BATON ROUGE — LSU continued its climb up the national polls on Sunday as the Tigers earned its highest in-season ranking in five years by holding down the No. 7 spot in both the Associated Press poll and the ESPN/USA Today Coaches poll.
The Tigers climbed from No. 10 to No. 7 in the AP poll this week after the 17-10 win over then-No. 7 Georgia on Saturday. LSU moved up four spots from its No. 11 spot a week ago to No. 7 in the coaches poll.
The No. 7 ranking is the highest in-season ranking for the Tigers since 1998 when LSU was ranked No. 6 in the nation on Sept. 27 after a 53-20 win over Idaho. The following week the sixth-ranked Tigers dropped a 28-27 decision to 12th-ranked Georgia.
Overall, the No. 7 ranking marks the highest position in the polls since the 2001 season when the Tigers finished the year ranked seventh nationally by the Associated Press following their 47-34 win over Illinois in the Sugar Bowl. The Tigers were ranked No. 8 in the nation in the final coaches poll in 2001.
Oklahoma continues to be the nation’s top-ranked team in both polls, followed by Miami, Southern Cal, Ohio State and Virginia Tech. Florida State is sixth in both polls, followed by LSU. Tennessee, Arkansas and Oregon round of the top 10 in the AP poll, while the Vols, Iowa and Michigan are Nos. 8, 9, and 10 in the coaches poll.
Other Southeastern Conference teams in the rankings include Georgia (No. 12 AP, No. 12 ESPN/USA Today) and Florida (No. 25 AP, No. 25 ESPN/USA Today).
LSU returns to action on Saturday when the 4-0 Tigers travel to Starkville for an 8 p.m. contest against Mississippi State in a nationally-televised contest on ESPN2.