After winning the past six national titles, the South Eastern Conference has established itself as the most competitive division in the country.
Following an exciting week of college football, the SEC proved once again how dominant the conference is, adding two more teams to the top five to join Alabama.
There was a ton of movement throughout the Top 25 on Monday, as nine of the teams lost this past weekend. South Carolina, Florida and West Virginia all entered the top five for the first time this season
Alabama stayed at No. 1 and received all 60 first-place votes, while Oregon remained at No. 2 after beating Washington 52-21. Alabama had a bye week.
Oregon improved to 3-0 in the Pac-12 with the win and were up 35-7 by the end of the first half. Running back Kenjon Barner had 122 yards rushing and quarterback Marcus Mariota added four passing touchdowns as the Ducks stayed undefeated.
I think today was a really good example of a team effort," Mariota said to the Associated Press. "We try to take each game like it's a rivalry."
South Carolina won a top ten matchup with Georgia on Saturday, defeating the No. 5 team in the nation 35-7. The Gamecocks move up three spots to No. 3, the highest since 1984.
"Have we ever been that high before? How about '84?" Spurrier said to ESPN.com. "Well, we've still got a ways to go.
Quarterback Connor Shaw was solid, throwing two touchdowns and no interceptions, while running back Marcus Lattimore added 109 yards on the ground with a touchdown.
"We definitely sent a message out to the whole country," Gamecocks tailback Lattimore said. "It's not the old South Carolina. We can play with y'all. We can play with anybody."
According to ESPN.com, it was the 10th straight win for South Carolina, who improves to 6-0 on the year and 4-0 in the SEC.
The Florida Gators moved into the No. 4 spot after beating the former-No. 4 LSU Tigers 16-6 on Saturday. According to ESPN.com, it is the first top five appearance since 2009, when the team won a national title.
Mike Gillisee rushed for a career-high 146 yards and two touchdowns to lead the Gators, while the defense only allowed 200 total yards for the Tigers.
"I'll take Gilly over anybody," Gators coach Will Muschamp said. "I tell him that all the time and I mean that. I felt that way in spring and going into fall camp. ... He's a Will Muschamp guy. He don't ever say anything, he just does his job, lines up, runs the ball. If you ask him to block, he's going to block. If you ask him to catch the ball, he's going to catch the ball. He just is a really, really, really good football player."
West Virginia played its first-ever Big 12 road game and was stellar, beating the Texas Longhorns 48-45 to earn the No. 5 spot.
Quarterback Geno Smith has taken the country by storm this season and helped beat Texas with four more passing touchdowns and 268 yards through the air. Amazingly, he has thrown 24 touchdowns this season and no interceptions.
"Every week, we're going to go out and have fun," Smith said. "They put me under duress a bit. I just get up and continue to play."
The top ten added a few new teams after some big names fell, including Kansas State at No. 6, Notre Dame at No. 7 and Ohio State moving up to No. 8.
Notre Dame had one of the most impressive performances of the season, beating rival Miami 41-3.
LSU dropped to No. 9 after the Florida loss and Oregon State rounded out the top ten after beating Washington State 19-6. The Beavers improved to 4-0, including 3-0 within the Pac-12.
Other teams that took tumbles after losses included No. 12 Florida State, who was ranked No. 3 last week and Georgia, who fell to No. 15 after losing to South Carolina.
"They fought for the inches and made the inches and we didn't," Florida State coach Jimbo Fisher said.
New entries to the Top 25 included Cincinnati at No. 21 and Texas A&M at No. 22. No. 24 Boise State and No. 25 Michigan came back into the poll after falling out the past two weeks with losses.
Dropping from the rankings this week were Nebraska, Washington, Northwestern, UCLA and TCU. Teams that received votes in the poll but didn't get in included Ohio, Baylor, Michigan State, Arizona State, Penn State and Arizona.
The next week of games finds a few big match ups, including No. 3 South Carolina at No. 9 LSU, No. 4 Florida taking on Vanderbilt, No. 1 Alabama facing off against Missouri and No. 7 Notre Dame hosting No. 17 Stanford.
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