With a number of upsets during Saturday’s slate of college football games, there were numerous shifts in this morning’s AP poll.

After a stunning 27-21 loss to Utah, Stanford dropped eight spots to No. 13. Florida State took the Cardinal’s place at No. 5. The top four remain Alabama, Oregon, Clemson and Ohio State (in that order). The Crimson Tide received 55 of the 60 first-place votes for the third consecutive week, with Oregon picking up the remaining five.

Georgia also fell out of the top ten, dropping eight spots to No. 15 after being handled by Missouri 41-26. The Tigers jumped 11 spots to No. 14 following the upset victory, but will be without quarterback James Franklin for at least six weeks after the senior suffered a Grade 2 separation of his shoulder in the fourth quarter of Saturday’s contest.

LSU moved up four spots to No. 6 after coming out on top of Saturday’s SEC-duel with Florida. The Gators dropped five spots to No. 22 with the loss.

After edging out Ole Miss 41-38, Texas A&M moved up two spots to No. 7. Louisville remained at No. 8 and UCLA cracked the top ten for the first time this season, rising two spots to No. 9. Miami, South Carolina and Baylor all moved up three spots and make up the 10th-12th spots in the poll.

Saturday’s other stunner came in Austin, where Texas handed Oklahoma its first loss in the Red River Rivalry since 2009, and dropped the Sooners six spots to No. 18. After coming up short in a conference showdown against Oregon, Washington fell four spots to No. 20.

Texas Tech and Fresno State moved up four spots to No. 16 and No. 17, while Virginia Tech jumped up five spots to No. 19. Oklahoma State moved up one spot to No. 21 and Northern Illinois stayed at No. 23.

Cracking the top 25 were Auburn and Wisconsin. The Badgers dismantled Northwestern by a score of 35-6 and the Wildcats predictably fell out of the top 25. Also dropping out of the top 25 was Michigan, who lost to Penn State 43-40 in overtime.

Wide receiver Bralon Addison talked with the media after practice on Thursday and touched on several topics. He discussed the versatility of the receivers group, the leadership of Josh Huff and how daunting upcoming opponent Washington is on defense.

On several of the Oregon receivers having played quarterback in high school:

“It makes our offense that much more dynamic. We’ve got a lot of guys that can make a lot of plays in different ways. Me, Daryle (Hawkins), Josh (Huff), Derrick Carrington, we all played QB in high school, so we just have a lot of dynamic guys on the same field at one time.”

On understanding what Marcus Mariota goes through as a quarterback:

“I think at a lot of other places you see guys complain when they don’t get the ball in certain situations when they’re open. Having played quarterback in high school, you understand that you can’t see everything all the time. So I think it does actually help us be more relaxed and patient out there.”

On having multiple big-play guys:

“We have so many playmakers on the field and we play so fast. You’ve kind of got to pick and choose your guy on each play. One play you have De’Anthony, another play you have Byron, another play you have Marcus, then me, Daryle, Josh. You’ve just got guys all over the field and it’s kind of like, pick your poison.”

On Washington’s secondary:

“They’re a really aggressive secondary and really well-coached. They run really well. Their over-aggression bites them in the butt sometimes, but they play really hard and they run to the ball really fast. I definitely think this will be the toughest defense we’ve played all season.”

On having Josh Huff at the head of the receiving core:

“Josh is our leader. He’s been a four-year starter. He’s the oldest guy. That guy is really intense and he comes with the mindset of working every day at practice. That helps us, the younger guys. We feed off of him. All of us as a group come here as a group and compete every day. I think that’s why this group has been so successful this season.”

GOOD

• After completing 16 of 27 passes for 355 yards and scoring seven total touchdowns this past weekend against Colorado, Marcus Mariota was named the Pac-12 Offensive Player of the Week. Mariota joins De’Anthony Thomas and Bralon Addison as Ducks who have received the award this season. Thomas was named the Offensive Player of the Week after his performance in Week 2 against Virginia and Addison earned POW honors for his special teams performance against California the following week.
• Former Oregon quarterback Dennis Dixon was signed to the Buffalo Bills’ practice squad on Tuesday in the wake of E.J. Manuel’s knee injury. Dixon worked out with the team the day before signing with them. The Oakland native is not currently on Buffalo Bills’ 53-man roster and will presumably act as their third in-house option behind Thad Lewis and Jeff Tuel over the next six weeks.
• De’Anthony Thomas’ status for Saturday’s game at Washington is still unclear, but he did have his walking boot removed and was seen walking at practice today without any noticeable limp. Thomas indicated that he wouldn’t take the field on Saturday unless he was 100 percent.

BAD

• The most recent cross-country polls came on Tuesday and the Oregon women slipped one spot to No. 6 after finishing runner-up to Washington at this past weekend’s Bill Dellinger Invitational. The Oregon women are now ranked third in the West Region behind No. 3 Arizona and No. 4 Washington. The top two teams at the NCAA West Regional meet on Nov. 15 will earn automatic bids to the NCAA Championships on Nov. 23.
• For basketball fans, placing Las Vegas bets on the Portland Trail Blazers this season may not be a wise choice. The oddsmakers at Bovada are giving the Trail Blazers 150-1 odds to win the NBA Championship, tied for 20th out of the league’s 30 teams. It is Portland’s lowest preseason odds since the 2006-2007 season. The Miami Heat have the best odds to take home the championship trophy at 2-1. The Blazers lost their preseason opener against the Los Angeles Clippers on Monday night by a score of 89-81.

UGLY

• Two days after Colt Lyerla withdrew from the University of Oregon, a 2012 police report accusing the former Ducks’ tight end of assaulting three men has surfaced. On Tuesday, the Portland Tribune obtained a Eugene Police Department report, which states that three men claimed that Lyerla appeared to be either extremely drunk or under the influence of drugs and proceeded to assault them on the street in April 2012. One of the men who reported being assaulted, Joshua Daniel Thurston, claimed to approach Lyerla, who was “stumbling around” on the street, and told him, ”Take it easy, you have the spring game coming up.” Lyerla reportedly responded, “What’s your business with that?” and pushed Thurston and two other men to the ground. The report states that none of the three men required medical help, but initially wanted Lyerla prosecuted for physical harassment. Thurston told an officer that he and the two other men decided not to pursue charges in a follow-up interview on May 3. The case has since been suspended and there is no desire for prosecution.

The latest USTFCCCA Division 1 National Coaches Polls were released this morning, with big moves up the ranks by a pair of Ivy League schools.

On the men’s side, Columbia moved up 22 spots to No. 8 after besting a talented field at the Notre Dame Invitational. Among the teams that Columbia beat in South Bend were No. 9 Tulsa and No. 10 Princeton.

The top-five remained unchanged, with Oklahoma State receiving all 12 first-place votes for the second straight week. Following the top-ranked Cowboys were Colorado, Northern Arizona, Oregon and BYU. Portland jumped a spot to No. 7, UCLA slid nine spots to No. 21 and Boise State broke into the top 30 at No. 19 after a runner-up finish to Oregon at this past weekend’s Bill Dellinger Invitational. Rounding out the top 30 were Pac-12 representatives Stanford and Arizona State.

The Oregon women dropped one spot to No. 6 after finishing second at the Bill Dellinger Invitational to Washington, who jumped three spots to No. 4. Providence received 11 of the 12 first-place votes, with the other vote going to No. 3 Arizona. Florida State remained at No. 2. The Pac-12 boasts five women squads in the top 12, as Stanford and Colorado chime in at No. 11 and No. 12.

The biggest riser in the polls for the women was Dartmouth, which went from unranked to No. 13 after a runner-up performance to No. 5 Georgetown at Lehigh’s Paul Short Run. It’s the first time Dartmouth has been nationally ranked since 2002.

The Ducks are the reigning NCAA cross country champions. This season, they are faced with the difficult task of defending the national title despite losing their top three runners, including the most decorated harrier in school history: Jordan Hasay.

The Oregon women — now without Hasay, Alexi Pappas and Katie Conlon — lost not only a batch of talented seniors, but their veteran leaders. Stepping up to lead this year’s new-look Oregon squad is Megan Patrignelli, a senior from Monroe, N.Y.

Patrignelli wasn’t even a scorer on last year’s NCAA championship team, but has been Oregon’s top finisher at each of its three meets this season and has grown to be one of the team’s leaders.

“I’ve actually surprised myself a little bit because I’m a more of a shy person,” Patrignelli said. “But I’ve definitely had to step up and lead the team.”

The Ducks have plenty of talented young harriers to build around, starting with sophomores Allie Woodward and Annie LeBlanc. Woodward finished 44th overall and LeBlanc finished 68th at last year’s NCAA championships. They are Oregon’s highest scoring returnees.

Neither woman has appeared in a race this season, but head coach Robert Johnson assured that they are healthy and training well.

Molly Grabill faced a long road to recovery after injuries sustained in a car accident last November — the result of a 19-year-old man throwing a rock off an I-5 overpass. The rock, which was larger than a baseball, crashed through the car windshield and struck Grabill in the face.

Grabill said she experienced headaches and dizziness during the ensuing months and that she didn’t quite feel 100 percent until seven months later in June.

“Getting back into shape is always rough and I’ve been out for so long, so that was hard,” Grabill said. “But the competitiveness came back and I think I’m just more motivated than I was before.”

The perseverance that Grabill possesses is evident, as the redshirt sophomore has been one of Oregon’s top-three finishers in each of its three races this season. At the Portland State Viking Classic in early September — her first race back — Grabill ran 16:10 over three miles, good enough for a second-place overall finish.

Abbey Leonardi was a scorer on last year’s NCAA championship squad and finished in the top-20 overall at both the Boston College Invitational and this past weekend’s Bill Dellinger Invitational.

Maggie Schmaedick, a Eugene native, finished second on the team in Boston and closely behind Grabill and Leonardi this past weekend in Springfield.

Led by Patrignelli and a pack of talented underclassmen, this is a completely different Oregon team than the one that captured its third NCAA championship. But despite a new cast at the forefront for the Ducks, the vision remains the same.

“It’s a whole new set of girls, but we have the same mentality,” Patrignelli said. “Coach Johnson always says, ‘Just be Oregon,’ so that’s just what we’re doing. We have enormous potential and just watching everyone grow and improve everyday, I think we can do some pretty big things. At the end of the day, we’re still Oregon and we’re still going to have the same goals that we’ve always had.”

Week six of the college football season featured several close conference matchups and the aftermath was presented in this morning’s AP poll.

The top five remained unchanged, with Alabama receiving 55 of 60 first-place votes for the second consecutive week. The other five votes were awarded to No. 2 Oregon. Clemson, Ohio State and Stanford make up the remainder of the top five (in that order), with the Buckeyes and Cardinal prevailing in tough conference matchups against Northwestern and Washington, respectively. Northwestern dropped three spots to No. 19 and Washington dropped one spot to No. 16.

Florida State leapfrogged Louisville and Georgia to the No. 6 spot in the poll after its 63-0 thrashing of Maryland, who predictably fell out of the top 25. Georgia fell to No. 7 after needing overtime to knock off Tennessee.

UCLA and Oklahoma flip-flopped, with UCLA seizing the No. 11 spot in the polls and Oklahoma falling to No. 12. The Bruins held off Utah by a score of 34-27 in the Thursday night game, while the Sooners escaped with a 20-17 win over TCU.

Minus Jadeveon Clowney, South Carolina topped Kentucky 35-28 and subsequently dropped one spot to No. 14. Miami moved up one spot to No. 13 after beating Georgia Tech 45-30.

Baylor jumped two spots to No. 15 after its 73-42 shootout with West Virginia, while Florida and Michigan each moved up one spot to No. 17 and No. 18. Fresno State moved up two spots to No. 21 after a 61-14 shellacking of Idaho.

Cracking the top 25 was Northern Illinois, Virginia Tech and Missouri, who are ranked 23rd, 24th and 25th in that order. Joining Maryland on its way out of the top 25 were Arizona State and Ole Miss.

Next Saturday will mark the second game against a top-five team in as many weeks for Washington, and ESPN’s College GameDay will be there to preview the action.

Less than 12 hours after coming up just short in Saturday’s clash at Stanford, ESPN announced that GameDay will be aired from Seattle when the Huskies play Oregon.

The Huskies will look to rebound after their 31-28 loss in Palo Alto, Calif., which dropped their record to 4-1. Oregon defeated Colorado by a tally of 57-16 on Saturday, advancing them to 5-0 this season. The Ducks are coming off their fifth consecutive game of scoring 50 points and will make their bid to extend that streak to six, which would tie the NCAA record for most 50-point games in a row. The most recent team to boast such a streak was Oklahoma in 2008.

This is the first time that College GameDay has come to Washington and the Huskies are 0-3 in GameDay appearances. Washington lost to No. 2 Nebraska in 1998, to No. 13 Michigan in 2002 and to No. 3 Ohio State in 2003.

On the other hand, Oregon is 10-6 when appearing on GameDay, with their most recent appearance being in Eugene before last year’s loss to No. 14 Stanford. They are 4-1 in road appearances on GameDay.

The show begins at 6 a.m. PT, with the game kickoff to follow at 1 p.m. PT on Fox Sports 1.

Led once again by freshman Edward Cheserek, the Oregon men took home its second team win in as many weeks on Saturday at the Bill Dellinger Invitational.

There were approximately 1,500 in attendance on a warm and sunny Saturday at the Springfield Country Club that watched Washington junior Aaron Nelson distance himself from the rest of the pack shortly after the first mile.

Nelson maintained a lead as large as 16 seconds with less than a mile to go and Cheserek made a strong finishing push, but finished five seconds behind Nelson, who navigated the 8,000-meter course in 23 minutes and 55 seconds.

For Cheserek, it was never about catching Nelson, but about his team’s performance.

“Oh yeah, I’m happy,” Cheserek said when asked about how the race played out. “I did exactly what the goal was, which was to run as a team. Our one focus was to run as a team and go for the win as a team.”

For much of the race, Cheserek ran alongside teammate Parker Stinson, who bounced back from a disappointing race last week at the Boston College Invitational to finish fourth place overall at Springfield with a time of 24:17.

“I’m really happy with today,” Stinson said. “Sometimes you get really bummed out like after last race in Boston, but at the end of the day, training’s been going good and I’m healthy. I’ve been injured before and it’s a much worse place to be.”

Following Stinson was junior Daniel Winn, who finished in sixth place with a time of 24:22. Clocking in four seconds later at 24:26 to round out the top-ten overall finishers was sophomore Matthew Melancon. Junior Ryan Pickering finished 16th overall in 24:39 and was the fifth Ducks scorer.

The race started off in slight chaos, when a handful of runners took a tumble on the initial straightaway. Oregon junior Jeramy Elkaim appeared to be one of the runners to fall victim to the hectic start, as he ran the rest of the race with visible streaks of dirt on the back of his jersey and finished in 40th place overall.

Head coach Robert Johnson, in his ninth season with the team and second season at the helm, elaborated on his instructions to Cheserek and the rest of the team.

“We wanted to have control of our effort, get out early and then just try to stay together and stay as a pack. That’s exactly what we’ve been preaching to them all week long,” Johnson said.

Johnson’s strategy worked well, as Oregon edged out Boise State by a score of 32 to 39.

Once again, it was senior Megan Patrignelli coming through to lead the Oregon women, who finished second in the team scoring to a strong Washington squad that managed to place five runners in the top 13 overall.

For the third time in as many races this season, Patrignelli was the first Duck to stop the clock, finishing the 5,000-meter race sixth overall with a time of 16:57.

Molly Grabill, Abbey Leonardi and Maggie Schmaedick stuck close together for the majority of the race and finished 14th through 16th, all within four seconds of each other. Grabill was the first of the trio to cross the finish line at 17:20, while Leonardi and Schmaedick followed in 17:23 and 17:24, respectively.

Senior Sarah Penney rounded out Oregon’s top-five scorers in 18th place with a time of 17:34.

Similar to the men, the Oregon women came into the race with a plan to stick together and run as a pack.

“I felt not as good as I felt last week, but I thought it was a solid day,” Patrignelli said. “I think we did a good job in the beginning of the race, staying together. But we can still do a lot better.”

Coming off a trip to Boston last weekend, Patrignelli indicated that the team was a bit fatigued, but Coach Johnson was pleased with the women’s performance on Saturday.

“It was a good, hard effort from those girls. It’s tough going back-to-back weekends. That’s what we did to try to simulate the championship season. They handled it pretty well, so we’ll see what happens when we go to Pre-Nationals.”

In the women’s team scoring, Washington scored 30 points to top second-place Oregon, who finished with 52 points.

On October 19, Oregon will travel to Terre Haute, Ind. — the site of the NCAA Championships — to run at the NCAA Pre-Nationals. Many of the teams expected to qualify for the NCAA Championships in November will run at Pre-Nationals, making it a preview of sorts for the championship meet.

In the Thursday night game, UCLA’s defense was able to hold off a late Utah charge to secure a 34-27 win in Salt Lake City. While Oregon travels to Colorado on Saturday, the Pac-12 has just three other matchups on tap. Here’s a preview of the action.

Washington State (3-2) @ California (1-3)

1:00 p.m. PT, Fox Sports 1

Each team looks to rebound from beatings taken last week at the hands of the Pac-12’s elite. Washington State is coming off a 55-17 defeat at home against Stanford and California is still seeking to dry off after their 55-16 loss in the downpour at Autzen Stadium. This will be a teacher-versus-student affair on the sidelines, as California head coach Sonny Dykes was an assistant coach under Mike Leach from 2000 to 2006 at Texas Tech. On the field, it will be “Air Raid” pitted against “Bear Raid,” as Washington State and California are both among the Pac-12 leaders in passing yards and passing attempts. Dykes announced on Thursday that Jared Goff would get the start at quarterback for the Golden Bears despite speculation earlier this week that Zach Kline – who relieved Goff last week in Eugene – might get the nod.

No. 22 Arizona State (3-1) @ Notre Dame (3-2)

4:30 p.m. PT, NBC

Arizona State’s offense is clicking. Led by quarterback Taylor Kelly, the Sun Devils are coming off a 62-point effort against what was thought to be an improving USC defense. Kelly ranks third in the FBS with 342.5 passing yards per game and should look for wide receiver Jaelen Strong early and often, as the junior-college transfer leads the team with 31 catches for 433 yards. The Fighting Irish, coming off 220 rushing yards in last week’s loss to Oklahoma, will look to exploit a weak Arizona State run defense. Junior running back George Atkinson III eclipsed the century mark on the ground for just the second time in his career last week against the Sooners and is averaging 7.1 yards per attempt this season. This “home” game for Notre Dame will be contested at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas as a part of the Fighting Irish’s Shamrock Series.

No. 15 Washington (4-0) @ No. 5 Stanford (4-0)

7:30 p.m. PT, ESPN/WatchESPN

In the prospective game of the week, Washington looks to earn its spot at the BCS contenders table in a tough road matchup. The Huskies feature a balanced offensive attack, headed by senior quarterback Keith Price. Price has completing 72.3 percent of his passes this season and thrown just two interceptions, but will face his biggest test of the season against Stanford’s stingy defense. During last season’s upset victory over the Cardinal, Washington loaded the box and forced quarterback Josh Nunes to beat them – something he failed to do. Kevin Hogan has proved that he can pick apart defenses when they attempt to negate the running game, such as last week against Washington State. The Cougars challenged Stanford to beat them through the air and Hogan did just that, throwing for 286 passing yards and three touchdowns. Expect Hogan to hook up with his wideouts on plenty of vertical routes should the Huskies load the box.

The past two men’s cross country seasons have been disappointing by Oregon standards, but with a talented crop of freshmen and the addition of a promising transfer, this year’s squad has the potential to challenge the nation’s best teams come November’s NCAA championship.

The 2011 Oregon men failed to qualify for the NCAA Championships for the first time since 2005, ending a streak of five consecutive top-six team finishes, including back-to-back national championships in 2007 and 2008. At last year’s NCAA championship race, the Oregon men faded to a 20th-place finish and graduated their only top 50 finisher, Trevor Dunbar.

However, true freshmen Edward Cheserek and Jake Leingang, who finished one-two at this past weekend’s Boston College Invitational provide plenty of hope.

Cheserek was arguably the nation’s premier distance recruit this year, boasting a list of high school accolades headed by two Foot Locker national cross country titles. The Kenyan-born prodigy out of Newark, N.J. was named the 2013 Gatorade National Cross Country Runner of the Year and holds the national indoor high school two-mile record of 8 minutes and 39 seconds — a record that had previously stood at 8 minutes and 40 seconds for 49 years.

Leingang was able to net two top five Foot Locker championship finishes himself — securing a fourth-place finish in 2011 and a third-place performance in 2012.

Head coach Robert Johnson was excited to see the freshmen duo perform well in their first collegiate race, but stressed that he doesn’t feel the need to put too much weight on their shoulders.

“To see them go out and be in their first collegiate race with that big ‘O’ on their chest, that’s huge,” Johnson said.

Eric Jenkins, a junior transfer from Northeastern University who is projected to be one the Ducks’ top runners, was absent from last weekend’s race in Boston. Jenkins is coming off a strong outdoor track season in which he became the youngest American to ever run sub-13:20 for 5,000 meters.

Seniors Parker Stinson and Mac Fleet are both expected to play substantial roles despite disappointing performances at last year’s NCAA Championship. Stinson is a three-time All-American and capable of placing as one of the Ducks’ top harriers, and Fleet is coming off a strong outdoor track season capped by an NCAA 1,500-meter title.

Sophomore Matthew Melancon along with juniors Ryan Pickering, Jeramy Elkaim and Daniel Winn should all be in the mix for the Ducks. Pickering finished fourth overall at Boston College, with Melancon, Eklaim and Winn finishing 7-8-9, all within nine seconds of the winner’s pace.

The Ducks’ incredible depth was exemplified this past weekend by the domination of a quality field without the help of Jenkins, Fleet and an 18th place overall finish by Stinson.

“It really speaks a lot,” Melancon said. “Parker didn’t have the best race, but we all ran well. It’s that sort of thing where one person doesn’t have a great race, but the rest of the team steps up and takes (their) place. I think that really says a lot about how strong we are this year and how good we can be.”

On Saturday, the Ducks host the eighth annual Bill Dellinger Invitational at the Springfield Country Club. The men’s 8,000-meter race starts at 10:30 a.m. and the women’s 5,000-meter race is scheduled to start at 11:15 a.m.