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No. 1 Again: Football Returns to Top of College Football

by LSUsports.net (@LSUsports)
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No. 1 Again: Football Returns to Top of College Football

BATON ROUGE — For the first time in school history, LSU is ranked No. 1 in the Bowl Championship Series Standings during the regular season as the Tigers climbed to the top spot on Sunday following their 58-10 win over Louisiana Tech on Saturday night.

LSU, now 9-1 overall, returns to Southeastern Conference action on Saturday, traveling to face 3-7 Ole Miss in Oxford. LSU goes into the Ole Miss contest having already clinched a spot in the SEC Championship Game as the western division representative.

LSU also moved to No. 1 in all three national rankings ? Associated Press, USA Today Coaches and Harris Interactive. It’s the second time this year that LSU is holds down the top spot in all three polls. LSU was the consensus No. 1 following its 28-24 win over Florida on Oct. 6.

“You’ve done that and you realized that during your time there that it (had no) affect on you,” Miles said of being ranked No. 1 for a second time this year. “It (the No. 1 ranking) really has little weight. If we hadn’t been highly ranked all year, I’d feel differently about it is the point.

“Our guys understand what being ranked is about certainly at this point in the year. Now, we are highly ranked again. That ranking happens to be No. 1. They understand what it means. They are looking forward to playing these opponents and playing well.”

The No. 1 BCS standing for LSU is the highest ever for the Tigers during the regular season. LSU finished the 2003 season as the BCS National Champions following its 21-14 win over Oklahoma in the Sugar Bowl that year. 

In the BCS Standings, the Tigers climbed past Ohio State, who dropped its first game of the season on Saturday to Illinois, to the top spot with a .9802 BCS average. The Tigers are ahead of No. 2 Oregon (.9383 average), No. 3 Kansas (.9094), No. 4 Oklahoma (.8540) and No. 5 Missouri (.8096) in the BCS Standings.

The top two teams in the BCS Standings on Sunday, Dec. 2 will meet for the national championship at the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans on Jan. 7.

With its move to No. 1 in the BCS Standings, the Tigers have jumped one spot in the poll in each of the last three weeks. LSU was No. 3 in the BCS on Oct. 28 following its open date, No. 2 last week after the victory over Alabama and they hold down the top spot after the win over Louisiana Tech.

“Right now, the approach that we are taking is to get better each week, take each game one at a time and see how far that will take us,” Miles said. “All we are focusing on right now is getting in a good week of preparation for the Ole Miss game. It’s now a down to a three-game season. We’ll have to see where we are when it comes time to play the fourth game, but until then, it’s all about focusing and getting ready for Ole Miss this week.”

Bowl Championship Series Standings

Rk Team W-L CPU % BCS Prev. Avg.
1 LSU 9-1 .9900 2 .980
2 Oregon 8-1 .9300 3 .938
3 Kansas 10-0 .9400 4 .909
4 Oklahoma 9-1 .7300 5 .854
5 Missouri 9-1 .8300 6 .810
6 West Virginia 8-1 .7200 7 .786
7 Ohio State 10-1 .8100 1 .774
8 Arizona State 9-1 .8700 9 .750
9 Georgia 8-2 .6900 10 .672
10 Virginia Tech 8-2 .6300 11 .613
11 USC 8-2 .4800 17 .527
12 Florida 7-3 .5800 15 .505
13 Texas 9-2 .2500 14 .466
14 Virginia 9-2 .5100 19 .407
15 Clemson 8-2 .4600 21 .392
16 Hawaii 9-0 .0100 16 .386
17 Boston College 8-2 .4200 8 .363
18 Boise State 9-1 .0400 20 .262
19 Illinois 8-3 .3600 31 .245
20 Tennessee 7-3 .2800 24 .239
21 Michigan 8-3 .2300 12 .187
22 Cincinnati 8-2 .3100 30 .184
23 Kentucky 7-3 .1300 25 .174
24 Connecticut 8-2 .2900 13 .148
25 Wisconsin 8-3 .0700 29 .120

AP Top 25
 1. LSU (40) 9-1 1,590
 2. Oregon (22) 8-1 1,574
 3. Oklahoma (1) 9-1 1,471
 4. Kansas (1) 10-0 1,439
 5. West Virginia (1) 8-1 1,340
 6. Missouri 9-1 1,336
 7. Ohio State 10-1 1,184
 8. Georgia 8-2 1,130
 9. Arizona State 9-1 1,122
10. Virginia Tech 8-2 1,013
11. USC 8-2 924
12. Texas 9-2 859
13. Hawaii 9-0 827
14. Florida 7-3 814
15. Clemson 8-2 613
16. Virginia 9-2 539
17. Boise State 9-1 533
18. Boston College 8-2 527
19. Tennessee 7-3 488
20. Illinois 8-3 390
21. Cincinnati 8-2 305
22. Kentucky 7-3 283
23. Michigan 8-3 237
24. Wisconsin 8-3 182
25. Connecticut 8-2 127

Others Receiving Votes
Penn State 98, Auburn 72, Brigham Young 56, South Florida 21, California 18, Mississippi State 6, Arkansas 4, Air Force 2, Alabama 1.

Dropped From Rankings
Auburn 18, Alabama 21, California 24.

USA Today Poll
 1. LSU (35) 9-1 1,457
 2. Oregon (13) 8-1 1,407
 3. Oklahoma (4) 9-1 1,366
 4. Kansas (7) 10-0 1,344
 5. West Virginia (1) 8-1 1,238
 6. Missouri 9-1 1,194
 7. Ohio State 10-1 1,145
 8. Arizona State 9-1 1,042
 9. Georgia 8-2 1,005
10. Virginia Tech 8-2 923
11. Texas 9-2 844
12. Hawaii 9-0 842
13. USC 8-2 814
14. Florida 7-3 686
15. Boise State 9-1 556
16. Clemson 8-2 548
17. Virginia 9-2 547
18. Boston College 8-2 505
19. Tennessee 7-3 306
20. Kentucky 7-3 304
21. Illinois 8-3 271
22. Penn State 8-3 262
23. Michigan 8-3 259
24. Wisconsin 8-3 226
25. Cincinnati 8-2 163

Others Receiving Votes
Connecticut 103, Brigham Young 64, Auburn 54, Air Force 10, Arkansas 5, Rutgers 4, Mississippi State 3, UCF 1, California 1, Fresno State 1.

Dropped From Rankings
Connecticut 16, Auburn 17, Alabama 23.

HARRIS INTERACTIVE POLL

Rk Team W-L Points Prev
1 LSU (73)  9-1 2742 2
2 Oregon (22)  8-1 2651 3
3 Oklahoma (9)  9-1 2580 4
4 Kansas (8)  10-0 2498 5
5 West Virginia 8-1 2278 6
6 Missouri 9-1 2248 7
7 Ohio State 10-1 2100 1
8 Arizona State 9-1 1919 9
9 Georgia 8-2 1840 11
10 Virginia Tech 8-2 1665 13
11 Hawaii 9-0 1641 10
12 Texas 9-2 1639 12
13 USC 8-2 1561 14
14 Florida 7-3 1335 17
15 Boise State 9-1 1052 19
16 Clemson 8-2 985 20
17 Virginia 9-2 973 21
18 Boston College 8-2 928 8
19 Tennessee 7-3 655 24
20 Illinois 8-3 542 29
21 Kentucky 7-3 526 23
22 Michigan 8-3 440 15
23 Wisconsin 8-3 393 28
24 Cincinnati 8-2 373 27
25 Penn State 8-3 316 26

Others receiving votes:
Connecticut 239, Auburn 115, Brigham Young 85, California 24, South Florida 24, Air Force 22, Rutgers 4, Maryland 3, Alabama 2, Utah 1, UCF 1.