With East Carolina's upset victory over Virginia Tech on Saturday, the Pirates stormed into the Top 25 of the CBSSports.com 120.

The Pirates were ranked No. 62 in the preseason, but with their win over the Hokies and a loss by Clemson it opened up a spot for them at No. 25.

The ranking could be short-lived since the Pirates play No. 7 West Virginia this week, but a closer look a the schedule shows the Pirates might be hanging around 25-30 most of the season now. They play Tulane, N.C. State, Houston and Virginia in the coming weeks -- all winable games.

"It's a story of a group of young men that have come together and said, 'We're tired of losing. We want to accomplish something special,'" said East Carolina head coach Skip Holtz after their victory.

The Pirates weren't the only team to make a big move as Bowling Green jumped 36 spots from No. 78 to No. 42 after beating Pittsburgh on the road.

Other big movers up:

+ 27 spots -- Louisiana Tech from No. 80 to No. 53 after beating Mississippi State
+ 25 spots -- Stanford from No. 75 to No. 50 after beating Oregon State

For every team that makes a huge move up the rankings, there are always a few that make a big dive. And this week's biggest dive was Texas A&M, which lost to a Sun Belt school. The Aggies were preseason ranked No. 50 and fell all the way to No. 105. I don't think this is what new coach Mike Sherman had in mind when looking at the schedule before the season started.

Things get even rougher this week as they play at New Mexico, which has been to four bowl games in the past five years.

"Well, you know I've been in situations like this before, and I told the guys you can learn more about yourself from adversity than you even can from winning a football game," Sherman said after the game.

Dig in Aggies fans, its going to be a long season.

Other big fallers:
- 36 spots -- Pittsburgh from No. 27 to No. 63 after losing to Bowling Green
- 19 spots -- Michigan State from No. 26 to No. 45 after losing to California

Special notice: San Diego State lost to a FCS school, falling 29-27 to Cal Poly, but since the Aztecs were already ranked so low (No. 107) they didn't have too far to go and landed at No. 117.

Doing a preseason Top 25 was tough.

The top of the rankings was the easy part, but the 22-25 area was very difficult. Alot of teams deserved to be there, but I couldn't overlook Utah and Fresno State, both which I think will have fantastic seasons. But if I had a chance to go one more, it would have been Michigan State.

The Spartans lost six games last year by a margin of 7 points or less. If they can close that gap this year with a more experienced team, I expect them to be one of the better teams in the Big Ten.

With the return of 16 starters, including potential All-American Javon Ringer, along with quarterback Brian Hoyer, the Spartans offense is going to be strong. Also back are four offensive lineman tipping the scales at 300+ pounds. This should help Hoyer improve on last year's 2,725-yard, 20-TD performance last year. He was really coming on at the end of last season, but then struggled in the Champs Sports Bowl with four INTs.

The defense is very experienced and the DL gets some help with Cincinnati transfer Trevor Anderson. The secondary also has three starters back led by Kendell Davis-Clark.

I look at the schedule and see a potential 7-0 or 6-1 start -- at Cal, Eastern Michigan, FAU, Notre Dame, at Indiana, Iowa, at Northwestern -- heading into the game vs. Ohio State. The season closes tough with games at Michigan, Wisconsin, Purdue and at Penn State, but the Spartans just might be looking at an 8 or 9 win season, making them my No. 26 in the preseason.

Dennis Dodd unveiled his early, early Top 25 for next season earlier this week:

http://www.sportsline.com/collegefo
otball/story/10578831

Now I know we are jumping the gun and anything can happen (just look at this past season), but for fun, I took all the early Top 25 polls from all the major sports websites and came up with a compiled list. Here is the Top 15:

1. Georgia (3) -- 85 points
2. Oklahoma (1) -- 79 points
3. Ohio State (2) -- 76 points
4. Southern Cal. -- 69 points
5t. Missouri -- 66 points
5t. Florida -- 66 points
7. LSU -- 56 points
8. Texas -- 30 points
9. Wisconsin -- 28 points
10. West Virginia -- 27 points
11. Kansas -- 25 points
12. Clemson -- 24 points
13. Texas Tech -- 21 points
14. Virginia Tech -- 22 points
15. Auburn -- 11 points

Others: Penn State, 10; Arizona State, 9; Tennessee, 8; Illinois, 6; BYU, 2.

So how would the bowls shape up? Good thing you asked....

BCS Title: Georgia vs. Oklahoma: If the poll holds to form, here are your No. 1 and No. 2 teams.

Orange: Clemson vs. BYU? Big Ten No. 2? With the last selection of the BCS eligible teams, the Orange Bowl is going to get stuck with whoever is left. A second Big Ten team -- Wisconsin or Illinois or the non-BCS party crasher. BYU will have the best chance to earn this slot. Now if Arizona State can work its way up the rankings, they could land here too, but they would more likely go to the Fiesta Bowl, allowing the Orange to get West Virginia.

Rose: Ohio State vs. USC: Easiest one to predict -- the Big Ten Champ vs. the Pac-10 Champ.

Sugar: Florida vs. Virginia Tech: The Sugar will almost certainly take the second-best SEC team and match them up with an ACC team or the Big East champion (West Virginia)

Fiesta: Missouri vs. West Virginia: If the Big 12 champion is in the title game, the Fiesta Bowl will probably replace them with another Big 12 team. It also gets first choice in the rest of the pecking order after the replacement teams. Looking at the above compiled rankings, West Virginia is the obvious choice. Now if Arizona State/Oregon or another Big Ten team is ranked high, they will grab them, allowing West Virginia to go Orange or Sugar.