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.
USC started slow in nearly every game this year before rallying to win. It even happened last night. I don't have the game boxes handy, but I'll bet they trailed early in well more than half of their games.
Treu, but the two major polls are components of the BCS formula. If there had been no BCS, Oklahoma could have played Auburn in the Orange Bowl, and USC would have played Michigan in the Rose Bowl. If both Auburn and USC won their games, USC would have still remained a commanding #1, in the polls.
I don't see any way Auburn could have ended up playing USC in any scenario. And for the Auburn secondary, which was picked apart by Va Tech, it's a good thing for Auburn they did not play USC last night.
How does that compare with wins over the likes of Vanderbilt, Ole Miss, Miss. State, Washington, etc.?
This is all circular reasoning. Perhaps the Big 12 North was seen as bad since they lost a lot of games to the south.
If I'm a team that is objectively the 11th best team in the country, but am 0-10 because I lost to 1-10, will I be considered the 11th best? Probably not, and some of the objectively (remember, this is theory) 1-10 won't be considered that high because one of their wins was against an 0-10 team.
Ratings are, at best, an educated guess.
NO. I don't think anyone in Norman would have the balls to bring up that subject:
Box Score (Final)
Texas A&M vs #1 Oklahoma (Nov 08, 2003 at Norman, Okla.)
Score by Quarters 1 2 3 4 Score
----------------- -- -- -- -- -----
Texas A&M........... 0 0 0 0 - 0 Record: (4-6-0,2-4)
Oklahoma............ 14 35 28 0 - 77 Record: (10-0-0,6-0)
The two best games (as it turned out) were Texas-Michigan and Iowa-LSU. But I would have loved to see Utah and Boise State play Auburn, Florida State, or Miami.
I've always been a USC fan for some reason. I guess I always liked their band uniforms and started watching college football when they were playing every year in the Rose bowl (early '70s).
I wish A&M and USC could hook up for a perpetual home and home, but unfortunately, neither AD nor coach agrees with me. I'm one of those who doesn't think you get better by beating SMU.
He filed his papers with the NCAA to turn pro. I'm not sure who his backup is or whether he's any good, but Cal is losing a great junior QB.
me too but I can't be objective about that as much.. they stunk up the place and that is that......oh well....i just tried to interject to some that they lost 4 starters and some say Cal didn't deserve the rank DURING the year..that is just ludicrous.........
You would win that bet.
From my post #182:
"All season I have said USC was weak in the first half and that because of this, they could get beat,"
It pretty much goes without saying that I'd love that, especially since I live 90 minutes from College Station.
Since the USC/Notre Dame thing has been locked in for eternity, I can't see USC locking in another one. Best I can hope for is an occasional matchup every 30 years or so, and I probably don't have too many 30 years cycles to see.
There wasn't a Big 12 team that would have beat Cal before Nov. Nor was there a Big 12 team that would have beat WSU before Nov. last year.
Just my Opinion. Cal is Legit
Losing 4 starters is a big deal if you don't have super-depth like USC. Injuries and othe losses (academic non-qualifiers, transfers, etc.) were a major reason for the UW's flop this season (along with chaos at QB).
BTW, my wife never was amused.
I'm surprised someone did'nt vote for NoterDame #1.
I think you mean Hundai...perhaps a Datson.
One of my gripes is that the conferences are getting too big; I think 8 is enough for a conference. With more than 8, you have inequities with everyone not having to play everyone else. In the Pac-10, that means that every year someone gets to dodge USC - everyone - that is - except UCLA, who as USC's designated "rival" always has to play them. And I also hate the conference playoffs, which are just moneymakers in my opinion.
3 of the Big-12 North teams got creamed. Texas played a great game, but did not "whup" Michigan. It was a game decided on the last drive.
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