While Southern California and Florida are among the marquee schools that have paid a price in one of college football's most topsy-turvy seasons, the University of Hawai'i is quietly reaping the benefits of the upheaval.

The Warriors vaulted three spots to No. 14 in the latest Bowl Championship Series standings yesterday, two removed from the magic 12th position on Dec. 2 that would guarantee a lucrative berth in a BCS postseason game. A top-16 finish — if higher than the champion of one of the six guaranteed conferences — would also earn UH a berth.

The Warriors (8-0), one of five remaining unbeatens among the 119 major college teams, made their biggest move of the season on the combined strength of a 50-13 clobbering of New Mexico State and losses by four of the five teams immediately above them in last week's standings.

"All the attrition has helped Hawai'i tremendously," said Jerry Palm, whose Web site, www.CollegeBCS.com, closely parallels the BCS standings. "They are much higher in the (BCS standings) than they had any right to expect, even by the end of the season, let alone the end of October."

Two weeks ago Palm estimated UH's chances of cracking the top 12 at "50/50" by season's end. Yesterday, he said, "Now, they have a pretty good chance of getting in, if they win out."

Western Athletic Conference commissioner Karl Benson said, "we have to be pretty pleased where they are at this point. If they continue to win and have convincing victories, they are going to get there (12th)."

All of which has been accomplished, to this point, without a victory over a team that has a winning record. "None of them in the top 100, probably," Benson acknowledged.

While the Warriors are off to a 5-0 WAC start, the landscape around them is more thinned out than last year. At the same point in 2006, Palm said there were 17 schools with one loss or less. This season, Palm counts 10.

USC (6-2), Kentucky (6-3), Virginia (7-2) and South Carolina (6-3) — all of whom were above UH in the Nos. 12-16 spots in last week's BCS standings — lost. Florida (5-3) was 11th, and also lost. Now all trail UH.

Meanwhile, five-time WAC champion Boise State (7-1) made its first appearance of the season in the BCS Top 25 at No. 22. Benson said he believes it is the highest two teams from the conference have been ranked in the BCS during the same week.

UH and Boise State meet Nov. 23 at Aloha Stadium in the WAC regular-season finale, a game that will be shown nationally on ESPN2.

UH moved to its highest national poll ranking ever, No. 10 in the Harris Interactive poll. UH is 11th in the USA Today Coaches poll and 12th in the Associated Press media poll.

The Warriors have an open date this week before hosting Fresno State Nov. 10.