New York, NY (Sportsbooks) - Alabama and Florida remained No. 1 and No. 2, respectively, in the latest Associated Press college
football poll.
The Crimson Tide (12-0), the lone unbeaten team from a BCS conference, knocked off Auburn, 36-0, on Saturday to keep the top spot. Alabama received 62 of a possible 65 first-place votes and a total of 1,620 points from a nationwide media panel.
Florida (11-1), coming off a 45-15 whipping of then-No. 23 Florida State on Saturday, retained the second spot it got last week. The Gators earned three first-place votes and a total of 1,516 points.
The Crimson Tide and Gators will play at the Georgia Dome next Saturday in the Southeastern Conference title game, with the winner almost guaranteed a spot in the BCS championship game on January 8 in Miami.
It will be the 40th game pitting the highest ranked teams in the AP Top-25, and the top-ranked has a record of 23-14-2 in the previous contests. Alabama and Florida have each been involved in three previous No. 1 versus No. 2 matchups, with each team going 2-1 in those games.
Texas (11-1), which walloped Texas A&M, 49-9, on Thanksgiving, moved up a spot to No. 3 while Oklahoma (11-1), which defeated No. 14 Oklahoma State, 61-41, on Saturday, dropped a spot to No. 4.
Southern California (10-1) and Penn State (11-1) retained the fifth and sixth spots, respectively, while Utah (12-0) and Texas Tech (11-1) switched spots from last week. The Utes moved into the seventh spot and the Red Raiders fell to No. 8 after rallying late to beat Baylor, 35-28. No. 9 Boise State and No. 10 Ohio State kept their same positions from last week.
TCU jumped up three spots in the poll to No. 11 as did unbeaten Ball State and Cincinnati, the Big East champions. Oklahoma State dropped three spots after its loss at home to Oklahoma and Georgia Tech moved up three spots to No. 15 after its 45-42 win over Georgia.
The next five spots are held by Oregon, Georgia, Boston College, Missouri, which dropped seven spots after losing to Kansas on Saturday, and BYU.
Michigan State, Mississippi, Pittsburgh, Northwestern and Oregon State held the final five spots -- with Pittsburgh the lone school that was not ranked last week.
Florida State dropped out of the rankings.
