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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.
Let me repeat. These days there are just four premier bowls. They pay about $15 million per team. Then you have a couple of others, Capitol One and Cotton that pay out $3-$5 million per team. Outside of the four BCS bowls, they are the cream of the crop. Then there are five other bowls, in the second tier, that guarantee $2 million per team. Every other bowl game is basically a "niche bowl."
Sometimes a first-rate team gets stuck in a second-rate bowl game. I've seen it before. They expect better and let down with what they got. Then you get teams that are just thankful to be anywhere in late December or early January - and they sometimes play over their heads.
I'd say Cal was unhappy about a Holiday Bowl selection. They certainly earned a Rose Bowl invitation. But the cartel did not agree.
Big-12 "major" bowl (Capitol One, Cotton, Fiesta, Orange, Rose, Sugar) winning percentage = .333
Big-12 "minor" bowl winning percentage = .750 (which includes wins over a WAC team and a Mid-American team)
Big-12 overall bowl winning percentage = .571
PAC-10 "major" bowl winning percentage = 1.000
PAC-10 "minor" bowl winning percentage = .500
PAC-10 overall bowl winning percentage = .600
Great points.
That was a great game. I figured whoever had the ball last would win.
ACC won 2 out of 5 bowls. That is not impressive. Especially Virgina losing to Fresno State. Virginia was suppose to be way better than that.
Not this year. Not last year.
"OK here are some of the stronger SEC teams."
Fair enough. You can tell a strong team by how well it does against its competition, especially its out-of-conference competition. Let's review the out-of-conference, regular-season schedule for the six teams you named:
Auburn
LA-Monroe
Citadel (I-AA)
LA Tech
Georgia
Georgia Southern (I-AA)
Marshall
Georgia Tech
Tennessee
UNLV
LA Tech
Notre Dame (loss)
LSU
Oregon St.
Arkansas State
Troy
Florida
Middle Tennessee St.
Eastern Michigan
#15 Florida State
Alabama
Utah St.
Western Carolina
Southern Miss
Eighteen games. Only one ranked opponent. Only three eventual bowl teams. Two I-AA opponents. Four Sun Belt opponents (might as well be I-AA). Not a pretty picture.
Or Auburn vs. Oklahoma/ or Utah vs. Oklahoma/ or Boise State vs. Utah.
The fact is, Bob Stoops (stoopy) is a jerk. Throughout the season he has attacked ESPN (for questioning-rightly-wether Auburn should replace Ok. at #2), the entire SEC, and the Auburn tigers, saying that they were an inferior program to Ok. And his players even attacked USC, Matt Leinhart, and Reggie Bush as being overrated and nothing special.
Stoopy got exactly what he deserved on tuesday-a tail beating.
I guess you know I am right since you avoided my question. Let me ask you once again.
You say the PAC 10 does not have any weak Sisters like the SEC. LOK here are some of the stronger SEC teams. Just match them up with the PAC team that is way stronger.
Auburn
LSU
Alabama
Georgia
Florida
Tennessee
I will give you an example. You can say USC is stronger then Auburn. Now go on down the list and tell me what PAC 10 team is stronger than the rest of the teams I have listed.
BTW, when I said, "The SEC has more National Titles than any other conference." Did I say this year? Alabama alone has more National Titles than the entire PAC 10. LOL!
Their seniors like Campbell, Cadillac, and Brown will be gone next year; therefore, they will suck.
That's why people wanted them to go to the orange bowl this year instead of that inferior Oklahoma team, because next year (unlike ok. getting a redo in the championship game after last year's loss vs. LSU) they won't have a chance.
Back to what? Back to being the MOST over-rated college football team in America with the "STOOPid" coach and an even more (#92) stupid defensive ("Matt Lineart is not that good") lineman!
That's an odd line of reasoning. Given that USC is #1 and Auburn is #2, there are no other teams in Division I-A football that are stronger. I would say that Cal is the equal to any of the SEC teams listed behind Auburn.
But how does that effect the strength of USC, or are you trying to compare conferences? if so, you have to look at the bottom teams as wellas the top teams. That what Sagarin does with his performance-based ranking.
"Alabama alone has more National Titles than the entire PAC 10. LOL!"
You have blown your credibility. Name your college football "National titles" for Alabama. Cite year and poll (i.e A.P., U.P.I., CNN/USA Today).
Try 12. Here is a link. Pictures are included. LOL!
http://www.rolltide.com/Football/4751.asp
Like I said you can't answer a simple question. You just keep dancing around the question, and trying to convert it to a question you would prefer to answer. You know I am right, and this is why you cannot answer the question.
Thank you for the link. How does Alabama claim "National Championship" titles prior to the institution of the opinion polls? Anything prior to 1936 is questionable.
But, if you want to use some of the "look-back" analyses, that's fine with me.
http://www.ncaa.org/champadmin/ia_football_past_champs.html
Pac-10 (and forerunner) Conference "National Champions"
1920 Cal
1921 Cal
1922 Cal
1923 Cal
1926 Stanford
1928 USC
1931 USC
1932 USC
1933 USC
1937 Cal
1939 USC
1940 Stanford
1954 UCLA
1960 Washington
1962 USC
1967 USC
1970 Arizona St.
1972 USC
1974 USC
1976 USC
1978 USC
1984 Washington
1990 Washington
2002 USC
2003 USC
2004 USC
If you use just the A.P. (Writers), U.P.I. (Coaches) and CNN/USA Today (Coaches), you are incorrect on that one too.
Using the criteria claimed by Alabama on the website linked, USC has 14 "National Championships" in football.
Sorry. Try again.
Alabama (6): 1964, 1965, 1973, 1978, 1979, 1992
USC (7): 1962, 1967, 1972, 1974, 1978, 2003, 2004
No, that's not what I said.
In my #174 is said, "The PAC-10 doesn't have as many weak sisters as does the SEC."
I define a "weak sister" as 3 or fewer wins. The PAC-10 had 2 (Arizona and Washington); the SEC had 3 (Vanderbilt, Kentucky, and Mississippi St).
Although you don't like the Sagarin computer rankings, they do provide a performance-based analysis of team strength. There, I would call a "weak sister" any team with a numeric rating under 70.0. SEC has 4 of those teams. PAC-10 has 2.
I would classify a strong team as one with a numeric rating of 80.0 or above. Sagarin has 4 teams in both the PAC-10 and SEC above 80.
http://www.usatoday.com/sports/sagarin/fbc04.htm
PAC-10/rank/value SEC/rank/value Prediction
USC (1) 101.23 ............... Auburn (2) 88.73
USC by 12 1/2
California (9) 94.46 .......... Georgia (7) 82.94
California by 11 1/2
Arizona State (19) 84.58 .. Tennessee (13) 79.98
Arizona St by 4 1/2
Oregon St. (31) 85.42 ...... LSU (16) 82.44
Oregon St. by 3
UCLA (NR) 83.23 ........... Florida (26) 80.03
UCLA by 3
Stanford (NR) 78.23 ........ Alabama (NR) 75.29
Stanford by 3
All theoretical, of course. But I think this is what you were asking for.
In addition to the 12 “recognized” national championships owned by Alabama, the Official NCAA Football Records Book recognizes Alabama as producing national champions in 1945, 1962, 1966, 1975 and 1977. In 1945, the 10-0 Tide was recognized as champions with Army by the National Championship Foundation. The 1962 Crimson Tide, 10-1, was chosen by Billingsley and Sagarin, while the 1966 team, 11-0, was selected by Berryman. The 11-1 Tide team in 1975, along with Ohio State, was selected by Matthews. In 1977, Football Research picked Alabama, 11-1, and Notre Dame as co-national champions.
In addition to the 12 “recognized” national championships owned by Alabama, the Official NCAA Football Records Book recognizes Alabama as producing national champions in 1945, 1962, 1966, 1975 and 1977. In 1945, the 10-0 Tide was recognized as champions with Army by the National Championship Foundation. The 1962 Crimson Tide, 10-1, was chosen by Billingsley and Sagarin, while the 1966 team, 11-0, was selected by Berryman. The 11-1 Tide team in 1975, along with Ohio State, was selected by Matthews. In 1977, Football Research picked Alabama, 11-1, and Notre Dame as co-national champions.
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