Big 12 dominates women's top 25, UConn still No. 1

Women's AP Top 25 Rank School Record Pts Pvs 1. Connecticut (45) 13-0 1,125 1 2. North Carolina 14-0 1,079 2 3. Texas A&M 12-0 1,021 3 4. Oklahoma 11-2 968 5 5. Duke 11-1 882 6 6. Baylor 12-1 855 7 7. Tennessee 11-2 821 8 8. Texas 12-1 789 4 9. Auburn 15-0 765 9 10. Louisville 14-1 754 10 11. Stanford 11-3 705 11 12. Notre Dame 12-1 644 12 13. California 11-2 602 13 14. Maryland 12-2 552 14 15. Virginia 12-2 455 16 16. Ohio St. 12-2 431 17 17. Rutgers 8-3 399 15 18. Florida 14-1 382 18 19. Pittsburgh 11-2 334 19 20. Kansas St. 13-0 239 22 21. Oklahoma St. 10-2 236 21 22. Georgia Tech 12-2 203 23 23. S. Dakota St. 14-1 186 24 24. Vanderbilt 11-4 53 20 25. Marist 12-1 50 -- Others receiving votes: Wake Forest 23, Iowa St. 21, New Mexico 19, DePaul 8, Indiana 7, South Florida 5, St. John's 5, San Diego St. 2, Xavier 2, LSU 1, Middle Tennessee 1, Wisconsin 1.

The Big 12 is dominating the Top 25.

Connecticut remained the unanimous No. 1 choice for the sixth straight week and North Carolina was second in The Associated Press women's poll Monday. But the Big 12 controls the rest of the top 10. Texas A&M is third, Oklahoma fourth, Baylor sixth and Texas eighth.

The conference had gone 3-4-5 in the poll the last two weeks until Texas was upset by San Diego State on Tuesday and dropped four spots.

This marked the sixth straight week that the conference put four teams in the top 10. It has six teams in the Top 25, with Kansas State and Oklahoma State also ranked.

More impressively, the Big 12 has had four teams in the first eight for the last four weeks. It had been 12 years since the SEC had half of the top eight. The Big 12 is still seven weeks short of the record 11-week run that the SEC had from Nov. 28, 1988-Feb. 13, 1989 with Georgia, Mississippi, Tennessee and Auburn all in the top eight.

With conference play set to begin this week, it may be tough for the Big 12 to keep up its streak.

Duke was sandwiched in fifth between Oklahoma and Baylor. The Lady Vols moved up to No. 7 after completing the biggest comeback in school history Saturday in a win over Rutgers. Auburn and Louisville rounded out the first 10.

Stanford, Notre Dame, California and Maryland all held their spots. Stanford and California both barely escaped Arizona State with last-second wins this past weekend.

Virginia and Ohio State each moved up a spot as Rutgers fell two places to No. 17 after its historic collapse. Florida and Pittsburgh remained in 18th and 19th. Undefeated Kansas State (13-0) moved up two places to 20th and Oklahoma State stayed at No. 21.

Georgia Tech, South Dakota State, Vanderbilt and Marist rounded out the poll. The Commodores fell four places after losing to Notre Dame and Iowa State. The Red Foxes moved in to the Top 25 for the first time this season.

One week after entering the poll, New Mexico was the lone team to fall out after getting blown out at Texas A&M.

Copyright 2009 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.