Fresh off a 34-17 loss to No. 8 Cincinnati on Thursday, USF dropped out of both major national polls on Sunday, while the Bulls' opponent this week, Pittsburgh, moved into the top 25 for the first time this season.

USF earned enough votes to rank 28th in the Associated Press poll and 27th in the USA Today coaches poll, just 10 vote-points behind No. 25 Mississippi.

USF remains ranked in the top 25 of the Harris Interactive Poll, which is used in the BCS standings, with the Bulls in at No. 24.

Pittsburgh is 20th in the AP poll, with USF's next opponent, West Virginia, at 22; Pitt is 19th and West Virginia 22nd in the coaches poll. Cincinnati, after beating USF, is fifth in the AP poll and sixth in the coaches poll.

With three ranked teams, the Big East has as many as the Big Ten, ACC and Mountain West and one more than the Pac-10. The Big 12 has five this week and the SEC four.

-- I'm back at Raymond James today, covering Bucs-Panthers for the Greensboro News & Record, and there's much more empty seats here than there were on Thursday for USF-Cincinnati. If the actual attendance is more than 45,000 for this game, I'll be surprised. To have the Bulls outdraw the Bucs by that much is a significant development for both teams ...