Just as is the case in the USA Today Coaches Poll, the Michigan State Spartans are ranked fifth in this week's AP Poll. Actually, there are many similarities with the two polls. The first six spots of the rankings are exactly the same in both polls, and the only difference in the top ten is that Missouri is one spot higher than Utah in the AP Poll (Utah is ranked higher by a spot in the USA Today Coaches Poll).
The AP Poll doesn't figure into the formula used to determine the BCS, but it's an indication of where the Spartans stand in the rankings. Obviously with the computer polls things can be much different, but with humans, the consensus is that MSU is ranked fifth. I would expect that to be the case in the Harris Poll, one of the human polls used in the BCS (the USA Today Coaches Poll is the other), and it's looking more and more like MSU will be fifth in the actual BCS standings.
Here is a full look at the Week 9 AP Poll:
- Oregon (7-0)
- Boise State (6-0)
- Auburn (8-0)
- TCU (8-0)
- Michigan State (8-0)
- Alabama (7-1)
- Missouri (7-0)
- Utah (7-0)
- Wisconsin (7-1)
- Ohio State (7-1)
- Oklahoma (6-1)
- LSU (7-1)
- Stanford (6-1)
- Nebraska (6-1)
- Arizona (6-1)
- Florida State (6-1)
- South Carolina (5-2)
- Iowa (5-2)
- Arkansas (5-2)
- Oklahoma State (6-1)
- Virginia Tech (6-2)
- Miami (5-2)
- Mississippi State (6-2)
- USC (5-2)
- Baylor (6-2)