Aggies meet Cowboys in Stillwater

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02/21/2007 - Stillwater, OK (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The eighth-ranked Texas A&M Aggies have made the trip to Stillwater for a Big 12 Conference clash with the Oklahoma State Cowboys.

Texas A&M has won six of its last seven games to move to 22-4 overall and 10-2 in conference action, as the club continues to battle Kansas for league supremacy. The Aggies were last in action on Saturday when they beat Oklahoma in Norman by a 56-49 final. At 6-2 this season in true road games, don't expect A&M to be intimidated this evening.

At one point, Oklahoma State appeared to be one of the nation's best teams, but the squad is now fighting for NCAA Tournament consideration with a 5-6 Big 12 record. The Cowboys have lost two straight games and four of their last five, including a 75-64 setback to Missouri on Saturday.

Texas A&M cruised to a 67-49 victory over Oklahoma State back on January 20th, overshadowing the fact that the Cowboys own a 26-10 advantage in the all-time series between the teams.

Joseph Jones and Acie Law led the way for Texas A&M in the victory over Oklahoma on Saturday, as both standouts scored 21 points. Jones led the team with nine rebounds, while Law dished out seven assists against only two turnovers. Strong defense was key to the victory for the Aggies, as they held the Sooners to 34 percent shooting from the field. A 13-6 edge in points from the foul line also helped the cause. Law is scoring 17.0 ppg this season on 51 percent shooting from the floor, including 44.4 percent accuracy from three-point range. He has also handed out 143 assists with 70 turnovers and leads the team with 35 steals as well. Jones checks in with 13.5 ppg and 6.5 rpg, while Josh Carter is scoring 12.1 ppg on the strength of his staggering 51.1 percent accuracy from behind the arc. Antanas Kavaliauskas is also netting 12.1 ppg, and he is grabbing 6.2 rpg. The Aggies are netting 75.3 ppg on 50 percent shooting from the field, and they are holding foes to 56.5 ppg on 36.3 percent efficiency.

Mario Boggan continues to pace Oklahoma State with 20.8 ppg and 7.9 rpg, and he is one of the elite players in the Big 12 Conference. The top backcourt performer for the Cowboys is JamesOn Curry, as he supplies 18.1 ppg to go along with his 94 assists. The biggest problem for the Cowboys is that they are allowing 77.5 ppg in conference play. On Saturday, they permitted Missouri to shoot 50 percent from the floor, including a 10-of-18 effort from three-point range. Unfortunately, Oklahoma State was only able to connect on 40.8 percent of its own field goal attempts, including a 2- of-10 showing from behind the arc. If not for a 22-9 advantage in points from the foul line, the final score would have been even more lopsided. Curry and Boggan scored 16 points apiece in defeat.

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NCAA Football Betting : USC's reward: Top spot in Top 25

NEW YORK (AP) -By staying away from the cupcakes, Southern California earned itself a slim new ranking.

No. 1 always seems to fit USC.

Southern California jumped two spots to No. 1 in The Associated Press Top 25 on Tuesday, rewarded by voters for opening the season with a dominant performance on the road against a BCS conference opponent.

Georgia and Ohio State, the preseason Nos. 1 and 2, respectively, started their seasons with glorified scrimmages at home against FCS (formerly I-AA) teams. USC, however, traveled across country to face Virginia and could not have been more impressive in a 52-7 victory.

Georgia fell to No. 2 and Ohio State to No 3.

"We realize that rankings so early in a season are certainly fluid. But rankings do help establish a pecking order for things later in the season," USC coach Pete Carroll said in a statement. "As for moving into the No. 1 spot, it's nice to know that people think highly of our team."

Since reaching No. 1 on Dec. 7, 2003, the final-regular season AP poll of that season, USC has been No. 1 in 39 polls, by far the most of any team during that time.

"Some have said the voters are taking our schedule into consideration," Carroll said. "Our philosophy has always been to schedule outstanding opponents. We need to play challenging games like we just did, traveling across the country to open the season at Virginia. Games like that bring out our best and make us stronger as a team."

The latest voting was close. USC received 21 first-place votes and 1,539 points from the 65-member media panel. Georgia had 20 first-place votes and 1,506 points. Ohio State got 15 first-place votes and 1,497 points.

"I'd say we've evolved as pollsters," said Stewart Mandel of SI.com, who moved USC up to No. 1. "In the past, voters just kind of automatically moved teams up and kept teams where they were if they won."

Georgia beat Georgia Southern 45-21 on Saturday and Ohio State opened with a 43-0 win over Youngstown State.

"There's a bit of a growing backlash for the amount of teams that open with I-AA cupcakes," said Mandel, whose book "Bowls, Polls and Tattered Souls" chronicles college football's controversies. "To see a team [USC] go on the road and play a New Year's Day bowl team from last season, and not only play them but destroy them, how could you not reward that team?"

USC also jumped past Georgia to No. 1 in the USA Today coaches' poll, which has the same top five as the AP poll.

"It's definitely a privilege to be No. 1. But it's not heartbreaking to me if we drop," Georgia offensive lineman Josh Davis said. "It doesn't matter right now what we're ranked. What matters is our next game and right now, that's Central Michigan. The only time the polls matter is in December. That's when the polls matter."

While the Bulldogs opened easy, their schedule ultimately should be as difficult as any team's. Georgia's big nonconference test is at No. 15 Arizona State on Sept. 20. The Bulldogs also face six Southeastern Conference rivals that've been ranked in the first two polls.

As for Ohio State, the Buckeyes play at USC on Sept. 13 before getting into the Big Ten schedule.

But of the teams in this week's top 10, USC and Texas are the only ones that don't play an FCS opponent, and the Trojans are the only team that doesn't play a team from a non-BCS conference.

Get the latest 2009 BCS Championship odds at MySportsbook.com.

The last team to drop from No. 1 after a victory was USC last season. LSU jumped from No. 2 to No. 1 when it beat Tulane 34-9, the same week the Trojans edged Washington 27-24 on the road.

The last preseason No. 1 team to lose the top spot after winning its opening game was Florida in 2001. The Gators beat Marshall 49-14, but preseason No. 2 Miami opened with a 33-7 victory over Penn State and the Hurricanes jumped to No. 1 with Florida slipping to second.

The next four teams in the new Top 25 stayed the same: No. 4 Oklahoma (two first-place votes), No. 5 Florida (five first-place votes), No. 6 Missouri (one first-place vote), No. 7 LSU (one first-place vote) and No. 8 West Virginia.

No. 9 Auburn and No. 10 Texas each moved up a spot, taking advantage of Clemson's big drop. Clemson, ninth in the preseason, fell out after losing 34-10 to Alabama on Saturday.

Also falling out after losses were Virginia Tech, Pittsburgh and Tennessee.

Moving into the rankings were No. 21 Fresno State, No. 22 Utah, No. 23 UCLA and No. 24 South Carolina.

Alabama moved up 11 spots after its big victory over Clemson.

The second 10 started with No. 11 Wisconsin, followed by Texas Tech, Alabama and Kansas. BYU and Arizona State were tied for 15th. Rivals BYU and Utah are both ranked for the first time since 1996.

South Florida was No. 17, ahead of Oregon, Penn State and Wake Forest at No. 20.

The final five were all the teams to move into the ranking, except for Illinois, which dropped four spots and tied South Carolina for No. 24.

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