By USA Today

When is a win not a win?

Florida State rallied for a road victory at North Carolina State, but lost ground on enough ballots to be overtaken by Alabama in the new Amway Coaches Poll.

The Seminoles retained 26 of 62 first-place votes to Alabama's 15. But the Crimson Tide, who had the weekend off, had a big edge in second-place votes with 32 to the Seminoles' 11. Florida State did pick up 13 No. 3 votes to Alabama's nine, but the Seminoles were also ranked fourth or lower on 12 ballots, with one coach voting them eighth.

Florida State had been No. 1 since Week 15 of last season.

Florida State, however, stayed at No. 1 in The Associated Press college football poll after a second straight comeback victory, but support for the Seminoles is waning.

Florida State received 27 first-place votes, seven fewer than last week. No. 2 Oregon and No. 3 Alabama both had 13 first-place votes.

There was little movement throughout the AP rankings, with the first seven teams holding their spots. That could change next week when six games match ranked teams, including three SEC games.

Alabama visits No. 11 Mississippi; No. 6 Texas A&M goes to No. 12 Mississippi State; and No. 5 Auburn hosts No. 15 LSU.

The next six positions remained unchanged in the Coaches poll despite another close call.

No. 7 Texas A&M rallied to down Arkansas in overtime to retain its spot in the rankings. No. 3 Oklahoma and No.4 Oregon, both of whom also had byes, stayed put with the Sooners claiming 14 first-place votes and the Ducks the remaining seven. No. 5 Auburn, No. 6 Baylor and No. 8 Notre Dame held serve with victories.

Stock up: UCLA. It was only one place, but it was an important one for the No. 9 Bruins, who edged back ahead of Michigan State. UCLA is now ranked ahead of all one-loss teams on the strength of its impressive Thursday night performance at ...

Stock down: Arizona State. The Sun Devils, on the short end of the 62-27 thrashing at the hands of the Bruins, tumbled 12 places. But at least ASU held on to a ranking at No.24.

Stock up: LSU. The Tigers had no trouble with New Mexico State and vaulted three places to No. 15. The move enabled LSU to leapfrog No. 16 Wisconsin, logical since the Tigers own a head-to-head victory against the Badgers from opening day.

Winning is a habit, as Texas A&M shows and Arkansas is reminded

Stock down: Michigan State. It wasn't really the Spartans' fault. They handled a good Wyoming squad with relative ease but still slipped a place behind UCLA to No. 10.

Stock up: East Carolina. The Pirates had the weekend off but benefited from some upsets near the back end of the top 25 to check in at No. 21, up three places.

Stock down: South Carolina. The Gamecocks' come-from-ahead loss to Missouri cost them their place in the top 25, sliding all the way out from their No. 15 perch from last week.

New kids on the block: No.23 Oklahoma State, No.25 TCU.

College dropouts: South Carolina, Duke.