on the SIDELINES

It's just the second tie for No. 2 college football in the history of The Associated Press media poll. The other was Nov. 3, 1991, when Miami and Washington were tied behind No. 1 Florida State.\nThat year, the Hurricanes and Huskies eventually shared the national title. Miami finished No. 1 in the AP poll and Washington took the top spot in the coaches poll.\nAuburn and Oklahoma each received 1,536 points. The Tigers got six first-place votes and the Sooners received eight. Last week, Oklahoma led Auburn by 43 points and had 10 first-place votes to the Tigers' three.\nBut Auburn made a convincing case Saturday against Georgia. The Tigers beat the Bulldogs 24-6, a loss that dropped Georgia three spots to No. 11.\nThe Sooners beat Nebraska 30-3 Saturday night, but it was probably their close calls the previous two weeks against Oklahoma State and Texas A&M that left the voters questioning Oklahoma's credentials.\nThe Sooners beat the Cowboys by three and the Aggies by seven, playing poorly on defense in each game.\nOklahoma is still No. 2 in the ESPN/USA Today coaches poll, just two points ahead of Auburn.\nThe next thing to change could be the Bowl Championship Series standings, which come out Monday.\nThe polls count for two-thirds of the BCS grades. Computer rankings make up the other third.\nAuburn has been third behind USC and Oklahoma in the BCS the last two weeks.\nUSC is still a comfortable No. 1 in the AP Top 25 with 1,608 points and 51 first-place votes.\nCalifornia is No. 4 and Utah is No. 5.\nThe unbeaten Utes moved up two key spots from No. 7, taking advantage of a loss by previously unbeaten Wisconsin and a closer-than-expected victory by Texas over Kansas.\nUtah is trying to become the first team from a non-BCS conference to earn a bid to one of the four big-money bowl games. A sixth-place finish in the BCS standings will guarantee the Utes a place in the BCS.\nWisconsin dropped five places to No. 9 and Texas remained sixth.