College Football | USC justifies its No. 1 ranking

NEW YORK — USC has made itself a no-doubt-about-it No. 1 in the AP Top 25, and there is a new No. 2 after Georgia slipped again.

The Trojans' resounding 35-3 victory over then-No. 5 Ohio State on Saturday night made USC an overwhelming No. 1 in the Associated Press media poll. USC received 61 first-place votes and 1,596 points Sunday. The Trojans had 33 first-place votes last week.

Oklahoma, a 55-14 winner at Washington, moved past Georgia into No. 2. Georgia struggled to beat South Carolina 14-7 and was third in the poll.

Georgia is the first preseason No. 1 team to drop that far after starting 3-0 since Oklahoma in 1985. The Sooners also fell to No. 3 after winning their first three games.

The USA Today coaches poll had the same top eight teams as the AP poll, with No. 4 Florida ahead of, in order, Missouri, Louisiana State, Texas and Wisconsin.

Ohio State tumbled to 13th in the AP poll and 14th in the coaches poll.

The only Pac-10 team other than USC in the AP Top 25 is No. 17 Oregon.

Meanwhile, the Southeastern Conference has five of the Top 10 teams in the media poll — Georgia, Florida, LSU, No. 9 Alabama and No. 10 Auburn.

Of slipping in the polls, Georgia coach Mark Richt said, "I'm really not worried about it. We can't control it. We can control trying to win the [SEC] Eastern Division. When you set goals, you try to set goals you can control.

"To win the Eastern Division is really the only thing you can control in this whole thing, and you can control winning every game you play in."

Georgia plays at Arizona State on Saturday. The Sun Devils, ranked 15th last week, tumbled out of the AP poll after losing at home 23-20 to UNLV in overtime.

"I wish they'd won it just so maybe they'd be flying a little higher right now," Richt said of Arizona State. "They'll probably have a little chip on their shoulder and be a little tougher to match up against."

Sun Devils coach Dennis Erickson said, "I don't know if we should have been in there to start with."

Weis plans to wait on surgery issue

SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Notre Dame coach Charlie Weis will wait to decide whether to have surgery on his left knee.

He tore knee ligaments when a player crashed into him on the sideline during Saturday's 35-17 victory over Michigan.

"I don't see me having surgery in the foreseeable future," Weis said Sunday.

Weis said surgery is not needed on his torn medial collateral ligament, saying it has to "tighten up" on its own. He said he might need surgery on his anterior cruciate ligament, but he would wait at least until Notre Dame's off week in mid-October or until after the season, if he has surgery at all.

John Ryan, a Notre Dame defensive end, was knocked out of bounds by a Michigan player and crashed into Weis. Ryan apologized to Weis repeatedly.

Weis told him not to worry. But some ex-Irish players have texted Ryan, poking fun at him.