College football polls

College football polls

College football polls, The outcome still wasn’t quite unanimous, but Alabama did strengthen its hold on the No. 1 ranking Sunday in the USA TODAY Sports Coaches Poll.

After beating Texas A&M 49-42 in the season’s most anticipated game to date, the Crimson Tide claimed all but one of the first-place votes on the 62 ballots, with second-ranked Oregon picking up the other.

The lone first-place nod to the Ducks, who kept their high-flying offense humming in a 59-14 romp against Tennessee, means the 2009 Florida team keeps the honor of being the last unanimous No. 1 after the third week of the season.

Ohio State, a 52-34 winner at California, held on to the No. 3 position but got no No. 1 votes this week after getting two last week.

There was a shift in the top five as No. 4 Clemson, which had the weekend off, edged ahead of Stanford, which overcame a sluggish start before beating Army on the road.

Texas A&M dropped three spots to No. 9

No. 23 Arizona State, No. 24 Michigan State and No. 25 Fresno State replaced Nebraska, Wisconsin and TCU in the poll.

AP poll: Nebraska dropped out of The Associated Press college football poll after its latest loss, and the top of the rankings was unchanged after No. 1 Alabama passed its first big test of the season.

The Cornhuskers, No. 23 last week, are unranked the day after UCLA won in Lincoln, Neb., 41-21. The Tide received all but one of 60 first-place votes from the media panel. Oregon got the other top vote.

A ratings hit: Alabama’s win over Texas A&M drew the highest preliminary television rating for an afternoon regular-season college football game on CBS in 23 years.

The Crimson Tide’s 49-42 victory Saturday over the Aggies earned a 9.0 overnight. The network said Sunday that was the best since a 10.1 for Miami-Notre Dame on Oct. 20, 1990.

Ratings represent the percentage of all homes with televisions tuned to a program.