Oklahoma No. 1 in AP Football Poll

Watch out No. 1 Oklahoma, the Florida schools are closing in. <br><br>The Sooners (9-0), the nation's only major unbeaten team, remained atop The Associated Press Top 25 for the third straight week

Monday, November 13th 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

Watch out No. 1 Oklahoma, the Florida schools are closing in.

The Sooners (9-0), the nation's only major unbeaten team, remained atop The Associated Press Top 25 for the third straight week with Miami, Florida State and Florida running 2-3-4.

The final ballot count Sunday had Oklahoma with 70 first-place votes and 1,774 points from the 71 sports writers and broadcasters on the AP panel. Oklahoma rallied for a 35-31 victory over Texas A&M on Saturday.

Miami (8-1), a 35-7 winner over Pittsburgh, held the No. 2 spot with 1,690 points; No. 3 Florida State (10-1) had one first-place vote and 1,629 points following a 35-6 win over Wake Forest; and Florida (9-1) moved up a spot to No. 4 with 1,551 points after a 41-21 win over South Carolina.

The winner of Saturday's Florida-Florida State game will continue on the road toward a national title, while the loser likely drops out of contention.

Several upsets caused a shuffling of other Top 25 teams, with Kansas State (9-2) rising seven places to No. 9 after a 29-28 win over Nebraska (8-2), which tumbled six spots to No. 10. Purdue fell eight spots to No. 17 with a 30-10 loss to Michigan State, and Northwestern, beaten by Iowa 27-17, tumbled 11 places to No. 23.

Oregon (9-1) moved up a notch to No. 5 after a 25-17 win over California, followed by No. 6 Washington, No. 7 Virginia Tech, No. 8 Oregon State, No. 9 Kansas State and No. 10 Nebraska.

The top five in the USA Today/ESPN coaches poll were Oklahoma, Miami, Florida State, Florida and Washington.

Notre Dame (7-2), a 28-16 winner over Boston College, remained No. 11 in the AP poll, followed by No. 12 Ohio State, No. 13 Mississippi State, No. 14 Texas, No. 15 TCU, No. 16 Clemson, No. 17 Purdue, No. 18 Auburn, No. 19 Michigan and No. 20 Georgia Tech.

Texas A&M, despite its loss to Oklahoma, moved up two places to No. 21, followed by No. 22 Georgia, No. 23 Northwestern, No. 24 Southern Mississippi and No. 25 South Carolina.

The Bowl Championship Series standings, which determine the teams that will play in a national title game in the Orange Bowl on Jan. 3, will be released Monday, with Oklahoma expected to remain in first place and either Florida State or Miami in second.