BATON ROUGE — LSU continued its track up the national rankings on Sunday as the Tigers moved up one spot to No. 6 in the nation in both the Associated Press poll and the ESPN/USA Today Coaches poll, the wire services announced.
LSU inched up a spot following Saturday’s 41-6 win over Mississippi State in Starkville. In that contest, the Tigers raced out to a 34-0 lead. The Tigers also held State’s explosive offense to a season-low 239 yards, including just 31 yards rushing on 30 attempts.
For the year, the Tigers have yet to allow a first half touchdown and LSU is rated the sixth-best defense in the nation, yielding only 256 yards per game. LSU’s scoring defense is the third- best in the country, allowing only 8.6 points a contest.
The No. 6 national ranking for LSU is the highest for the Tigers since 1998 when the Tigers were No. 6 in the AP poll after a victory over Idaho on Sept. 26.
LSU also continues to be the highest-ranked team in the Southeastern Conference for the second straight week. The last time the Tigers were the top-ranked SEC team in the AP poll came in 1989 when LSU was ranked No. 7 in the preseason followed by Auburn at No. 8.
LSU hasn’t been the highest-ranked SEC team this deep into a season since 1987 when the Tigers were ranked No. 5 by the AP following a 42-13 win over Ole Miss in week 8 that moved their record to 7-0-1.
Oklahoma continues to be the nation’s top-ranked team in both polls, followed by Miami, Ohio State, Virginia Tech and Florida State. LSU starts the bottom half of the top 10 in both polls, followed by Tennessee at No. 7. Nebraska, Arkansas and Southern Cal round out the top 10 in the AP poll, while the Coaches poll has Arkansas at No. 8, followed by Michigan and Southern Cal.
Other SEC teams in the Top 25 include Georgia at No. 11 in the Coaches poll and No. 12 in the AP poll, while Florida is ranked No. 24 in the nation by both services.