Kansas State up two spots to #9 in both AP and Coaches Polls

Taking advantage of losses by Mississippi State, Georgia, and UCLA -- but being surpassed by Arizona -- the Kansas State Wildcats have moved up to ninth in both the AP Poll and the Amway/USA Today Coaches Poll.

The move presages what we'll probably see Tuesday, and sets up a huge game in Waco next week between top ten teams. That's good for the Big 12, because a Baylor win will help their playoff chances, while a hard-fought K-State win may well see three Big 12 teams into New Year's Day bowls. Obviously, K-State fans are going to want the win, but we're all about looking for silver linings.

In other interesting poll shenanigans, Alabama has overtaken Florida State in the AP poll, and is now the top team in both rankings. TCU also jumped Baylor in the AP, and are now ranked ahead of the Bears in both polls; that should send our friends at Our Daily Bears into a tizzy. As noted, Arizona got a four-place bump in both polls to slide past K-State, and several teams down-ballot got four- or five-place jumps thanks to carnage down below.

The big losers were Mississippi State, Georgia, and UCLA up top, and Marshall and Colorado State down below. All suffered drops of anywhere from 6 to 10 places as a result of losses this weekend. Louisiana State, Utah, and Nebraska all entered the AP Top 25, replacing Marshall, Colorado State, and Minnesota; in the Coaches' Poll Minnesota clung to the 25th spot, keeping Utah out of the ranking.

As usual, our table presents all teams which received votes in either poll this week or last week, plus any other teams included in the top 40 of the computer composite rankings. Those rankings, from Kenneth Massey, are based on the 52 rankings available at the time of this article's compilation.

One team has disappeared from our table: South Carolina, which has not been receiving votes for weeks and finally slipped from the composite top 40. We have three new teams, though! Washington and Boston College, who've moved into the composite top 40, and Air Force, by virtue of receiving votes in the AP poll.

Also note that while Cincinnati was "tied" for 36th in the AP poll last week as a result of getting no votes, their single vote this week puts them at 37th. They are not tagged as having dropped a spot, because that would be silly. All the teams that got no votes in the AP or coaches' polls last week or this week, though? They get charged with a two-place drop. Being leapfrogged deserves red ink.

Here then is your table: