Alabama No. 1; USC, Mich. St. drop in poll

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MCLEAN, Va., Sept. 17 (UPI) -- No. 1-ranked Alabama grabbed the lion's share of first-place votes in the USA Today Coaches poll while Southern California and Michigan State took steep falls.

Alabama (3-0) routed Arkansas 52-0 Saturday, knocking the Razorbacks out of the Top 25 and getting even more of the attention of the poll's Board of Coaches for the Crimson Tide.

Alabama pulled in 37 first-place votes two weeks ago in moving to the poll's top spot and got 42 last week. This week 54 of the 59 coaches list Alabama first, the other five first-place votes go to No. 2 Louisiana State (3-0).

Southern California (2-1) was beaten by Stanford and drops nine spots in the rankings to No. 12. Michigan State (2-1) lost to Notre Dame and slides from 10th to No. 20 this week.

Oregon (3-0) moves up one spot to No. 3 this week while Florida State (3-0) is up two places to fourth and Oklahoma (2-0) remains fifth.

Georgia (3-0) takes over the No. 6 spot ahead of seventh-ranked West Virginia (2-0), No. 8 South Carolina (3-0), ninth-ranked Clemson (3-0) and Texas (3-0).

Stanford (3-0) improves five places and is 11th, ahead of Southern Cal. Kansas State (3-0) is up one to 13th while Florida (3-0) goes from 17th to 14th and Notre Dame (3-0), 19th a week ago, comes in at 15th.

Texas Christian (2-0) slips a rung to 16th while Michigan (2-1) is No. 17 followed by, in order, Louisville (3-0), UCLA (3-0) and Michigan State.

Arizona (3-0) jumps from 25th to No. 21 and Nebraska (2-1) moves from 24th to 22nd. Mississippi State (3-0) enters the poll at 23rd but Wisconsin (2-1) is down two to 24th. Oklahoma State (2-1) returns to the rankings at No. 25.

Arkansas and Virginia Tech fall out of the Top 25 this week.

A Clemson-at-Florida State matchup highlights this week's schedule while other key games have Arizona at Oregon, Kansas State at Oklahoma and Michigan at Notre Dame.