Oklahoma Is Alone Again in No. 2 Spot

Oklahoma is the only No. 2.

After a week of sharing the No. 2 ranking with Auburn, Oklahoma edged ahead of the Tigers in the Associated Press top 25 on Sunday.

No. 1 USC lost some support during an off week, dropping three first-place votes to 48. Still, the Trojans have a comfortable lead in the rankings with 1,603 points.

Oklahoma has nine first-place votes, one more than last week, and 1,541 points. No. 3 Auburn received two more first-place votes than last week, increasing its total to eight, and 1,536 points.

The Sooners defeated Baylor, 35-0, on Saturday, and Auburn rallied in the second half to beat Alabama, 21-13.

Oklahoma decided to rest its starters once it had a big lead against the Bears, instead of piling it on to impress voters. Last week, Sooner Coach Bob Stoops did the opposite against Nebraska.

“I’m comfortable in the fact that we chose to run the clock out,” Stoops said. “Anyone that doesn’t see the dilemma we’re in is not being totally fair. We’re in a bad, bad position right now.”

In the ESPN/USA Today coaches poll, USC is still No. 1 and No. 2 Oklahoma added two points to its lead over No. 3 Auburn.

The Tigers (10-0) needed to pull way out in front of the Sooners in the polls to make up ground in the bowl championship series standings, which will be released today.

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Timmy Chang threw for 376 yards and a career-high six touchdowns as Hawaii kept its bowl hopes alive by defeating Idaho, 52-21, Saturday night.

Jason Rivers caught all four of his touchdowns in the first half and finished with nine receptions for 167 yards for the Warriors (5-5).

With Hawaii down, 14-10, Chang threw touchdown passes of 22, 16, 13 and 15 yards in the decisive second quarter to give the Warriors a 38-21 lead over the Vandals (3-9) at halftime.

With his six-touchdown performance, Chang overtook former Marshall quarterback Chad Pennington for fourth on the NCAA career touchdown pass list. The fifth-year senior has 105 touchdowns and is chasing Ty Detmer’s NCAA mark of 121.

Hawaii must beat Northwestern and Michigan State the next two weeks at Aloha Stadium to qualify for the Hawaii Bowl for the third year in a row.