Sports

Nittany Lions fall hard in polls

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Related stories:

• Indiana dominates Penn State (February 13, 2004)
• Badgers searching for first place (October 24, 2003)
• Badgers fall at Penn State (February 20, 2003)
• Women's basketball comes up short against Nittany Lions (February 20, 2004)
• Penn State continues dominance in Big Ten conference as Waite's squad looks for positives in otherwise disappointing weekend (October 27, 2008)

Also by Tyler Mason:

• McBain opts out of senior year (March 26, 2009)
• UW must fix season-long mistakes (March 25, 2009)
• UW finishes 3rd at WCHA finals (March 22, 2009)
• Jamie McBain named WCHA Player of the Year (March 22, 2009)

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With a 17-13 win over Iowa Saturday night, the Wisconsin football team maintained its No. 9 ranking in the latest Associated Press Top 25 poll. Despite winning their Big Ten opener, the Badgers dropped slightly in the USA Today Coaches' Poll, moving from seventh to ninth.

Behind four touchdown passes by quarterback John David Booty, the USC Trojans remained the top team in both polls, as they have all season. Second-ranked LSU closed the gap in number of votes after beating No. 12 South Carolina in Baton Rouge 28-16, but still trail Southern Cal by 21 first-place votes. Oklahoma, Florida and West Virginia round out the top five.

Kentucky jumped all the way to No. 14 after its win against Arkansas. It is the team’s highest ranking since finishing the 1977 season at No. 6 in the AP Poll.

An embarrassing 38-35 loss to Syracuse caused Louisville, now 2-2, to fall out of the rankings completely and hurt quarterback Brian Brohm’s Heisman chances. Before Saturday’s game, the Cardinals were slotted as No. 18 in the country. Former No. 20 Texas A&M also dropped from the polls following its 34-17 thumping at the hands of Miami (Fla.).

Elsewhere in the Big Ten, Ohio State moved up one spot to eighth in the USA Today poll and now holds down the No. 8 slot in both polls, best of any Big Ten team, thanks to a dominating 58-7 win over Northwestern. Penn State fell 11 spots, from No. 10 to No. 21, following its 14-9 loss to Michigan at the Big House in Ann Arbor.

Purdue, now 4-0 after defeating Minnesota at the Metrodome, is currently receiving the most votes of any unranked team in the AP Poll and now finds itself at No. 25 in the USA Today poll. Michigan State traveled to Notre Dame and beat the lowly Irish 31-14, improving its record to 4-0 and giving the Irish their first 0-4 start in school history. As a result, the Spartans were rewarded with a No. 23 ranking in the USA Today poll. Next week, Michigan State will make the trip to Madison to face No. 9 Wisconsin in a 2:30 p.m. kickoff.