AP College Football Poll 2012: Winners and Losers from Week 6

The latest Associated Press poll has been released—which you can see here—and it's the first time this year that there is an overall No. 1 team in the country. 

We'll get to that team later on in the winner's section. However, there are a number of other teams who won and lost in the latest poll. 

There are some teams that made their entrance, either back in the poll or for the first time this year, and others that fell out. 

Here are the winners and losers of the sixth AP poll. 

Winner: No. 23 Washington Huskies

Washington made its first appearance in the AP poll after its upset victory over Stanford. The win vaulted Washington into the No. 23 spot on the poll over some other deserving teams like Cincinnati, Texas A&M and Louisiana Tech. 

However, the voters in the poll decided that the Huskies' win over a top-10 Stanford team was good enough to vote them into the latest poll. 

Let's see how Washington reacts to being in the Top 25. Washington's next game has them traveling to Eugene to play the Oregon Ducks. 

Loser: No. 17 Oklahoma Sooners

Last week, Oklahoma took a tumble down in the polls from No. 6 to No. 16 after a loss to Kansas State. However, this week, the Sooners didn't even play, and they still fell in the polls to No. 17.

The Sooners will have a chance to move back up in the polls next week if they can defeat the high-powered offense of Texas Tech. Tech has built a strong resume through its four games this year. They're 4-0 and have been steadily creeping back into the Top 25 of the AP poll. 

However, if they lose, you can expect to see OU drop completely out of the polls. 

Winner: No. 3 Florida State Seminoles

The Seminoles got a huge boost in the polls when they leaped the LSU Tigers for the No. 3 spot in the poll. 

Even with Florida State having a tough time putting away South Florida, it still had a better game than the Tigers did against Towson. Plus, Florida State had to travel to Tampa Bay to play South Florida while LSU had Towson come to its stadium to play.

Florida State may have a stranglehold on the No. 3 spot, as the next time it plays a ranked opponent isn't until its last game of the season against Florida. 

Loser: No. 4 LSU Tigers

For the second straight week, the LSU Tigers took a tumble in the AP poll. Last week, they went from No. 2 to No. 3 after they struggled to put points on the board against Auburn.

This week, they struggled again. 

Except this time, it wasn't the offense's inability to score; it was the defense that couldn't keep Towson out of its end zone. 

LSU is a good team that still could finish the regular season atop the AP poll. However, for now, they are losers who keep on winning, but falling in the poll. 

Winner: No. 7 Kansas State Wildcats

Yes, I know that the Kansas State Wildcats were idle this week and didn't move up in the polls, but they are still winners, because the voters didn't move them back after what the team behind them—then-No. 9 West Virginia Mountaineers—did to Baylor. 

The voters could have voted the fellow Big 12 conference member above the Wildcats, but instead, kept the two teams at their respected spots. 

Good for the voters and good for the Wildcats for staying put at No. 7. 

Loser: No. 24 Northwestern Wildcats

The Northwestern Wildcats enter the AP poll for the first time this season—but at No. 24, they are losers this week. 

And why is that?

Because they were voted behind a Washington Huskies team that had an impressive victory over Stanford, yet still has one loss compared to Northwestern's perfect record.

This should not have happened, as the Wildcats' 5-0 start to their 2012 season should have been enough to keep them above the one-loss Huskies. 

Instead, Northwestern doesn't have that marquee win like Washington does. 

The Wildcats will not get a chance to have that "sexy" win until Oct. 20, when they host Nebraska. 

Winner: No. 1 Alabama Crimson Tide

Alabama is the biggest winner in the latest poll, and it didn't even move up in rank. Instead, what the Crimson Tide did was dominate another team while separating itself from the rest of the teams in the Top 25. 

Before this week, Alabama had to share the 60 first-place votes since the first preseason poll. However, after LSU's poor play against Towson and Alabama's blowout over Ole Miss, the Crimson Tide have every voter's first-place vote. 

Alabama is at the top of the poll this week, and with the way they are playing, it should continue to look that way until the final regular-season poll in December. 

Loser: No. 18 Stanford Cardinal

The biggest loser in the latest AP poll is the Stanford Cardinal. Stanford's disappointing loss on the road at Washington sent the Cardinal spiraling from No. 8 down to No. 18. 

That 10-spot drop was the biggest fall for any team that remained in the poll. 

Maybe the loss was because they were spent after the huge win over USC the week before or maybe because they looked past a 2-1 Huskies team.

Either way, it was a mental lapse that moved them out of the top 10 and almost out of the top 20. 

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