USC’s strong defensive performance in a 24-3 victory over Oregon State on Saturday evening was enough to convince AP voters to move the Trojans up one spot in this week’s poll, from 13th to 12th. The Trojans held at #15 in the USA Today coaches’ poll, and actually fell one spot to #14 in the Harris poll. This week’s BCS standings will be revealed later this afternoon.

Saturday’s victory also moved USC into a third-place tie in the Pac-10 standings. Oregon holds the top spot at 5-1, and their win Saturday over second-place Arizona State (also 5-1) helped the Ducks move to #3 in all three major polls. (ASU fell to ninth in each poll.) The Trojans, of course, will play ASU later in the month, and will also take on fellow third-place team UCLA at the end of the season. Thus, if the Trojans win out, they can finish no worse than second in the conference, but they could only pass Oregon for first place if the Ducks were to lose two of their final three conference games. This weekend, USC heads to Berkeley to take on the California Golden Bears, who have re-entered the AP poll (at #24) and the Harris poll (#25) after Saturday night’s win over Washington State snapped the Bears’ three-game losing streak.

Week 11 College Football Polls (Yahoo!)