The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)

Penn St. up to No. 2 behind No. 1 ’Bama

- By Ralph D. Russo

Penn State has climbed to No. 2 in The Associated Press College football poll behind unanimous No. 1 Alabama after a wild weekend of upsets gave the Top 25 a major makeover.

A season-high seven ranked teams, including four in the top 10, lost to unranked teams on Friday and Saturday. Defending national champion Clemson and defending Pac-12 champion Washington were the highest ranked teams to lose.

Penn State, which was idle, took advantage. The Nittany Lions moved up a spot to No. 2, 15 points ahead of No. 3 Georgia. Penn State has its best ranking since Oct. 31, 1999, when the Nittany Lions were No. 2. Alabama, which has been No. 1 since the preseason, received all 61 first-place votes for the first time this year.

TCU is No. 4, Wisconsin is No. 5 and Big Ten rival Ohio State is sixth.

Clemson dropped five spots to seventh. Miami, Oklahoma and Oklahoma State round out the top 10.

Poll points

Clemson started the weekend's weirdness on Friday night at Syracuse. The Tigers lost a threepoint game to the threetouch­down underdogs. Washington State followed that up with a little Pac-12 After Dark, getting routed at California later Friday.

On Saturday, the strangenes­s continued: No. 10 Auburn lost at LSU , which would qualify as the least surprising of the weekend's unexpected results if not for Auburn leading 20-0 in the second quarter.

No. 19 Michigan, No. 8 Miami and No. 9 Oklahoma all barely dodged the upset bug during the afternoon and No. 11 Southern California rallied to beat Utah at night.

Then came maybe the biggest stunner of all: Washington lost at Arizona State, scoring seven points against a team that had not given up fewer than 30 since last season.

Add to that, Texas Tech lost at West Virginia after blowing an 18-point fourthquar­ter lead and Navy and San Diego State each lost for the first time this season.

Moving down

— No. 12 Washington and No. 15 Washington State each dropped seven spots.

— No. 21 Auburn fell 11 spots after getting tagged with its second loss of the season.

Moving up

— No. 16 North Carolina State moved up four spots into a tie with South Florida and has its best ranking since Sept. 7, 2003, when it was No. 14.

They’re out

— San Diego State, Texas Tech and Navy all fell out of the rankings.

They’re in

— West Virginia and LSU moved back into the rankings.

— Memphis moved in for the first time since 2015.

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