Trojans move up in Associated Press poll, too

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.

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.

Michigan had a nine-point lead on USC in last week's poll, but the Trojans changed the minds of numerous voters on Saturday night.

The rest of the Top 25 took a major reshuffling after a week with several upsets.

LSU moved up four spot to No. 5, a season-high for the Tigers, after a 31-26 victory over Arkansas on Friday.

No. 6 Louisville moved up two spots and No. 7 Wisconsin jumped three places. The Badgers have their highest rankings since November 2004, when they were No. 4.

No. 8 Arkansas dropped three spots after its first loss since the opening week of the season. Oklahoma is tied with the Razorbacks after moving up five spots.

Boise State (12-0), which beat Nevada 38-7 to complete an unbeaten regular season, cracked the top 10 for the second time in school history at No. 10. The Broncos were also 10th late in the 2004 season.

Auburn is No. 11, followed by Notre Dame, which dropped six spots after losing to USC.

Rutgers is 13th, Virginia Tech is 14th and West Virginia dropped eight spots to 15th after being upset 24-19 at home by South Florida.

Wake Forest, heading to the Atlantic Coast Conference title game to face Georgia Tech, moved up four spots to No. 16.

Texas, which lost its second consecutive game on Friday to Texas A&M, and Tennessee are tied at No. 17. The last time the Longhorns were ranked this low was October 2003, when they were 19th.

No. 19 Nebraska plays Oklahoma in the Big 12 championship game.

Mountain West Conference champion BYU was No. 20.

California was No. 21, and Texas A&M was back in the ranking at No. 22 after a 12-7 victory against the Longhorns.

No. 23 Georgia Tech dropped seven spots after losing 15-12 to Georgia. No. 24 was Hawaii, and No. 25 Boston College slipped seven spots after losing 17-14 at Miami on Thanksgiving night.

Clemson fell out of the rankings after losing to South Carolina.

Nearing records

Hawaii quarterback Colt Brennan threw three touchdown passes in a 42-35 victory over Purdue in the wee hours of Sunday morning for most Americans.

Brennan is now three touchdown passes shy of David Klingler's NCAA record of 54 in 1990.

But while Brennan's had a tremendous season for the Warriors (10-2), his assault on Klingler's mark is an another example of the way the NCAA has cheapened its records.

Klingler's 54 TD throws came in 11 games. Brennan has already played 12 regular-season games and has a 13th next week at home against Oregon State. And Hawaii will play in a bowl game, and those stats will count toward Brennan's final totals.

Before the 2002 season, bowl stats didn't count.

Eventually, most major college football records will be held by players who played after 2002 simply because they've played more games.

Bowl bound

South Florida's Jim Leavitt could have been coaching at Alabama or Kansas State, but he turned down those offers to stay with the program he helped build from scratch.

Leavitt's been the only coach the 11-year-old football program has had and it looks like his patience is paying off -- along with the move from Conference USA to the Big East.

After leading the Bulls (8-4) to a bowl game for the first time last season, Leavitt's crew is again bowl-bound and coming off a 24-19 win at West Virginia, the biggest victory in school history.