NEW YORK (AP) – Southern California and Texas flip flopped again, putting the Trojans back on top of the Bowl Championship Series standings.

USC jumped over the Longhorns on Monday, returning to first place after a one-week stay in second. It’s the first time in the eight-year history of the BCS that the top two teams in the standings switched positions in consecutive weeks.

“I’m not sure how it happened last week and I’m not sure how it happened this week,” Trojans coach Pete Carroll said. “We weren’t cheering when the new BCS ranking came out this morning. I know that. The BCS ranking is really important when you finish the season, not now.”

The margin between USC and Texas is still small – only .0038 – though up from last week when the difference between first and second in the standings was the slimmest it’s ever been.

Third-place Virginia Tech gained on the top two this week, but the Trojans and Longhorns remain on course for a Rose Bowl showdown.

The switch didn’t faze Texas.

“The sun’s going to come up tomorrow. We’ll be all right,” Texas tackle Justin Blalock said.

Coach Mack Brown said, “I don’t care. I want to be one or two.”

The top two teams in the final BCS standings play in Pasadena, Calif., on Jan. 4 for the national title.

The first five teams in the latest BCS standings are unbeaten, with Alabama fourth and UCLA moving up a spot to fifth.

“If we let ourselves start worrying about this and that, that’s the quickest way to get yourself beat,” Alabama coach Mike Shula said.

It’s the second straight season that the BCS top 10 has five unbeaten teams with five weeks to go in the regular season. Last season, Auburn became the first team from a conference with an automatic BCS bid to go undefeated in the regular season and not play in the national title game.

USC beat Oklahoma in the Orange Bowl and won the national championship. The Tigers finished 13-0 with a win in the Sugar Bowl and were ranked No. 2. Utah (12-0) also finished the season unbeaten.

“The (BCS has) got to hope there’s not more than two undefeated teams at the end or they’ve screwed up again, very honestly,” Brown said. “That’s what they’ve got to hope.”

USC has been No. 1 in The Associated Press, coaches’ and Harris Interactive polls all season, but last week Texas inched ahead in the BCS standings because the computer rankings favored the Longhorns. It marked the first time in the past two seasons USC was not No. 1 in the BCS standings.

Both the coaches’ and Harris polls make up a third of a team’s BCS average. A compilation of six computer rankings makes up the final third, with best and worst grades thrown out for each team. A perfect BCS average is 1.000.

Texas is tops in the computer rankings again this week, but USC’s 55-13 victory over Washington State helped boost the Trojans’ computer score enough for them to reclaim first. The Longhorns rallied from 19 points down to beat Oklahoma State 47-28 Saturday.

“It’s the game of football and key is to win games and we won the game. Teams are going to struggle with teams, that’s just going to happen,” Texas defensive tackle Rod Wright said. “It’s kind of like you have to blow everybody out and that’s not realistic.”

Southern California’s BCS average is .9767. The Trojans have won 30 straight game going into Saturday’s home game against Stanford. Texas is at .9729 and plays at Baylor this week.

Virginia Tech is .0435 behind second-place. The Hokies get their best chance to change the minds of voters and up their computer grade Saturday at home when they face Miami, which is sixth in the BCS standings.

Notre Dame (5-2), which needs to finish the season with nine wins and a top-12 finish in the BCS standings to be eligible for the Sugar, Orange or Fiesta bowls, is 14th. The Fighting Irish have moved up one spot each of the last two weeks.

Penn State, LSU, Florida State and Ohio State round out the top 10.

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AP sports writers Jim Vertuno in Austin, Texas, and John Zenor in Tuscaloosa, Ala., contributed to this report.

AP-ES-10-31-05 2244EST

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