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.
I fully agree and have been saying the same for years. This is also evidenced in NCAA Basketball ratings.
So is frost in Hell, or is UCLA pregnant? :)
Arizona - They will surprise a lot people next year.
True, but at this rate a winning season would be a surprise
Arkansas - Doubtful
Less likely than USC losing to Oregon.
Cal - They have peaked and are going to fall further next year.
Not with Tedford's recruiting classes just making on the field. Cal has turned the corner.
Playing The Citadel, a 1-AA team, was probably enough to keep AU out of the championship game. To their credit, that one wasn't their fault. They were scheduled to play Bowling Green, but Bowling Green backed out of the contract when they had an opportunity to play, you guessed it, Oklahoma.
Oklahoma has a great program going, but they were totally outclassed last night. And Jason White is the single biggest example of overrated hype I've ever seen. IMO the guy was never anything special at all, much less deserving of the Heisman. It's a joke that someone who is widely considered not to be a serious pro prospect, is yet somehow the best back in college football. That's absurd on its face, and always has been.
MM
Cal pulled off the OT upset of USC last year. They got screwed out of a Rose Bowl berth this year, because of voting collusion. At least Texas showed they were deserving of the choice.
I will never forgive the Orange Bowl for invading my brain-space with that train wreck of a halftime show.
Kudos to USC....they came ready to play..and took advantage of what OU gave them.
FWIW-
I agree with all your comments and did omit Oregon from my list as a possible (my bad).
Having attended about 20 USC vs. UCLA games there us one thing that holds true, year after year.......... you just never know what might happen.
Very Good Point! I might have been a little eager to get a dig in on UCLA. :)
It's what the NCAA does in soccer. They could even do a top 6 teams playoff. But...then how would you decide who goes and who doesnt?
As a Gator fan, I can honestly say there is no way we deserved to be in the Top 25. But hopefully thinks will start to change in Gainesville starting next season.
I should have added: "except for Cal"
I am still not convinced that Tedford is the next Knute Rockne, as the Cal fans seem to think. Hell, he is not even the next Pete Carroll.
Cal was overated much of the year, as Texas Tech proved.
South Bend in mid October can always be tricky.
Fight On!
Very true, but I think the ND program has a big corner to turn, one which may take more then one season.
I have it on good authority that Oklahoma is thinking of dropping 'Boomer Sooner' as their fight song because the football team has had problems remembering the lyrics.
yup.......Big 12 was whipped and if Cal had been healthy after losing their two best wide receivers and best defensive roving back I think it would have been more of a shootout like last year when Cal beat VT like 50 to 46 or something like that in the insight bowl. I"ll still give TTU credit but this Big 12 superiority is more like an inferiority complex.......where are those big mouths now.....
And USC played 1 ranked school (California who gave them a close game) that got crushed in their Bowl game by Texas Tech. Oklahoma was overrated, and Auburn got robed.
You cannot control your conference games, only the non conference ones. SC played and beat Tech in what ammounted to a home game for the ACC champs and they also played Norte Dame. ND is off this year but it's one of those rivalries that has been around forever.
If Auburn had played better teams with its optional games they could have perhaps gotten to the final game.
The BIG 12 stinks. I call it the Big joke. The SEC is the strongest conference in college football.
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