Rankings, College Sports | featured news

Notre Dame is No. 1 in The Associated Press college football rankings with nothing left to do but wait to find out who its opponent in the national championship game will be.

Notre Dame’s impressive win on the road against Oklahoma Saturday meant the Irish should be considered BCS championship contenders with just a month or so left in this 2012 college football regular season. Confirmation of that was unveiled Sunday night in the latest BCS standings when the Irish, previously ranked No. 5 in the BCS, jumped up two spots to take the No. 3 ranking.

LSU and Alabama are the top two teams in the country one month before their game in Tuscaloosa. The SEC West rivals held the first two spots in The Associated Press college football poll released Sunday as the second-ranked Crimson Tide jumped past No. 3 Oklahoma.

Mississippi, California and North Carolina, teams that started the season with lofty expectations before stumbling, have surged back into the AP Top 25 college football poll....