College Football Rankings: Oklahoma Still No. 1, But Alabama Climbs Past LSU

One week after elevating LSU to the No. 1 ranking for its season-opening win over Oregon, the BlogPoll is once more rolling with Alabama at its top team. The Tide, who were also the preseason BlogPoll No. 1, picked up fewer first-place votes than LSU, but had a strong enough consensus at the top to get past the Tigers and claim pole position in the Week 3 BlogPoll. Oklahoma, No. 1 in the AP Poll and USA Today coaches poll this week, takes a lower perch in this realm of the college football rankings, settling for No. 3.

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The SEC places four teams in the top 14 of both the Week 3 AP Poll and Week 3 USA Today coaches poll, and leads the nation in the Week 3 college football rankings with seven teams ranked.

Alabama and LSU are the two SEC standard-bearers so far in 2011: the Tide and Tigers are second and third in both polls, with Alabama jumping past LSU in the Week 3 AP Poll after dispatching Penn State in Happy Valley.

The new-look Big Ten has four teams in the top 20 of both the Week 3 polls in the college football rankings. That makes up for losing Penn State’s ranking, right?

The highest-ranked Big Ten team in either poll is Wisconsin, which checks in at No. 7 in the AP Poll. The Badgers are No. 8 in the USA Today poll, though, and one of just two Big Ten teams in the top ten — Nebraska, No. 10 in both polls, is the other.

Oklahoma is on top of both parts of the Week 3 college football rankings. The Sooners matched their performance in the Week 3 AP Poll with a No. 1 ranking in the Week 3 USA Today coaches poll.

Oklahoma, idle in Week 2, is followed by Alabama, LSU, Boise State, and Florida State in the top five. The only alteration in that top five from Week 2 is Boise State jumping Florida State for No. 4, despite not playing in Week 2.