Davenport threw down a marker Saturday with a 60-12 drubbing of Bowling Green, and it's entirely clear now the Panthers are the best team in the country who are currently playing. Every team in our top five could make claims that's not true, but as of yet, not one has come close to beating high quality teams to a pulp the way Davenport has.

The warm-weather teams will begin playing soon, so we should know more about the UC-Santa Barbara, San Diego State and Stanfords of the world before too long.

Northeastern keeps routing its opponents, too, and it's becoming very difficult to ignore. We'd like to see them step out of conference in the early spring and test themselves against more varied opposition, but right now we have to trust the Huskies can play, because their record says so. Therefore, they slide ahead of Miami, BGSU and an idle Stanford.

Speaking of Miami and BGSU, the cherries and the pumpkins play an extremely important match Saturday. Neither can catch Davenport in the standings, but it's altogether possible the Mideast runner up will receive an at-large bid to the national playoffs next spring as Davenport did this spring, which would make Saturday's game a play-in.

You may notice Indiana is now ranked below Wisconsin, whom the Mudsharks beat earlier this fall. It's difficult to against head-to-head results for us, as that's the best data we have, but in this case it seems right. Indiana squeaked past a hapless Michigan State team Saturday, and since Indiana has nothing to play for, we think Wisconsin is a better team right now than the Mudsharks.

Bursting into the Top 25 this week is Texas, who beat previously ranked Texas State 44-10 Friday under the lights in Austin. The Longhorns are still retooling since losing some key players to graduation, and they've got a couple of big injuries, which means when they get healthy they could be really good.

Also entering the fray is Kansas. This is a salty bunch that has routed Truman State and Kansas State in league play and played Arkansas very tough. The Jayhawks have some veteran talent and if Arkansas falters, they could challenge for a playoff berth. Missouri, who has yet to play a single league game, is the wildcard in the Heart of America.

1 (1) Davenport  6-0  Won 60-12 over Bowling Green
2 (2) Dartmouth  7-0  Idle
3 (3) UC Santa Barbara  0-0  Idle (first game Nov. 12 vs. Cal Poly)
4 (6) Florida  4-0  Beat All-Navy team 13-5
5 (5) San Diego State  0-0  Finished second in California 7s
6 (9) Northeastern  6-0  Won 53-10 over Albany
7 (8) Stanford  0-0  Played in Stanford 10s
8 (7) Miami (OH)  3-1  Idle
9 (4) Bowling Green  5-1  Lost 60-12 to Davenport
10 (12) Wisconsin  5-1  Won 54-5 over Northern Iowa
11 (13) South Carolina  1-0  Won Palmetto tournament
12 (10) Claremont Colleges  0-0 Idle
13 (11) Indiana  3-3  Won 29-23 over Michigan State
14 (14) Sacramento State  0-0
15 (15) Minnesota  5-1  Won 21-10 over Iowa
16 (16) Maryland  2-1  Played in Halloween 7s
17 (17) Tennessee  3-2  Won 55-5 over Wake Forest
18 (20) St. Bonaventure  5-1  Won 41-3 over Buffalo
19 (Unr.) Texas  2-0 Won 44-10 over Texas State
20 (19) LSU  0-1  Idle
21 (22) Loyola Marymount 0-0 Played in California 7s (15s starts Nov. 12 vs. UCLA)
22 (23) Stony Brook  5-1  Won 33-9 over Kings Point
23 (24) Virginia Tech  1-1  Idle
24 (25) Arkansas  1-0  Idle
25 (Unr.) Kansas  2-1  Won 36-5 over Kansas State

Dropped out
(21) Oregon State  0-0  Idle
(18) Texas State  2-0  Lost 44-10 to Texas