College Football Rankings, Week 13: No Major Movement for the SEC -- But Is That Duke?

There were no earth-shattering shakeups in the SEC this weekend, despite Auburn and South Carolina's collective attempt to allow Mizzou to waltz into the SEC Championship Game, so the rankings shouldn't change much. And they really don't.

Once again, we begin with reason and sanity. Or at least as much reason and sanity as the beat writers can muster for the AP poll.

DUKE IS RANKED. DUKE! Stay calm and rank Duke, or something. That right there gives you a little bit of an idea of just how bizarre the season has been. Also, Southern Cal is back, which is both infuriating and understandable, and might at least have the pleasant side effect of keeping Ed Orgeron gainfully employed in Los Angeles for a while. Probably not, but a man can dream. Also, Baylor finally passes Ohio State to become the next in line for No. 2 if Florida State should be defeated by Idaho or, less likely, Florida. Or perhaps by Coastal Division Champion Duke in the ACC Championship Game.

As far as the SEC goes: Still four in the Top 10, with South Carolina hurting the cause in its less-than-stellar showing against Florida. Auburn, Missouri and Texas A&M all move up one spot following the Stanford loss, with South Carolina dropping a place for the narrow win against Florida. Which really shouldn't bother Gamecock fans that much; how they do against Clemson and the SEC West winner, if they make Atlanta, is going to say a lot more about their final ranking than where they stand right now.

LSU stands pat, and Ole Miss makes the poll as a replacement for Georgia, so the SEC stands pat at a seven teams among the Top 25. Which is pretty good.

Now, the coaches poll. And I'm not even going to bother hammering the UCF-Louisville thing anymore, because it's wasted pixels at this point.

Ole Miss doesn't make the poll here, but Georgia didn't make it last week, so there's no change in the SEC only getting six teams in the coaches' Top 25. But Stanford slides seven and the coaches are nice and decide not to punish South Carolina, so the Gamecocks are actually one spot closer to the Top 10 in this poll. Texas A&M does move into the Top 10, so there are now four teams there in both measures. And LSU falls because the bye week performance wasn't impressive enough, I guess.

The more interesting movement here is that Fresno State falls one place and loses a net one spot of its lead on UCF. For now, it's not enough to cost the Bulldogs their place in the BCS, but it puts them at No. 16 -- the bare minimum -- and gives the Knights the most outside of outside chances at getting past Fresno. That would recast the entire BCS, but would likely have only minimal impact on the conference battle for the Sugar Bowl, since Auburn probably gained the inside track for the SEC spot in that game.

All of that, though, will become much clearer when the BCS numbers are reviewed in a few hours. For now, expect Fresno to remain in position to claim the ranking it needs to stay in the big-money games.