LSU jumps up to No. 1; Ohio State drops to 7th after loss to Illinois - ESPN

And Cal drops out of the rankings after losing to USC

LSU jumps up to No. 1; Ohio State drops to 7th after loss to Illinois

Associated Press

NEW YORK -- LSU is getting a second chance at No. 1.

The Tigers took advantage of Ohio State's loss and regained the top ranking in The Associated Press Top 25 on Sunday. Oregon is not far behind at No. 2.

As for unbeaten Kansas, the Jayhawks are No. 4, behind Big 12 rival Oklahoma. Ohio State fell to No. 7 after its first loss of the season, a 28-21 setback against Illinois on Saturday. The Illini moved back in the rankings at No. 20.

LSU started the season ranked No. 2 behind Southern California and rose to No. 1 on Sept. 30. It was the first time since 1959 the Tigers held the top spot in the AP media poll, but they weren't there very long.

Two weeks later, LSU lost in triple overtime at Kentucky and dropped to No. 5. A month later, the Tigers are back on top, having received 40 of a possible 65 first-place votes and 1,590 points. After a string of close games and thrilling finishes, LSU had an easy time Saturday night, beating Louisiana Tech 58-10 at Tiger Stadium.

LSU is the first team to lose the No. 1 ranking and regain it in the same season since Miami in 2002. Those Hurricanes were preseason No. 1, lost the top-ranking for a week to Oklahoma, and got it right back. Miami ended up losing the national championship at the Fiesta Bowl to Ohio State.

Oregon received 22 first-place votes and 1,574 points this week. The Ducks were last No. 2 at the end of the 2001 season.

Oklahoma, Kansas and No. 5 West Virginia also received first-place votes.

The Jayhawks moved to 10-0 with a 43-28 victory at Oklahoma State on Saturday night.

No. 6 Missouri gives the Big 12 three teams in the top six. Ohio State was followed by Georgia at No. 8, Arizona State and Virginia Tech.

No. 11 Southern California started the second 10, followed by Texas and unbeaten Hawaii. The Warriors and Jayhawks are the only unbeaten teams left in major college football.

Florida is No. 14, with Clemson, Virginia, Boise State, Boston College, Tennessee and Illinois rounding out the top 20.

Cincinnati and Wisconsin also returned to the rankings this week. The Bearcats were No. 21 after beating Connecticut 27-3. The Badgers, coming off a 37-21 victory against Michigan, were No. 24.

No. 22 is Kentucky, Michigan is No. 23 and UConn is ranked 25th.

Michigan and Ohio State will still play for the Big Ten title and a likely spot in the Rose Bowl on Saturday, but the Buckeyes' hopes for playing in a second consecutive national title games were dashed with the loss at home to Illinois. It's the first time since 1959 the Wolverines and Buckeyes lost the week before they played.

Falling out of the rankings this week were Alabama, which lost its second straight game, and Auburn and California, which both lost for the fourth time this season.

Stanford Shocks USC 24-23 - Southern Cal Loses To Cardinal

It's hard to tell who's more shocked over Stanford's improbable 24-23 win over Number 1 or Number 2 ranked USC, Cardinal Fans or USC Fans , or College Football fans .

Or for that matter, me.

When I thought about the Stanford / USC matchup, it never occured to me that this would happen. It wasn't even on my radar screen to see it. I happened to hear it flipping the radio tuner and stopped. I was expecting that USC would be clobbering Stanford. And even when I learned that the Cardinal was only six points down with just over 2 minutes left, I thought to myself, "watch their fear of success doom them."

That's what I thought.

And those final two minutes gave me a lot of reasons to think that, from the several near-interception throws, to the final holding penalty on Stanford, and then the 12-men-on-the-field penalty, to the 4th down -- 4th down -- touchdown pass. It seemed that Stanford would almost -- but not -- win the game.

But, just as in life, they had chance after chance, and one of them turned up in their favor when it mattered most as this video shows:



And when it did, I screamed. I hollered. I'd wished I was at a sports bar just to see the reactions. Even the annoucer couldn't believe it, screaming "Touchdown USC! No! Stanford! Stanford!" Geez.

What's cool about this is it proves that nothing is certain, nothing is given, and it's all up to God. Think about it. The winning quarterback Tavita Pritchard, a sophomore from Tacoma, Wash., filling in for the injured starter T.C. Ostrander, completed 11-of-30 for 149 yards and the winning TD in his first college game as a starter.

Wow. Another reason to expect a Stanford loss. But it didn't happen.

I thought about going down to Stanford to celebrate the victory. After all, looking at this video from the Stanford campus celebration, you can see it was fun:



USC QB John David Booty who threw four interceptions, said of the loss, "You just gotta deal with it and move on."

The Meaning Of The Number 4

What they've got to deal with is the biggest upset in college football history. Stanford was a 40-point-underdog and pulled out a game that's marked with spritual references to the number 4: 24 -- the Stanford score; 14 -- Stanford QB Tavita Pritchard's jersy number; 4th down -- the down the TD pass was thrown -- 4 interceptions thrown by USC QB John David Booty; 4 -- the number of sacks by the Stanford Defense. What is it about the number 4? Well, is seems that the number has some real significance.

In Buddhism:

The Group of Fours 1. The Four Noble Truths 1. Suffering 2. The Cause of Suffering 3. The Cessation of Suffering 4. The Way Leading to the Cessation of Suffering

2. The Four Mental Principles 1. Wisdom (Panna) 2. Truthfulness (Sacca) 3. Abandonment of evil and selfishness (Caga) 4. Appeasement (Upasama)

3. The Four Bases of Success 1. Appreciation (Chanda) 2. Effort (Viriya) 3. Attention (Citta) 4. Investigation (Vimamsa)

4. The Four Divine States of Mind 1. Loving-kindness (Metta) 2. Compassion (Karuna) 3. Sympathetic joy over others' achievement (Mudita) 4. Equanimity (Upekkha)

5. The Four Virtues Conducive to Social Welfare 1. Generosity (Dana) 2. Kind Speech (Piyavaca) 3. Benevolence (Atthacaritya) 4. Adaptability (Samanattata)

6. The Fourfold Right Effort: 1. Effort to restrain from evil 2. Effort to abandon evil 3. Effort to develop good 4. Effort to maintain good

4 Virtues According to Plato:
Wisdom, courage, self-control, and justice.

Considering that Stanford was suffering, given their being waxed by Arizona State and losing their starting QB the week before, the 4s came into play, but it seems to mean that in this, Stanford has finished their journey through the road to success and achieved it, and in doing so reached a divine state of mind.

Will the Cardinal run the table and win all of its remaining games? Even this Cal fan has to admit the possibility seems real. I know it places a bigger light on this year's Big Game.

Boy this is a fun year!