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Friday, September 29
Notre Dame falls out of top 25



ARLINGTON, Va. -- Nebraska and Florida State remain 1-2 and surprising South Carolina cracked the top 25 in the latest ESPN/USA Today college football coaches' poll released Sunday.

Wisconsin (3-1) and UCLA (3-1) suffered major drops and Notre Dame (2-2) fell out of the poll after losses on Saturday.

Eric Crouch threw a career-high five touchdowns and Nebraska rolled to a 42-13 victory over Iowa and Florida State extended the nation's longest winning streak to 16 games with a 31-0 win over Louisville.

Nebraska (3-0) collected 44 first-place votes and 1,455 points, while Florida State (4-0) received 14 first-place ballots and 1,424 points.

The top five remains the same with Florida (4-0) at No. 3 followed by idle Virginia Tech (3-0) and Kansas State (4-0), which received the remaining first-place vote.

Quarterback Jesse Palmer rushed for four touchdowns to lead Florida to a 59-31 win over Kentucky. Quarterback Jonathan Beasley did one better than Palmer, rushing for five touchdowns in Kansas State's 55-10 rout of North Texas.

South Carolina went winless under Lou Holtz last season and entered the year with a 21-game losing streak. However, the Gamecocks have won their first four games, including a 23-19 win over Mississippi State on Saturday, and moved into the poll at No. 23.

Wisconsin (3-1) slipped eight spots to No. 14 after a heartbreaking 47-44 double overtime home loss to Northwestern.

After defeating a team ranked third in the country twice in the first three weeks of the season, UCLA (3-1) suffered a 29-10 loss at Oregon and slipped nine spots to No. 17. The win enabled the Ducks to crack the poll at No. 25.

Idle Washington (3-0) is sixth, Southern California (3-0) is seventh and Clemson (4-0) jumped three spots to No. 8. Quarterback Woodrow Dantzler rushed for a career-high 220 yards and two touchdowns in Clemson's 31-10 win over Virginia on Saturday.

Michigan (3-1) and Ohio State (4-0) round out the top 10 after conference wins on Saturday. Michigan edged Illinois, 35-31 and Ohio State crushed Penn State, 45-6. Illinois slipped five places to No. 22 in the poll.

Tennessee (2-1) is No. 11 followed by Miami (2-1) and Texas (2-1). Michigan State (3-0) ascended five spots to No. 15 with a 27-21 win over Notre Dame and Oklahoma (3-0) remained at No. 16.

Texas Christian (3-0), Purdue (3-1) and Auburn (4-0) round out the top 20. Southern Mississippi (2-1), Illinois (3-1), South Carolina, Georgia (2-1) and Oregon complete the poll.

The ESPN/USA Today poll is part of the Bowl Championship Series standings, which determine the teams that will participate in its national title game. This season's contest is at the Orange Bowl on Jan. 3.





ALSO SEE
ESPN/USA Today coaches' poll

Surprising Gamecocks surge in AP rankings






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