It’s not at all unexpected after their commanding victory over Notre Dame, but the USC Trojans have officially passed the Michigan Wolverines in the AP Top 25 Poll to move into second place.
NEW YORK (AP) — Southern California is the new No. 2.
The Trojans advanced one spot to overtake Michigan in The Associated Press Top 25 on Sunday, a day after their 44-24 victory over Notre Dame. USC, the sixth team to be ranked No. 2 this season behind No. 1 Ohio State, leads the Wolverines by 36 points in the poll.
Michigan, which completed its season with a 42-39 loss to Ohio State on Nov. 18, fell to No. 3. The Wolverines (11-1) are 63 points ahead of No. 4 Florida, which beat Florida State 21-14 to improve to 11-1.
Ohio State (12-0) was a unanimous No. 1 for the second consecutive week and third time this year. The Buckeyes received 65 first-place votes from the media panel.
In fact, its been somewhat of an odd year, because the No. 1 spot has been stable since the pre-season polls came out, but No. 2 is quite a different story:
While the Buckeyes have been top-ranked since the preseason, No. 2 has changed frequently. Notre Dame, Texas, Auburn and Florida have also held the second spot. Michigan’s six-week run there was the longest of any team this season.
The story is much the same in the USA Today Coaches Poll.
On another note, though, Rutgers’ convincing win over Syracuse was enough to get it up to No. 13 in both polls, ahead of West Virginia who it faces next week.
I suspect that when the BCS Rankings come out later today, USC will be at No. 2.
More thoughts from Brendan Loy
Update: The BCS rankings are out and I was right.
November 26th, 2006 at 8:36 pm
[...] As I expected earlier today, USC has passed Michigan to take the No. 2 spot in the Bowl Championship Series rankings: NEW YORK (AP) — Southern California is a win away from returning to the national title game. [...]