Florida State latest Top 25 fixture to drop out of rankings

NEW YORK – First Oklahoma fell from the Top 25, then Michigan was gone. Tennessee dropped out a month later and now Florida State.

The Seminoles became the latest Top 25 fixture to fall from the Associated Press poll this season.

Florida State is unranked this week for the first time in four years.

With much of the Top 25 idle last weekend, and no big upsets in the limited schedule, there was little movement in the media poll.

Southern California, which was off this week, is No. 1 for a record 32nd straight poll. USC finishes its season Saturday against UCLA.

Texas is No. 2, but the Longhorns lost four first-place votes this week to USC after a tougher-than-expected 40-29 victory at Texas A&M. Texas plays Colorado in the Big 12 title game. If USC and Texas stay undefeated, they’ll play in the Rose Bowl for the Bowl Championship Series title.

No. 3 LSU, No. 4 Penn State and No. 5 Virginia Tech held their places.

Idle Ohio State jumped to No. 6, slipping past Notre Dame, which dropped a spot to No. 7 after needing a late touchdown to beat Stanford 38-31 and become eligible for the BCS.

Oregon is No. 8, followed by Auburn and Miami. No. 11 UCLA begins the second 10, ahead of West Virginia, Georgia, Alabama and TCU.

The top 15 teams in the USA Today coaches poll and the AP poll are the same. The Harris poll was identical to the AP through the first 11 spots.

No. 17 Florida defeated then-No. 23 Florida State 34-7, sending the Seminoles to three consecutive losses for the first time since 1983.

Florida State is the seventh team ranked in the AP preseason top 15 to fall out of the rankings at some point this season. The others are Tennessee, Michigan, Oklahoma, Iowa, Louisville and Purdue.

Florida State (7-4) dropped out of the Top 25 for two weeks in 2001, but finished the season ranked 15th.

Before that season, the Seminoles last were unranked under coach Bobby Bowden in September 1989 when they started the season with losses to Southern Mississippi and Clemson and finished with 10 straight victories.

Florida State plays Virginia Tech in the Atlantic Coast Conference title game on Saturday.

“I told them we got a ball game next week as big as this one,” Bowden said. “That’s all you can do when you get beat.”