Coaches vote Notre Dame, Alabama 1-2

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MCLEAN, Va., Dec. 3 (UPI) -- Notre Dame and Alabama finished 1-2 in the final regular-season USA Today Coaches college football poll.

Notre Dame (12-0) completed a perfect regular season with a win at Southern California on Nov. 24. Alabama (12-1) claimed the Southeastern Conference Championship with a 32-28 win over Georgia on Saturday.

The Fighting Irish, as they have each of the previous two weeks since they took over the No. 1 spot in the poll, receive 56 first-place votes this week. Alabama has the other three, up one from last week when the 59th vote went to Georgia.

Notre Dame and Alabama were given the spots in the Bowl Championships Series title game to be played Jan. 7 in Miami. Alabama will be looking to repeat as BCS champion. The title game will mark the seventh consecutive year an SEC school has played in the BCS finale.

The SEC has six teams in the Top 10, the most schools ranked for any conference. The Big 12 and Big Ten each have four. None of the Big Ten members are higher than 17th, although Ohio State (12-0) would certainly be ranked and Penn State (8-4) likely would be if the two schools were not on probation.

Oregon (11-1) is third in the rankings followed by Florida (11-1) and Georgia (11-2).

Kansas State (11-1) moves up one spot to sixth, switching places with Louisiana State (10-2), which is seventh. Stanford (11-2) comes in eighth. with SEC members Texas A&M (10-2) and South Carolina (10-2), in order, filling out the Top 10.

Oklahoma (10-2) and Florida State (11-2) remain 11th and 12th, respectively, with Clemson (0-2) up one to 13th and Oregon State (9-3) going from 17th to No. 14. Boise State (10-2) is voted 15th.

MAC champion Northern Illinois (12-1) moves up to 16th, with Northwestern (9-3) No. 17. Louisville (10-2), after the de facto Big East championship game win at Rutgers, jumps five spots to No. 18. UCLA (9-4) drops three to 19th and Utah State (10-2) is 20th.

Nebraska (10-3) falls eight places to 21st and is followed by Big Ten rivals Michigan (8-4) and previously unranked Wisconsin (8-5) at Nos. 22 and 23. Wisconsin thumped Nebraska 70-31 Saturday for the Big Ten Championship. San Jose State (10-2), another new entry, comes in at 24th and Texas (84) falls four spots to 25th.

Kent Sate and Rutgers drop out of the Top 25 this week.