama, and returned as No. 23.

Florida State moved into the Top 25 for the first time since the middle of last season. The Seminoles were No. 24.

Texas Tech is No. 11, followed by South Florida, Ohio State, BYU and East Carolina, which slipped one spot to No. 15 after squeaking past Tulane 28-24 in its first game as a ranked team since 1999.

Penn State was No. 16 and Oregon was 17th, followed by Wake Forest, Kansas and Utah.

The final five were West Virginia, Illinois, Clemson, Florida State and Fresno State, which lost 13-10 to Wisconsin and dropped four spots.