Alabama retained its hold on No. 1 and non-power conference school Houston made a huge leap to No. 6 in the Associated Press Top 25 poll released Tuesday. The Crimson Tide received 54 of the 61 first-place votes after their 52-6 shellacking of USC on Saturday. Clemson stayed at No. 2 while receiving two first-place votes and Florida State (four first-place votes) moved up one spot to third. Ohio State is fourth and Michigan, which received one first-place vote, is fifth. Houston went from 15th to sixth by virtue of Saturday’s impressive 33-23 victory over then-No. 3 Oklahoma. The Cougars’ ranking is their highest since they were No. 3 on Nov. 6, 1990. Houston is one of five schools from the Lone Star State ranked in the Top 25. The others are Texas (11), TCU (15), Texas A&M (20) and Baylor (23). Texas was unranked prior to Sunday’s 50-47 double-overtime victory over Notre Dame. The ranking is the first for the Longhorns during Charlie Strong’s three seasons as coach. Rounding out the Top 10 were No. 7 Stanford, Washington, Georgia and Wisconsin. Wisconsin also was unranked prior to the opening week but shot up into the Top 10 after posting a 16-14 victory over then-No. 5 LSU. Oklahoma (14) and LSU (21) both plummeted down the rankings after their losses. Notre Dame dropped from 10th to 18th. Michigan State is ranked 12th and Louisville is 13th. Iowa, which gave coach Kirk Ferentz a contract extension on Tuesday, is 16th. Tennessee dropped from ninth to 17th after an uninspiring overtime win over Appalachian State. Mississippi is 19th. Also in the rankings are Oklahoma State (22), Oregon (24) and Miami (25). Dropping out of the rankings were UCLA, USC, North Carolina and Florida.
