Football Wire Notes | Boston College rises in BCS

NEW YORK — With perhaps its toughest test yet mere days away, Boston College moved into second place behind Ohio State in the Bowl Championship Series standings released Sunday.

Louisiana State is third and two Pac-10 squads — fourth-place Arizona State and fifth-place Oregon — are primed to pounce if the teams ahead of them falter.

With Boston College playing at Virginia Tech, which is eighth in the BCS standings, on Thursday night, the Eagles' stay in second place could be as short as South Florida's was.

The Hokies are the highest-ranked team BC (7-0) has faced this season.

Ohio State (8-0), which tops the USA Today coaches and Harris Interactive polls, leads the BCS standings for the second consecutive week.

The Buckeyes also stayed at No. 1 in the Associated Press media poll.

Boston College, which is tops in the average-computer-rankings component of the BCS standings, took advantage of South Florida's 30-27 loss Thursday at Rutgers and moved up one position. LSU (7-1) also advanced one spot.

South Florida (6-1) plunged to 10th.

"It's been just a crazy year with all these teams winning and getting upset," Boston College coach Jeff Jagodzinski said. "It's just been a different year."

Jagodzinski, whose team had a bye, indicated his biggest weekend thrill was getting tickets to Saturday's Boston Red Sox playoff game against Cleveland at Fenway Park.

As for being second in the major polls and BCS standings, Jagodzinski said, "At this point in the season, they really don't mean much. Before the season started, we weren't even ranked in the Top 25 by the same people."

Arizona State (7-0) jumped four spots despite having a bye last weekend and has a narrow advantage over Oregon (6-1), which won 55-34 at Washington.

The BCS standings will be updated each week until Dec. 2. The top two teams in the final standings will meet in the BCS National Championship Game on Jan. 7 in New Orleans.

The Boston College-Virginia Tech contest will start a big week of games that could reshape the BCS standings and the national-title race. Seven of the top 12 teams in the BCS play ranked opponents.

Ohio State faces a demanding test, a visit to Penn State (6-2) on Saturday night.

Arizona State hosts California (5-2) and Oregon is at home against USC (6-1), which is 12th in the BCS standings.

Notes

• Left-handed quarterback Tim Tebow of Florida, one of the nation's best players, emerged from Saturday's 45-37 victory at Kentucky with a bruised right shoulder. He was hurt in the second half and played through the pain. "It's just a little banged up," Tebow said. "It's fine."

Florida coach Urban Meyer said Tebow won't have contact work in practice this week as the Gators (5-2), tied for ninth with USC in the AP poll, prepare to play No. 20 Georgia (5-2).

"He's getting about 20 carries a game, but a lot of those are him all of a sudden making a play," Meyer said. "When you take that away from Tim Tebow — not that he's a normal quarterback — but he's not what Tim Tebow is to our offense. The thing we all have to understand is, we can't get him hurt."

• Kansas (7-0) is ninth in the BCS standings and 12th in the AP poll. Coach Mark Mangino keeps hearing a question: Are his Jayhawks for real?

"I'm not going to say if we're for real or not," he said. "You watch the games, you see if we're for real."

Kansas has won seven straight to start the season for the third time since the team went 10-0 in 1899. The Jayhawks started 7-0 in 1968 and 1995, but lost each time in the eighth game. They play at Texas A&M on Saturday.

• No. 22 Alabama (6-2), coached by Nick Saban, has a bye this weekend before hosting one of Saban's former teams, LSU, on Nov. 3. The Crimson Tide pounded rival Tennessee 41-17 Saturday.

"We had the fewest mental errors that we have had all year long, and I think that is why we executed well," Saban said. "They believe in each other and themselves, and they did what we asked them to do, to play 60 minutes in the game."

AP Top 25

The Top 25 teams in The Associated Press college football poll, with first-place votes in parentheses, records through Oct. 20, total points based on 25 points for a first-place vote through one point for a 25th-place vote, and previous ranking:

Record		Pts	Pvs
1. Ohio St. (57)	8-0	1,612	1
2. Boston College (2)	7-0	1,494	3
3. LSU (5)	7-1	1,479	5
4. Oklahoma	7-1	1,421	4
5. Oregon	6-1	1,355	7
6. West Virginia	6-1	1,228	9
7. Arizona St. (1)	7-0	1,156	12
8. Virginia Tech	6-1	1,111	11
9. Florida	5-2	1,107	14
9. USC	6-1	1,107	13
11. South Florida	6-1	980	2
12. Kansas	7-0	960	15
13. Missouri	6-1	925	15
14. Kentucky	6-2	719	8
15. South Carolina	6-2	649	6
16. Hawaii	7-0	573	17
17. Texas	6-2	497	19
18. California	5-2	444	10
19. Michigan	6-2	401	24
20. Georgia	5-2	394	21
21. Virginia	7-1	315	—
22. Alabama	6-2	263	—
23. Auburn	5-3	248	18
24. Penn St.	6-2	209	—
25. Rutgers	5-2	174	—

Others receiving votes: UCLA 77, Boise St. 72, Wake Forest 50, Connecticut 26, Clemson 21, Wisconsin 17, Air Force 11, BYU 6, Texas Tech 6, Troy 4, Fresno St. 3, Oklahoma St. 3, Tennessee 3, Kansas St. 2, Cincinnati 1, Purdue 1, Texas A&M 1.

USA Today Top 25

The Top 25 teams in the USA Today college football coaches poll, with first-place votes in parentheses, records through Oct. 20, total points based on 25 points for a first-place vote through one point for a 25th-place vote, and previous ranking:

Record		Pts	Pvs
1. Ohio State (58)	8-0	1,498	1
2. Boston College (2)	7-0	1,412	2
3. LSU	7-1	1,319	5
4. Oklahoma	7-1	1,306	4
5. Oregon	6-1	1,225	6
6. West Virginia	6-1	1,134	7
7. Arizona State	7-0	1,089	12
8. USC	6-1	1,060	t9
9. Virginia Tech	6-1	1,052	11
10. Kansas	7-0	911	15
11. Florida	5-2	906	14
12. South Florida	6-1	813	3
13. Missouri	6-1	790	17
14. Hawaii	7-0	617	16
15. Kentucky	6-2	604	13
16. Texas	6-2	527	18
17. South Carolina	6-2	474	8
18. Virginia	7-1	466	24
19. Georgia	5-2	402	20
20. California	5-2	397	t9
21. Michigan	6-2	325	NR
22. Penn State	6-2	294	25
23. Auburn	5-3	179	19
24. Alabama	6-2	177	NR
25. Wisconsin	6-2	105	NR

Others receiving votes: Boise State 103; Rutgers 96; Connecticut 75; Purdue 37; Texas Tech 28; UCLA 21; Clemson 17; Cincinnati 10; Texas A&M 6; Fresno State 5; Wake Forest 5; Brigham Young 4; Kansas State 3; Maryland 3; Oklahoma State 2; Vanderbilt 2; Illinois 1.

Harris Interactive Top 25

The Top 25 teams in the first Harris Interactive College Football Poll, with first-place votes in parentheses, records through Oct. 20, total points based on 25 points for a first-place vote through one point for a 25th-place vote and previous ranking:

Record		Pts	Pvs
1. Ohio State (111)	8-0	2,847	1
2. Boston College (1)	7-0	2,676	2
3. LSU (2)	7-1	2,550	5
4. Oklahoma	7-1	2,521	4
5. Oregon	6-1	2,281	7
6. West Virginia	6-1	2,157	8
7. USC	6-1	2,100	9
8. Arizona State	7-0	2,003	12
9. Florida	5-2	1,867	14
10. Virginia Tech	6-1	1,831	13
11. Kansas	7-0	1,671	15
12. South Florida	6-1	1,627	3
13. Missouri	6-1	1,568	17
14. Hawaii	7-0	1,265	16
15. Kentucky	6-2	1,156	11
16. Texas	6-2	1,054	18
17. South Carolina	6-2	1,031	6
18. California	5-2	873	10
19. Georgia	5-2	711	20
20. Virginia	7-1	650	24
21. Michigan	6-2	643	25
22. Penn State	6-2	404	NR
23. Auburn	5-3	333	19
24. Alabama	6-2	322	NR
25. Rutgers	5-2	249	NR

Others receiving votes: Wisconsin 153; UCLA 116; Boise State 94; Connecticut 80; Wake Forest 42; Purdue 37; Texas Tech 36; Texas A&M 30; Cincinnati 20; Clemson 15; Kansas State 12; Oregon State 11; Illinois 5; BYU 4; Air Force 3; Oklahoma State 1; Tennessee 1.