Miami Leaves No Doubt in Return to No. 1

Miami is back at No. 1, and this time it’s unanimous.

The Hurricanes regained the top spot in the Associated Press media poll on Sunday, a week after a 25-point victory over Rutgers saw them drop to No. 2 behind Oklahoma.

With the Sooners losing to Texas A&M;, 30-26, and Miami overpowering Tennessee, 26-3, on Saturday, the Hurricanes (9-0) received all 74 first-place votes and 1,850 points from the sportswriters and broadcasters on the panel.

Miami was No. 1 for a record 21 consecutive polls before being replaced by Oklahoma. For the first time this season, though, the Hurricanes made a clean sweep of the votes.

Ohio State (11-0), the only other unbeaten major college team, moved up to No. 2 from No. 3 after its 10-6 win over Purdue. The Buckeyes had 1,771 points.

Washington State (9-1) made a big jump to No. 3 from No. 5 after a 32-21 win over Oregon. It is the highest ranking for the Cougars, who closed in on their second Rose Bowl appearance in five years.

Oklahoma (8-1) and Texas (9-1) were tied at No. 4 and Iowa (10-1) was No. 6. The four one-loss teams are separated by 32 points.

Miami remained No. 1 in the USA Today/ESPN coaches poll, followed by Ohio State, Texas, Washington State, Iowa and Oklahoma.

Miami and Ohio State should be first and second when the new bowl championship series standings are released today. The Buckeyes were second and the Hurricanes were third behind the Sooners last week.

The top two teams in the final BCS standings Dec. 8 play for the national title in the Fiesta Bowl at Tempe, Ariz., on Jan. 3.

Last week, Miami lost 27 first-place votes to Oklahoma in the AP poll after rallying for a 42-17 win over Rutgers, which led by three points in the fourth quarter. Coupled with the Sooners’ 27-11 victory over Colorado, AP voters gave the No. 1 spot to Oklahoma.

There was no doubt about who should be No. 1 this week as Miami was impressive in extending its winning streak to 31 games -- the longest among major colleges in 31 years.

Georgia (9-1) remained No. 7, followed by USC (7-2), Notre Dame (9-1) and Alabama (8-2).

Dropping out of the Top 25 were Bowling Green, Arizona State and Iowa State. Bowling Green (8-1), No. 20 last week, lost, 26-17, to Northern Illinois.