Who's in the Top 25?

I know Monday's win over then-No. 18 Tennessee is huge for Rick Neuheisel and his UCLA football team.

It's so huge that I bumped up the Pac-10 as a conference one spot because the win was that big in this week's conference power rankings.

But it looks like the Associated Press writers loved the win even more. The Bruins broke into the AP Top 25 this week, debuting at No. 23. But let's not get too ahead of ourselves now.

Yes, I love it when there are a lot of Pac-10 teams in the top 25 of any major poll. I love it when I see the Pac-10 beating up on teams outside of the conference (except for Stanford. They can always lose).

But UCLA, after one good half of football, gets to be in the top 25? Why? Because they beat an overrated Tennessee team? (On that note, I don't know if I would ever vote for the Vols unless they can beat a top 25 team...on the road).

As ESPN's Ted Miller said, "but we're going to wait until win two."

What did we learn about the Bruins on Monday? They're physical upfront. They finally cemented that Pac-10 teams are just as physical as SEC teams. They proved that any team can still play pretty badly at home and upset at top 25 team. They proved that the Pac-10 is deep as a conference.

They haven't proven that they're for real yet. They haven't proven that they can slay, say, Ohio State at home. They haven't proven that they can win on the road.

Granted, they played with a lot of passion and heart--something that was missing the last two years. They proved that they believe in Neuheisel. However, I'm not buying it. Not just yet.

I guess even the media can hate USC and they are chomping at the bit for this UCLA-USC rivalry to get blown up into galactic proportions. I know I would. It's more fun to cover.

But let's not get ahead of ourselves--not until win number two.