Final AP Poll

[honz]

1. Florida 13-1 1,606
2. Utah 13-0 1,519
3. USC 12-1 1,481
4. Texas 12-1 1,478
5. Oklahoma 12-2 1,391
6. Alabama 12-2 1,264
7. TCU 11-2 1,193
8. Penn State 11-2 1,153
9. Ohio State 10-3 1,013
10. Oregon 10-3 997
11. Boise State 12-1 938
12. Texas Tech 11-2 916
13. Georgia 10-3 903
14. Mississippi 9-4 857
15. Virginia Tech 10-4 712
16. Oklahoma State 9-4 534
17. Cincinnati 11-3 506
18. Oregon State 9-4 467
19. Missouri 10-4 435
20. Iowa 9-4 317
21. Florida State 9-4 246
22. Georgia Tech 9-4 223
23. West Virginia 9-4 144
24. Michigan State 9-4 138
25. BYU 10-3 137

Utah received 16 first place votes compared to Florida's 48. That's not bad and definitely better than any mid major has done in the BCS era, but I actually thought it would be closer than that after a so-so performance by Florida last night.

You all know who I think should be number 1, but I still think just getting a significant amount of #1 votes is big not only for Utah, but for all of college football...or at least those that want a playoff. Whatever though, the BCS and it's greedy compatriots can never take away Utah's magical undefeated season from them and their fans. :beer:

[Nomad]

Holding a team that averages 35 in the 1st half to 7, and averages over 50pts a game to 14 is far from a so -so performance! And OU's defense is a good defense as well, SEC isn't known for their offense;).

Utah is a good story this year and I understand your bitterness and kudos for beating Bama. I believe holding OU to 14 pts is more impressive than Utah beating Alabama. Though if Utah and their fans want to foot the bill, I'm sure Urban Meyer and the Gators would go to Salt Lake next weekend and play!

[SM19]

The hell with that. Congrats on your national championship, Utah.

[OrangeHoof]

Florida only scored 24 points on an OU defense that Texas scored almost double that on them. So, yeah, Florida's defense did a hell of a job but the offense did less than several Big XII teams put up on OU.

My Top 5 if I had a vote:

1. Utah
2. Florida
3. Texas
4. USC
5. Oklahoma

[honz]

Holding a team that averages 35 in the 1st half to 7, and averages over 50pts a game to 14 is far from a so -so performance! And OU's defense is a good defense as well, SEC isn't known for their offense;).

Utah is a good story this year and I understand your bitterness and kudos for beating Bama. I believe holding OU to 14 pts is more impressive than Utah beating Alabama. Though if Utah and their fans want to foot the bill, I'm sure Urban Meyer and the Gators would go to Salt Lake next weekend and play!

Their defense was impresive, but Utah's defense is what really carried them all year. I've said before that I'm not convinced that Utah would beat Florida on a neutral field, but knowing what we know right now with the system that we have, I just don't see how Utah can't be number 1...we are the only team without a loss. If we happened to be in the Pac 10, a conference that the MWC went 6-1 against this season, we would be the consensus #1 team, hands down.

[MOtorboat]

http://i146.photobucket.com/albums/r250/clapton_2/AP_Poll.jpg

[honz]

Haha, that's awesome. I'm stealing that.

[LRtagger]

Holding a team that averages 35 in the 1st half to 7, and averages over 50pts a game to 14 is far from a so -so performance! And OU's defense is a good defense as well, SEC isn't known for their offense;).

Utah is a good story this year and I understand your bitterness and kudos for beating Bama. I believe holding OU to 14 pts is more impressive than Utah beating Alabama. Though if Utah and their fans want to foot the bill, I'm sure Urban Meyer and the Gators would go to Salt Lake next weekend and play!

Sorry, but both teams played sloppy as hell...especially in the first half. Florida didnt play terrific defense to hold OU to 7 points in the half. The goalline stand was good, but other than that, both teams played like poopoo.

I would have liked to have seen Utah get more 1st place votes.

[CoachChaz]

TCU at 7?

[honz]

Holy shit. I just realized that a 3 loss Oregon team is ahead of a one loss Boise State team...THAT BEAT OREGON! WTF?

[honz]

TCU at 7?

TCU lost to the #2 (they almost beat Utah in Salt Lake City) and #5 ranked teams and then beat an undefeated Boise team. They deserve to be highly ranked.

[honz]

I just wanna say that I would pay good money to punch Mark May in the face. What a jackass.

[Nomad]

So, honz, why do you think the Utah's and Boise St's of college football don't get any consideration or love from the press or coaches around the league? You act like I'm knocking Utah, which I am not, but how can this be fixed when you know their is a couple of conference presidents keeping college football from a playoff system. How could Utah get more respect??

[Nomad]

I just wanna say that I would pay good money to punch Mark May in the face. What a jackass.

What did he say??

[Slick]

National Championships should not be decided by people voting. It's bullshit. It amazes me that division 1AA on down can have playoffs but the big boys can't.

Congrats Honz. Utah did all they could do.

[Nomad]

Sorry, but both teams played sloppy as hell...especially in the first half. Florida didnt play terrific defense to hold OU to 7 points in the half. The goalline stand was good, but other than that, both teams played like poopoo.

I would have liked to have seen Utah get more 1st place votes.

And your point is about the way OU/Florida played. I saw the game as two evenly matched teams that played their butts off (Big 12 known for offense and SEC known for defense plus OU defense wasn't too shabby while Florida's offense is not known to be the greatest though it's lead by a great college football player). You can't say Utah, Texas, or USC would have played any better or any worse against either of these teams.

[honz]

So, honz, why do you think the Utah's and Boise St's of college football don't get any consideration or love from the press or coaches around the league? You act like I'm knocking Utah, which I am not, but how can this be fixed when you know their is a couple of conference presidents keeping college football from a playoff system. How could Utah get more respect??
They would automatically get more respect if they were in a BCS conference...even if that conference wasn't any good. And that is the problem. It is basically a popularity contest that is all about money. The system needs to go and until it does there will always be controversy and there will be at least one team every year that gets the short end of the stick and gets left out of the championship game. It is the only sport that doesn't decide it's champion by way of a playoff and it is simply a flawed system. Could Utah or USC beat Florida? I don't know, but why shouldn't we find out?

People say that Utah should just go to one of the BCS conferences, but believe me, if it was that easy they would have done it years ago.

[honz]

What did he say??
He's just arrogant and he continues to say that Utah would have no shot against USC or Florida after he said the same thing about Alabama and then got proven completely wrong. Hell, he didn't even think Utah was going to give BYU a good game. :rolleyes:

[Nomad]

They would automatically get more respect if they were in a BCS conference...even if that conference wasn't any good. And that is the problem. It is basically a popularity contest that is all about money. The system needs to go and until it does there will always be controversy and there will be at least one team every year that gets the short end of the stick and gets left out of the championship game. It is the only sport that doesn't decide it's champion by way of a playoff and it is simply a flawed system. Could Utah or USC beat Florida? I don't know, but why shouldn't we find out?

People say that Utah should just go to one of the BCS conferences, but believe me, if it was that easy they would have done it years ago.

I agree with everything you just said. I believe a playoff system is about 2 to 3 yrs out, because whether we like it or not, the gov't is going to get involved along with the courts! Obama is calling for a playoff system and some elected official in Utah is after the BCS. I say take it down!

[Nomad]

He's just arrogant and he continues to say that Utah would have no shot against USC or Florida after he said the same thing about Alabama and then got proven completely wrong. Hell, he didn't even think Utah was going to give BYU a good game. :rolleyes:

I always take what Mark May or Lou Hotlz says with a grain of salt. I believe Utah could have hung with those teams this year. He doesn't like Utah because they slapped his Pitt team around a few years ago!

[honz]

I always take what Mark May or Lou Hotlz says with a grain of salt. I believe Utah could have hung with those teams this year. He doesn't like Utah because they slapped his Pitt team around a few years ago!

I didn't know he was a Pitt guy. That explains a lot. :D

[honz]

I copied this post from another message board, so thanks to Inoshishi for this info. Maybe the computers aren't the problem after all...maybe the voters are too biased. I think we were 4th in the pre-bowl computer rankings, and that appears to be a better evaluation than the 6-10 rankings we got from most voters.


5 of the 6 computer rankings used for the BCS Standings were recalculated following the bowls. I calculated the average computer rankings and tabulated them below:

Rank Team Computer Average
1 Utah 1.8
2 Florida 2.0
3 Texas 3.0
4 Southern California 4.0
5 Oklahoma 4.2
6 Alabama 6.2
7 Texas Tech 7.8
8 TCU 8.0
9 Georgia 9.4
10 Penn State 10.6
11 Boise State 11.0
12 Oregon 12.2
13 Ohio State 13.6
14 Mississippi 14.2
15 Oregon State 15.0
16 Virginia Tech 16.0
17 Cincinnati 17.8
18 Florida State 19.6
19 Missouri 20.4
20 California 20.8
21 Oklahoma State 21.4
22 Nebraska 21.8
23 LSU 22.4
24 Georgia Tech 22.8
25 Brigham Young 24.0

Apparently, the computer don't agree that it is "obvious" that Florida is better than Utah.

Utah was ranked #1 in Sagarin, Massey, and Wolfe and was ranked #3 in Colley and Billingsley.

The one computer ranking that did not recalculate their rankings following the bowls was the Seattle Times (Anderson/Hester). However, before the bowls, Utah was #2 behind Oklahoma and Florida was #4 in that ranking. In all likelihood, Utah would move up to #1 in that computer ranking, meaning that Utah would finish #1 in 4 of the 6 polls used by the BCS.

[OrangeHoof]

1 Utah 1.8
2 Florida 2.0
3 Texas 3.0
4 Southern California 4.0
5 Oklahoma 4.2

My exact Top 5 ! I guess I think like the computers do.

[claymore]

My exact Top 5 ! I guess I think like the computers do.

Frau yelled at me earlier.

[Nomad]

I didn't know he was a Pitt guy. That explains a lot. :D

He was a top olineman out of Pitt in the early 80s also if i'm correct played for the Redskins or Giants:confused: can't remember!

Jim Rome even says Utah deserves #1 so that says alot because he nitpicks everything, so he endorses Utah. Should make you happy, honz!

[MNPatsFan]

I copied this post from another message board, so thanks to Inoshishi for this info. Maybe the computers aren't the problem after all...maybe the voters are too biased. I think we were 4th in the pre-bowl computer rankings, and that appears to be a better evaluation than the 6-10 rankings we got from most voters.That is absurd because USC is better than Texas, which barely beat an average Ohio State that got smoked by USC. Similarly, Florida barely beat Oklahoma, which lost to Texas and Florida, and Alabama, which got smoked by Utah.

My top 3 would be:

1. USC
2. Utah
3. Florida

but, I would be fine with Utah being #1 and USC being #2. USC, however, should have definitely been in the Championship game over either Texas or Oklahoma.

College Football needs a true National Championship like every other level of College football.:beer:

[honz]

That is absurd because USC is better than Texas, which barely beat an average Ohio State that got smoked by USC. Similarly, Florida barely beat Oklahoma, which lost to Texas and Florida, and Alabama, which got smoked by Utah.

My top 3 would be:

1. USC
2. Utah
3. Florida

but, I would be fine with Utah being #1 and USC being #2. USC, however, should have definitely been in the Championship game over either Texas or Oklahoma.

College Football needs a true National Championship like every other level of College football.:beer:
Well, if you are gonna use that sort of logic, then Utah beat the only team to beat USC (Oregon State), therefore they are better than USC.

There is really no way to know which team is better until they play it out on the field...everyone thought Alabama was better than Utah and we all know how that turned out. Again, there are probably a couple teams that are all around better than Utah, but we could beat anyone on any given day. Teams deserve to be able to play it out on the field just like they do in Division II football and every other major sport in America.

[OrangeHoof]

All these USC homers that have come out of the woodwork seem to have amnesia when it comes to losing to Oregon State - a four-loss team. True, Florida also lost to a four-loss team (at home, no less) but then I'm not arguing Florida should be national champion. The difference is Florida played a much tougher schedule than USC.

CBS Sportsline has a poll which also publishes an RPI-like strength of schedule. After the bowls were over, they ranked the SOS this way...

1. Florida
2. Oklahoma
3. Texas
.
.
23. TCU
.
.
31. Utah
.
.
40. USC

So, anyone who wants to argue that Utah didn't play a good enough schedule to be national championship has no way to argue USC - with a loss - deserves it more.

[MNPatsFan]

Well, if you are gonna use that sort of logic, then Utah beat the only team to beat USC (Oregon State), therefore they are better than USC.

There is really no way to know which team is better until they play it out on the field...everyone thought Alabama was better than Utah and we all know how that turned out. Again, there are probably a couple teams that are all around better than Utah, but we could beat anyone on any given day. Teams deserve to be able to play it out on the field just like they do in Division II football and every other major sport in America.I stated that I would be fine with Utah because I believe that Utah and/or USC are more deserving of being ranked #1 than Florida.:salute:

The bottom line, however, is that you are correct that we will never know until there is an actual National Championship like at every other level of College football where the teams play it out on the field.:beer:

[MNPatsFan]

All these USC homers that have come out of the woodwork seem to have amnesia when it comes to losing to Oregon State - a four-loss team. True, Florida also lost to a four-loss team (at home, no less) but then I'm not arguing Florida should be national champion. The difference is Florida played a much tougher schedule than USC.

CBS Sportsline has a poll which also publishes an RPI-like strength of schedule. After the bowls were over, they ranked the SOS this way...

1. Florida
2. Oklahoma
3. Texas
.
.
23. TCU
.
.
31. Utah
.
.
40. USC

So, anyone who wants to argue that Utah didn't play a good enough schedule to be national championship has no way to argue USC - with a loss - deserves it more.See my post immediately above regarding the ranking of Utah and USC.

Arguing that Florida played a tougher schedule is very subjective considering that the allegedly "weaker and inferior PAC 10 went 5-0 in bowls, while the allegedly "stronger and superior" the SEC only went 6-2.;) Furthermore, as you point out, Florida lost at home, while USC lost on the road. Therefore, IMHO Florida's loss is more inexcusable and damning. Finally, after the loss, USC essentially dominated its remaining games and crushed its opponent, while Florida struggled against several of its opponents, including, but not limited to, Alabama and Oklahoma.

We need a freaking true national championship playoff!:beer: