Tennessee Stays Strong In Polls
Tennessee appears quite comfortable at No. 1.
The Volunteers (11-0) are on top of The Associated Press' Top 25 college football poll for the fourth straight week, maintaining a solid lead over No. 2 Kansas State a week before the final regular-season poll.
Tennessee, a 41-0 winner over Vanderbilt Saturday, collected 41 first-place votes and 1,669 points from 68 of the 70 sports writers and broadcasters on the AP panel, while the Wildcats (11-0) had 24 first-place votes and 1,638 points.
UCLA (10-0) remained No. 3 with three first-place votes and 1,579 points. K-State and the Bruins were off over the weekend.
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On Saturday, the Vols play Mississippi State in the SEC title game at Atlanta, the Wildcats play Texas A&M for the Big 12 title at St. Louis and UCLA is at Miami.
Florida State (11-1) held steady at No. 4, waiting for two of the teams above them to lose to get into the chase for the national title.
Ohio State (10-1) was No. 5, followed by Arizona, Florida, Wisconsin, Tulane and Texas A&M.
In the USA Today/ESPN coaches' poll, the top five were Kansas State, Tennessee, UCLA, Florida State and Ohio State.
In the AP poll, Arkansas was No. 11, followed by Georgia Tech, Nebraska, Virginia, Michigan, Notre Dame, Air Force, Syracuse, Georgia and Texas.
Oregon was No. 21, followed by Penn State, Mississippi State, Missouri and Virginia Tech.
Notre Dame (9-2) fell seven spots to No. 16 after a 10-0 loss at Southern California, while Texas A&M (10-2) dropped four places to No. 10 after a 26-24 loss at Texas. Both Rose Bowl-bound Wisconsin (10-1) and Liberty Bowl-bound Tulane (11-0) improved two spots from last week.
Georgia Tech, with a last minute, 2-19 win over Georgia, improved five spots to No. 12, while Texas returned to the Top 25 with its win over Texas A&M.
Miami, 66-13 losers to Syracuse, fell out of the rankings.
The final regular-season poll will be released Sunday. The final AP poll will be released Tuesday, Jan. 5.
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