Brigham Young's upset of top-ranked Miami caused a major shakeup in The Associated Press college football poll on Monday, lifting Notre Dame to No. 1, catapulting BYU to No. 5 and plunging Miami to No. 10.
Notre Dame, which opens its season Saturday against Michigan, received 37 first-place votes and 1,451 points from a nationwide panel of sports writers and broadcasters. The Fighting Irish were No. 2 last week."It doesn't matter who's ranked number one through the season," Notre Dame linebacker Michael Stonebreaker said. "The only thing that matters is who's ranked number one at the end of the season."
Auburn, which shared the No. 3 spot with Florida State last week, rose to No. 2 after beating Fullerton State 38-17. Florida State remained in third after downing East Carolina 45-24.
Auburn received eight first-place votes and 1,385 points, while Florida State received 11 first-place votes and 1,367 points.
Idle Michigan moved up one spot to No. 4, while BYU jumped 11 places to No. 5 - the highest ranking for the Cougars since they won the 1984 national championship. Three voters were so impressed by BYU's 28-21 victory over Miami that they made the Cougars No. 1 on their ballots.
"The guys are really excited," BYU coach LaVell Edwards said. "But like I told them after the game, there's good news and there's bad news. The good news is that we just beat Miami. The bad news is that it's only the second game of the season."
Southern Cal, which had the week off, rose one place to No. 6. Tennessee also moved up a notch, to No. 7, after trouncing Mississippi State 40-7.
Nebraska got one first-place and moved up two spots to No. 8 following its 60-14 rout of Northern Illinois. Big Eight rival Colorado fell three places to No. 9 after barely beating Stanford 21-17 on Thursday.
Miami dropped to No. 10, its lowest ranking since occupying the same spot in the 1987 preseason poll. The Hurricanes haven't been this low in a regular-season poll since the ninth week of the 1985 season, when they were No. 11.
After beating Clemson for the first time in 30 tries, Virginia jumped three places to No. 11. That's the highest ranking for the Cavaliers since they were No. 9 in 1952.
Texas A&M is 12th, followed by Pittsburgh, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Clemson, Ohio State, Houston, Michigan State and Arizona. Rounding out the Top 25 are Illinois, Washington, Texas, Florida and Arizona State.
Illinois fell 10 places to No. 21 after losing to Arizona 28-16 and Clemson dropped seven spots to No. 16 after falling to Virginia 20-7.
Oklahoma made the biggest jump besides BYU, climbing from No. 23 to No. 14 following a 34-14 victory over UCLA.
UCLA, Alabama, Penn State and West Virginia dropped out of the rankings after losing on Saturday. Alabama lost to Southern Mississippi 27-24, Penn State fell to Texas 17-13 and West Virginia was beaten by Maryland 14-10.
Moving into the Top 25 were Arizona, Texas, Florida and Arizona State. Arizona State beat Baylor 34-13 and Florida clobbered Oklahoma State 50-7.