USC’s lopsided shutout victory over Notre Dame on Saturday afternoon sent the Trojans back into the top ten in all of the major polls released Sunday. The Trojans moved up four spots to #9 in the AP poll, climbed one place to #8 in the USA Today coaches’ poll, and rose to #7 in the Harris rankings (up from #9 the previous week). The BCS standings will be released later this afternoon.

Pete Carroll’s squad will have a chance to climb even more dramatically in the coming weeks (especially in the computer rankings, which seem to factor strength of opponents more so than human voters) as they begin to take on ranked opponents, including:

• a matchup this Saturday against the Oregon Ducks, who are now at #5 in all three human polls after another strong performance Saturday against Washington.
• a game in three weeks at California, who fell to #18 in the AP and Harris polls (and #20 in the coaches’ poll) after falling to UCLA yesterday.
• a Thanksgiving-night game at Arizona State, currently ranked seventh in the AP and USA Today polls and at #8 in the Harris. The Sun Devils, who were idle yesterday, received one first-place vote in the AP poll for the second consecutive week.

Week 9 college football rankings (Fox Sports)