Nebraska Moves Up, Now No. 1

Nebraska, which had been No. 2 all season, overtook Florida State for the top spot in the college football polls Sunday. The Cornhuskers got a boost from Saturday’s 44-21 victory over Colorado, while the Seminoles may have been hurt by having the weekend off.

“We knew if we came out and beat a good Colorado team, that could make us No. 1,” Nebraska center Aaron Graham said.

The Cornhuskers (8-0) received eight fewer first-place votes than Florida State (7-0) in the Associated Press media poll, but they got three more points than the Seminoles. A team receives 25 points for a first-place vote, 24 for a second and so on. Points, not first-place votes, determines which team is No. 1.

Florida State Coach Bobby Bowden did not take issue with the pollsters Sunday.

“They’ve been the best team all year from what I’ve seen,” said Bowden, who has been voting Nebraska’s defending national champions as No. 1 this season in the USA Today-CNN coaches’ poll.

In the coaches’ poll, Nebraska received four more first-place votes and 14 more points than Florida State.

Nebraska Coach Tom Osborne wasn’t concerned about the polls.

“I think it is still too early to get too excited about it,” he said.

Under the new bowl alliance system, the order won’t matter for Nebraska or Florida State as long as they continue to occupy the top two spots. No. 1 will play No. 2 in the Fiesta Bowl unless those teams come from the Big Ten or Pacific 10, which send their champions to the Rose Bowl.

In both polls, the rest of the top five was unchanged. Florida (7-0) was third, followed by Ohio State (8-0) and Tennessee (7-1).

Rounding out the AP Top 10 were Northwestern, Michigan, Notre Dame, Kansas State and Colorado.

USC dropped from No. 13 to No. 14, while UCLA moved up two spots to No. 22.

Northwestern rose two spots after beating Illinois, 17-14, and Michigan climbed two notches following a 52-17 victory over Minnesota.

Notre Dame moved up four places after defeating Boston College, 20-10, while Kansas State jumped five spots after handing Kansas its first loss, 41-7.

If Notre Dame finishes in the top 10, the Irish will be guaranteed a spot in the Sugar or Orange bowls.

Colorado fell three spots and Kansas dropped from No. 6 to No. 11.

Penn State was 12th, followed by Texas, USC, Washington, Alabama, Texas A&M;, Arkansas, Oregon, Syracuse, Auburn, UCLA, Texas Tech, Virginia and Oklahoma.

Arkansas, unranked last week, moved up to No. 18 after beating then-No. 11 Auburn, 30-28. Iowa, No. 25 last week, dropped out of the rankings.