Alabama and LSU, which played in the BSC title game last January, were back in the top two spots in both the latest Associated Press media and USA Today coaches college football polls, which were released Sunday.
Alabama retained the top spot with 58 first-place votes in the media poll while LSU moved into No. 2 with two first-place votes, replacing Southern California. In the coaches’ poll, Alabama had 54 first-place votes to six for LSU.
USC, which was the preseason No. 1 team in the AP poll, lost to Stanford 21-14 on Saturday and fell from No. 2 to 13th in AP and 12th in USA Today. Stanford shot past the Trojans, from No. 21 to No. 9 in the media poll and No. 11 in the coaches poll.
Oregon, Florida State and Georgia rounded out the top five in the media poll while Oklahoma was No. 5 in the coaches poll ahead of Georgia.
New to the coaches poll this week were No. 23 Mississippi State and No. 25 Oklahoma State returned after a one-week absence. Virginia Tech, which was previously No. 13, had the biggest falling dropping out of the poll along with Arkansas, which was No. 21.
In the media poll, Virginia Tech (formerly No. 13), Tennessee (No. 23) and Brigham Young (No. 25) dropped out of the rankings.