SEC, Florida Gators move up in AP poll

A pair of Southeastern Conference teams take a familiar spot as the top two college football teams in the country in the latest Associated Press poll that was released shortly afternoon on Sunday.

Alabama, the defending BCS national champions, retains the top spot it has occupied all season and is followed by LSU, which moves up one spot after a loss by former-No. 2 Southern California, which dropped to seventh after losing vs. Stanford. Alabama and LSU owned the top two spots in the AP poll for eight weeks before playing for the BCS National Championship last season.

The Florida Gators football team moved up four spots to No. 14 by beating Tennessee 37-20 in Knoxville, Tenn. It’s the Gators’ highest ranking since last season when they rose to No. 12 with a 4-0 record before falling 38-10 at Alabama.

Associated Press Top 25

Record, Points, Previous

1. Alabama (58), 3-0, 1,498, 1

2. LSU (2), 3-0, 1, 433, 3

3. Oregon, 3-0, 1,356, 4

4. Florida State, 3-0, 1,275, 5

5. Georgia, 3-0, 1,203, 7

6. Oklahoma, 2-0, 1,181, 5

7. South Carolina, 3-0, 1,081, 8

8. West Virginia, 2-0, 1,051, 9

9. Stanford, 3-0, 1,009, 21

10. Clemson, 3-0, 899, 11

11. Notre Dame, 3-0, 854, 20

12. Texas, 3-0, 816, 14

13. Southern California, 2-1, 776, 2

14. Florida, 3-0, 743, 18

15. Kansas State, 3-0, 683, 15

16. Ohio State, 3-0, 680, 12

17. TCU, 2-0, 535, 16

18. Michigan, 2-1, 448, 17

19. UCLA , 3-0, 429, 22

20. Louisville, 3-0, 366, 19

21. Michigan State, 2-1, 318, 10

22. Arizona, 3-0, 296, 24

23. Mississippi State, 3-0, 106, NR

24. Boise State, 1-1, 95, NR

25. Nebraska, 2-1, 80, NR

Others receiving votes: Oregon State 68, Baylor 55, Northwestern 41, Ohio 20, Oklahoma State 19, Rutgers 19, Iowa State 15, Virginia Tech 13, Cincinnati 9, Tennessee 6, Texas Tech 5, Wisconsin 5, Missouri 4, Texas A&M 4, Georgia Tech 3, Fresno State 2, Utah 1.

mikecapshaw
Mike Capshaw brings a wealth of experience to the Gator Country team. He’s been overseeing all editorial aspects of GatorCountry.com and Gator Country magazine by managing our team of staffers, interns and freelancers. He is now moving into a bigger role as a reporter by covering the football and basketball beats as well as providing coverage of all sports on campus. Mike’s 15 years in the business has included more than six years of covering SEC sports and recruiting at a daily newspaper in Arkansas. He has also helped launch a newspaper, magazines, websites and even a sports talk radio show. Because Mike puts family ahead of his career, he left the place where he was established when his wife received an opportunity to further her career at UF. He took a leap of faith that he could find a job in the Gainesville area and worked for a year at a newspaper group before joining the Gator Country family in November, 2011. Mike has won Florida Press Association awards for Best Sports Game Story and Best Sports Feature Story in the past two years as well as a company-wide award at his former newspaper group that includes some 60 publications, for Excellence in Sports Reporting. You can follow Mike on Twitter at @MikeCapshawGC.