Southern California is now a no-doubt-about-it No. 1 in The Associated Press Top 25, and there's a new No. 2 as Georgia slipped again.

The Trojans' resounding 35-3 victory against Ohio State on Saturday night made USC an overwhelming No. 1 in the media poll. USC received 61 first-place votes and 1,596 points yesterday. The Trojans had 33 first-place votes last week.

Oklahoma moved past Georgia into No. 2. The Bulldogs barely got past South Carolina, 14-7, on Saturday and the Sooners notched their third consecutive blowout victory, winning 55-14 at Washington.

Georgia is the first preseason No. 1 to drop that far after starting 3-0 since Oklahoma in 1985. The Sooners also fell to No. 3 after winning their first three games.

The Bulldogs received two first-place votes this week. No. 4 Florida received the other first-place vote and Missouri moved up a spot to No. 5.

Ohio State dropped eight spots to No. 13.

No. 6 was LSU, followed by Texas, Wisconsin, Alabama and Auburn. Half the top 10 teams are from the Southeastern Conference.

The top 8 teams in the USA Today Top 25 coaches' poll were identical to the AP poll.

Two Pac-10 teams dropped out of the rankings after losing: California and Arizona State.

Clemson moved back into the rankings. The Tigers started the season ranked ninth and fell all the way out after losing their opener, 34-10, to Alabama, and returned as No. 23.

Florida State also moved into the Top 25 for the first time since the middle of last season. The Seminoles were No. 24.

Texas Tech is No. 11, followed by South Florida, Ohio State, BYU and East Carolina, which slipped one spot to No. 15 after squeaking past Tulane, 28-24, in its first game as a ranked team since 1999.

Penn State was No. 16 and Oregon was 17th, followed by Wake Forest, Kansas and Utah.

The final five were West Virginia, Illinois, Clemson, Florida State and Fresno State, which lost, 13-10, to Wisconsin.

NOTRE DAME

WEIS PUTS OFF SURGERY

Notre Dame coach Charlie Weis will wait to decide whether to have surgery after tearing ligaments in his knee when a player crashed into him on the sideline during the game Saturday against Michigan.

"I don't see me having surgery in the foreseeable future," he said yesterday.

Weis said surgery is not needed on his torn medial collateral ligament, saying it has to "tighten up" on its own. He said he could need surgery on his anterior cruciate ligament, but he would wait at least until Notre Dame's off week in mid-October or until after the season if he has surgery at all.

He was injured with about 3:30 left in the second quarter and the host Irish leading, 28-17. Weis was standing at the 50 looking to his right on a punt when Notre Dame defensive end John Ryan, who is 6 foot 5, 264 pounds, was knocked out of bounds by a Michigan blocker and crashed into Weis. Weis collapsed and his left knee bent awkwardly.

Weis stayed on the ground briefly before being helped up, but used crutches with his leg in a wrap so he could stay on the sideline.