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Posted on 01/05/2005 8:38:56 AM PST by RedBloodedAmerican
USC No. 1 from start to finish in AP poll
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MIAMI (AP) -- Southern California joined some elite company with its latest AP national title. The Trojans became just the second team to go No. 1 wire-to-wire in The Associated Press Top 25, and the 10th team to repeat as national champs.
Following a resounding 55-19 victory over Oklahoma in the Orange Bowl, USC received all but three first-place votes early Wednesday to easily outdistance Auburn.
The Trojans (13-0) are the first back-to-back AP champs since Nebraska in 1994-95.
"I know right now I'm in the middle of something special," USC coach Pete Carroll said Wednesday morning after receiving both the AP and Bowl Championship series national title trophies.
"We are now unanimously No. 1," Orange Bowl MVP Matt Leinart said right after the game.
Not quite, but good enough.
USC received 62 first-place votes and 1,622 points. Auburn got the other first-place votes and 1,559 points.
The Sooners (12-1) finished third, ahead of unbeaten Utah (12-0) and Texas (11-1).
Auburn (13-0) finished its perfect season Monday night with a 16-13 victory over Virginia Tech in the Sugar Bowl.
Tigers coach Tommy Tuberville and his team practically pleaded with poll voters to give his team a championship, but to no avail.
"Anybody who thought that last night was a championship game, I beg to differ," Tuberville said Wednesday morning. "I'm disappointed that with the type of team we had, as balanced as we were, we did not get a chance to play in that game."
The Trojans' 36-point rout was the third-largest margin in a matchup between No. 1 and No. 2 teams.
USC joined Florida State in 1999 as the only teams to be No. 1 from start to finish since the AP started a preseason poll in 1950. The Trojans are also the 10th preseason No. 1 to win the national championship.
The Trojans' fifth AP title tied them with Miami for the fourth most.
Notre Dame leads with eight national titles, followed by Oklahoma with seven and Alabama with six.
And if the Trojans start next season No. 1 - a good possibility even if Leinart skips his senior season for the NFL draft - they will match Miami's record of 19 straight polls as No. 1.
No team has ever won three straight AP titles, but USC could enter next season as the favorite to do just that.
Louisville was No. 6, followed by Georgia, Iowa, California and Virginia Tech.
Miami was 11th, and for the first time since 1982, no team from Florida ended the season ranked among the nation's top five.
Florida State (9-3) finished ranked 15th and Florida (7-5) ended the season unranked.
Boise State's first loss of the season to Louisville in the Liberty Bowl dropped the Broncos two spots to No. 12.
Navy made it into the rankings for the first time since 1979 at No. 24. Fresno State also joined the poll at 22.
Conference schedule
Can't help those
Um, Oklahoma was ranked at #2 before the election. Auburn was ranked #3 afterwords.
It would be pretty awesome if it was the Rose Bowl with a USC/Ohio State matchup.
Now, unfortunately, we will never know for sure, but in watching both teams, clearly, USC is the dominant team.
But because of the BC$, we'll never know.
Don't forget that in the '92-'93 championship game undefeated Alabama ( ranked 18th at the start of the season-like Auburn) were 18 point underdogs vs. #1 Miami. Bama stomped them by 21. You never really know what might happen in a game until it is played.
Go Trojans! I still recall some media giants claiming that the Sooners would destroy USC and that West coast teams were nothing compared to those east of the big river. What hubris! Utah alone could beat any of them, including Auburn. But USC could beat all comers. Their defense was so amazingly effective that the Sooners looked like they gave up after the half.
wtf?
I don't know what you're trying to say, but my point was that the sportswriters would not punish one state for voting for Bush, if doing so meant that they would have to reward another state which voted for Bush. Both states were so overwhelmingly Republican, I can't possibly imagine what the timing of their rankings relative to the elction could possibly have to do with anything.
Yeah it could be a very interesting time....
And it will be the Rose Bowl next year for the national championship and you KNOW that they want a Pac 10 Big 10 matchup....
All you need are six wins to go to a bowl game, right?
Did you forget #10 Virginia Tech and #19 Arizona State?
The Sooners were out of gas two minutes after the game started. Hail the Trojans.
TWWEEET!! Mentioning academics to counter a lost football game. 15 yard penalty and loss of down.
Cal number 4 after getting their ass kicked by TTU?
and you can go back to complaining about why NCAA football doesnt consider NoCal a hotbed either....
Might not have been your personal gripe, but I have heard that from Cal fans in the past....
#9 Cal and #19 Arizona State.
The final computer performance rankings published by Jeff Sagarin at USA Today, show the PAC-10 as the second strongest conference overall, and with the strongest average team. The SEC rated sixth. The PAC-10 doesn't have as many weak sisters as does the SEC.
Point well-taken. But the Big-12 showing in the bowls was miserable, and their losses were blowouts.
The ACC didn't do so bad
10. Virginia Tech 10-3 996 9
Last game: Lost to Auburn 16-13 (Jan. 3)
11. Miami 9-3 917 14
Last game: Def. Florida 27-10 (Dec. 31)
15. Florida State 9-3 754 17
Last game: Def. West Virginia 30-18 (Jan. 1)
21. Boston College 9-3 314 25
Last game: Def. North Carolina 37-24 (Dec. 30)
23. Virginia 8-4 157 18
Last game: Lost to Fresno State 37-34 (Dec. 27)
C#134!
That's what SC was saying last year about being the odd man out. The big difference was that SC finished the regular season rated #1 in the major polls. Auburn never got higher than a tie for #2, for one week, in one poll.
I remember that Sugar Bowl, I cleaned up by betting on 'Bama, and a bunch of stunned Miami fans. ;^)
I don't know if Auburn could have taken USC last night, but they would have given us all a better game than Oklahoma did. I went to bed before halftime. That being said, I don't think OU is as bad as they looked last night. A few really boneheaded plays in the first half turned it into a rout. The same can be said for SC, they're good, but they're not THAT good. VaTech, Cal, and even UCLA gave them all they could handle this season.
Aside from a playoff, which the bowls and school presidents are dead against, the best solution would be to wait until the middle of October before releasing polls. Get rid of the preseason rankings and wait until the season's roughly halfway over to give teams a chance to show they belong there. It's well past time that pollsters quit ranking teams based on the school's history rather than what they're actually doing in that season.
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