PHILADELPHIA -- Southern California and Oklahoma remained the top two teams in the Bowl Championship Series standings, while Utah dropped one spot to seventh in the rankings.

The fall to seventh could be a costly one for the undefeated Utes (9-0), who play in the Mountain West Conference. A non-BCS school must be sixth or better for an automatic berth in one of the BCS bowl games.

The Trojans (9-0) are again No. 1 as they stayed unbeaten with a come-from- behind 28-20 win at Oregon State on Saturday. Southern California, the top- ranked team in both the Associated Press writers' poll and USA Today/ESPN coaches' poll, received a score of .9847.

For the second week in a row, the Sooners (9-0) passed a major road test to remain perfect on the season. Oklahoma, which rallied from a double-digit first-half deficit, defeated the Texas A&M Aggies 42-35. The Sooners stayed second in both major polls and earned a score of .9664.

Auburn was idle on Saturday and kept a grasp on its third spot in the standings. The Tigers (9-0) are third in both polls and had a score of .9097, but face a major challenge this week as they host Georgia, which is currently eighth in the BCS.

California stayed fourth in the rankings despite a less than stellar 28-27 home win over Oregon on Saturday. The Bears (7-1) have now won four in a row since their lone loss of the season, a 23-17 setback versus USC. California, which fell one place to fifth in the AP rankings and stayed sixth in the coaches' poll, received a score of .8247.

Wisconsin (9-0) remained fifth in the BCS after pounding rival Minnesota 38-14. The Badgers, who moved up to fourth in the writers' poll and are still ranked fourth in the USA Today/ESPN poll, earned a score of .7990.

Texas (8-1) switched places with the Utes this week and moved into the top six of the BCS standings after rallying from a 28-point deficit on Saturday. The Longhorns, who posted an improbable 56-35 comeback win over Oklahoma State, are sixth in the AP poll and check in at seventh in the coaches rankings. Texas compiled a score of .7904.

Utah, despite blowing out Colorado State 63-31, fell to seventh in the standings with a score of .7511. The Utes, who are seventh in the AP rankings and eighth in the coaches' poll, are trying to become the first team from outside the six major conferences to earn a berth to one of the four major bowl games.

The champions from the Atlantic Coast Conference, Big Ten, Big 12, Big East, Pac-10 and Southeastern Conference make up six of the eight teams in the four BCS games -- the Orange, Sugar, Rose and Fiesta Bowls. The other two spots go to at-large teams.

Non-BCS conference teams are guaranteed a spot in a BCS bowl if they end up in the top six of the standings. However, to even be considered for an at-large selection, a non-BCS team must finish in the top 12.

This season, BCS officials made major changes to the ranking formula that is used to determine the top two teams that will play for the national championship in the Orange Bowl on January 4, 2005.

Under the new system, the Associated Press writers' poll, the USA Today/ESPN coaches' poll and a computer ranking system will each count for one-third of a team's overall BCS rating. Eliminated from the ranking formula for 2004 was strength of schedule and quality wins.

The computer ranking portion consists of six systems. When calculating the rankings from each one, the highest and lowest rating for a team will be discarded. From the remaining four rankings, points are assigned in inverse order from 1-25, averaged out and calculated as a percentage of 100.

For the first time, the BCS standings are listed by percentages. The higher the percentage, the higher the ranking, as opposed to the former system assigning the lowest point totals to the highest-rated teams.

Rounding out the top 10 are the aforementioned Bulldogs, Michigan and Boise State.

Completing the BCS standings are Virginia, Florida State, West Virginia, Louisville, Tennessee, Arizona State, Miami-Florida, Virginia Tech, LSU, Iowa, Texas A&M, Oklahoma State, Boston College, UTEP and Notre Dame.

Boise State (8-0) is the other unbeaten team from a non-BCS conference and moved up two places in the standings this week despite being idle. The Broncos are eligible to be considered for an at-large bid into a BCS bowl game as long as they remain in the top 12 of the rankings.

The final BCS standings will be released on Sunday, Dec. 5.