Final AP Poll

[huskymedic]

The AP Top 25 Poll

1. Alabama (57 first-place votes)
2. Georgia
3. Oklahoma
4. Clemson
5. Ohio State
6. Central Florida (4)
7. Wisconsin
8. Penn State
9. TCU
10. Auburn
11. Notre Dame
12. USC
13. Miami (Fla.)
14. Oklahoma State
15. Michigan State
16. Washington
17. Northwestern
18. LSU
19. Mississippi State
20. Stanford
21. South Florida
22. Boise State
23. North Carolina State
24. Virginia Tech
25. Memphis

 

[huskymedic]

 

[Adios]

UCF is probably a better program than Clemson this year, at least. Whatever the deal, impressive finish for the conference. Keep finishing with 2 or more teams (3 or 4 being ideal) in the top 25 every season and respect will come.

 

[tduconn]

Greater respect will come if there is more than 3-4 teams that are not only competitive with p-5 teams, but actually win a portion of those games.

Otherwise, IF/WHEN another round of realignment comes, those same teams will be cherry picked.

These are no longer are BE times where everyone could rely on WVU to carry the conference banner and legitimacy.

Everybody has to "step up", or the AAC is G-5 forever,

 

[Adios]

The only thing WVU had going for itself is that they are the winningest program without a title. Navy has 2 titles, SMU has 2 titles and UCF has 1.

 

[Jimmy Serrano]

Has a #6 ranked team ever laid claim to a NC?

 

[Adios]

Found Boston College at #5 in 1940 so far. Also OK State @ #5 in 1945. #4 Illinois in 1951. Can't research more now.

 

[HuskyHawk]

I said it before. The AAC was better than the Pac12 this year.

 

[Adios]

#6 Washington in 1960. They count it as one of their 2 championships. There you go.

1960 NCAA University Division football rankings - Wikipedia

Washington Huskies football - Wikipedia

 

[noeynox]

#6 Washington in 1960. They count it as one of their 2 championships. There you go.

1960 NCAA University Division football rankings - Wikipedia

Washington Huskies football - Wikipedia

You can always count on @Butch for these things!

 

[J187Money]

Only in this crazy world can Wisconsin win its bowl game IN Miami and drop in the final rankings.

 

[Dream Jobbed 2.0]

Greater respect will come if there is more than 3-4 teams that are not only competitive with p-5 teams, but actually win a portion of those games.

Otherwise, IF/WHEN another round of realignment comes, those same teams will be cherry picked.

These are no longer are BE times where everyone could rely on WVU to carry the conference banner and legitimacy.

Everybody has to "step up", or the AAC is G-5 forever,

Amen brother. I see little reason why any team in this conference couldn’t compete for a top 25 ranking any given year.

 

[upstater]

I would put UCF ahead of both Clemson and Ohio State in any ranking. That loss to Syracuse by Clemson is hideous in retrospect. And I can't understand Ohio State at all.

 

[Palatine]

Has a #6 ranked team ever laid claim to a NC?

Where do you think the BYU NC team would have been ranked by this committee?

 

[ConnHuskBask]

Teams that either a) played in the Big East/AAC Football Conference or b) had agreed to play in the Big East/AAC Football Conference that left via buyout.

6. Central Florida (4)
9. TCU
13. Miami (Fla.)
21. South Florida
22. Boise State
24. Virginia Tech
25. Memphis

 

[Confident Carl]

Last nights gave was very entertaining and obviously 2 exceptional football teams with loads of talent. However by the numbers, I agree with Danny White ,Scott Frost and Blake Bortles, UCF is #1.
P5 leaders speak with forked tongue.

 

[Hornet22]

I would put UCF ahead of both Clemson and Ohio State in any ranking. That loss to Syracuse by Clemson is hideous in retrospect. And I can't understand Ohio State at all.

Clemson’s QB1 got hurt that game. Might have had a different outcome had that not happened. Either way it still was a bad loss

 

[Palatine]

The 4 voters who ranked UCF #1. And their reasoning.

Meet the 4 voters who ranked UCF No. 1 in the final AP poll

If I think UCF is one of the top four teams that won a conference title, then it's not much of a leap — not a leap at all — to make them No. 1. After all, what's the difference between Ohio State and Alabama, other than a playoff committee's ranking? Not much. Among conference champs, UCF is 13-0 — 2 games clear in the loss column of any other conference champion.

 

[Adios]

UCF will be permanently listed as a champion. Impressive. One selector chose them as champions.

Washington has an unclaimed title where they were ranked #6 also. They won a claimed title the next season. Not going to finish the research. Washington has already shown it has at least 2 titles at #6. Out of 5, the others being 1 claimed, 2 unclaimed.

 

[Adios]

Nebraska ranked #7 in 1980 and selected as champions. SMU was #5 in 1981. #11 Nebraska in 1981 also was selected as a champion by the NCF, unclaimed. I am done now.

 

[Fairfield_1st]

Reading the article, I found this note at the end interesting.

Also, J.P. Scott of the blog “Underdog Dynasty” has a list of how every AP poll voter ranked UCF in the final poll — including Soren Petro of Kansas City radio station WHB-AM, who ranked Auburn ahead of UCF.

How does Soren Petro put Auburn ahead of UCF after UCF beats them? Whether people admit it or not, there is clearly a mental bias against non P5 teams. I'm sure I would suffer from it too if I was a voter, but when UCF beats Auburn, it just seems obvious how they should be ranked relative to each other.

 

[VAHuskyFan]

Reading the article, I found this note at the end interesting. . .

How does Soren Petro put Auburn ahead of UCF after UCF beats them?

At the end of the regular season, Petro ranked UCF #10 and Miami #11.

In his final ballot, he jumped Miami ahead of UCF to #9. I guess UCF beating Auburn was less impressive to Soren than Miami losing at home to Wisconsin by 10 points.

What a joke. Take this guy’s vote away.

UPDATE: This didn’t actually happen. Soren ranked Miami #8 and UCF #17 in his final regular season ballot.

 

[Adios]

Colley's Bias Free College Football Rankings

Team Data

Based on comparing schedules, UCF has an easy case to claim the title. Alabama's and Georgia's schedules were way overrated, same with Clemson. Clemson beat Auburn early in the season, 14-6, at home. Oklahoma lost to Iowa State, a team that beat Memphis, who UCF beat twice.

AAC East needs to get it's act together and can be wide open for us to win.

 

[minidarren]

At the end of the regular season, Petro ranked UCF #10 and Miami #11.

In his final ballot, he jumped Miami ahead of UCF to #9. I guess UCF beating Auburn was less impressive to Soren than Miami losing at home to Wisconsin by 10 points.

What a joke. Take this guy’s vote away.

Is anyone calling this guy out for this? That's ridiculous.

 

[VAHuskyFan]

Is anyone calling this guy out for this? That's ridiculous.

OK, so I’m wrong. If you click the link Fairfield provided, it takes you to a chart on the AP’s site titled “as voted by Soren Petro” with columns for final rank and previous rank.

I assumed “previous rank” meant Petro’s previous rank (it’s a chart about Petro’s ballot after all), but turns out that’s not the case. It’s apparently the AP-wide previous rank.

Some additional searching revealed that Petro did knock Miami down after its loss (from #8 to #9). And his final ranking of #10 for UCF was a huge jump up from #17, which is where he had them at the end of the regular season.

It’s pretty hard to defend having UCF ranked #17 at the end of the regular season, but Soren did not actually “jump” Miami over UCF following the bowl games.

Sorry for distracting from Fairfield’s excellent point about how insane it was for Soren to rank Auburn over UCF in his final ballot, which has the added virtue of being an actual thing that happened.