No joke. Rutgers is ranked.

The Scarlet Knights, long a college football laughingstock, moved into The Associated Press Top 25 for the first time in 30 years yesterday.

No. 23 Rutgers (4-0), led by tailback Ray Rice, the fourth-leading rusher in the nation, is off to its best start since 1980 after beating Howard, 56-7, on Saturday.

"I'm not going to downplay it. It is significant considering where we started," Rutgers coach Greg Schiano said. "It shows we're making progress in the right direction."

The Scarlet Knights were one of three new teams at the bottom of the new media poll, which was mostly unchanged at the top.

Ohio State is still No. 1 with 59 of a possible 65 first-place votes. No. 2 Auburn, No. 3 Southern California and No. 4 West Virginia each received two first-place votes.

Auburn had 1,513 points and USC had 1,491. The Tigers' lead over the Trojans grew nine points from last week.

No. 5 is Florida, followed by Michigan, Texas, Louisville, LSU and Georgia. The only change in the Top 10 was No. 9 LSU flip-flopping with No. 10 Georgia.

The Knights have benefited from an early weak schedule — three I-A opponents with a combined 4-8 record and a I-AA team — but of course it wasn't long ago Rutgers couldn't beat anybody.

The other new teams in the poll were No. 24 Georgia Tech (3-1), which has lost only to Notre Dame in its opener, and No. 25 Missouri (4-0).

Boise State (4-0), which beat Hawai'i, 41-34, in its conference opener, moved up from 25 to 22.